Even in the midst of a bayonet charge an Irish soldier caused laughter by calling out, "Look at thim German divils retratin' with their backs facin' us." Private William Price, R.A.M.C., wrote: "Last Sunday week about 6 p.m. a shell (coal boxes we call them), eight inches wide and four feet long, passed through the roof and side wall of a barn in which the bearers sleep, and fell into the grounds of the hospital, where we were having a little service; but, thank God, it didn't explode. Strange to relate, the subject of the sermon was 'Miracles,' and this was one of the greatest, for had it come a little later there would have been several of us having food and rest in the barn. The shell smashed heavy beams, hurling them just where I should have been resting. We buried the shell, and enclosed it with a fence. This is the verse we made up and placed on it": Sunday, September 27th, 1914. "Here lies a shell of German invention, To do us great harm was their intention; And in striking a barn it caused great alarm, While the troops were singing the ----th Psalm. But don't be afraid, the danger is o'er; Still if it goes off we'll say 'au revoir.' So now we'll conclude with love and affection, Sincerely trusting there'll be no resurrection." An Irish soldier told his mother in a letter that they had German shells for breakfast--not egg shells. She was not to believe, however, about the hardships they had to endure, even from her son. "I never believe anything I hear and only half of what I say." Outside a temporary post office was the notice, "We close from noon to 2 p.m." Underneath a joker wrote, "Prussian cannon are requested to do the same."