The main event of importance at this time was the Divisional Race Meeting, held on the Arras Race Course on January 1st and 2nd. A large and varied programme had been arranged for both these days, and in addition various sideshows to while away the intervals between the races had been devised. The weather was cold and grey, but there was little rain, and the great crowd of officers and men who assembled pointed clearly to the success of the venture. Lord Derby was present, and many other distinguished people; but the event that interested us most was the winning of the Divisional Commander's Cup (three furlongs flat race) by Colonel Stapledon on his horse Zloazel. Captain Bowring, on Bean, was third. The Commanding Officer, with a red football jersey over his tunic, looked a fine sight; but the amusing thing was that neither he nor anyone else had backed him on the Totalizator for a penny. However, he got a silver cup, and everyone in the battalion was highly pleased. The horse in question had been exchanged by Colonel Gathorne-Hardy with the Brigade Signalling Officer for a pack-pony! For the next two months there is little enough to say. Salvage went on slowly and unenthusiastically; education, which the arrival of text-books, etc., should have made easier, was made more complicated by departures; the camp got steadily better, and the weather got steadily colder. Boxing, cross-country running, and football were the mainstay of those athletically inclined. Once each week our Concert Party, now attired in real costumes, performed with great _éclat_, and an interchange with other units' parties was effected. Company whist drives were organized under considerable difficulty in the darkness of the recreation hut before the acetylene arrived; and in every way all ranks tried their best to fill in those rather irksome days which had to be gone through before each man left for civilian life once more. Demobilization was proceeding, in fact, faster than had been expected. Drafts departed two or three times a week, and several officers and men on leave in the United Kingdom had benefited by that unfortunate order allowing of demobilization from leave. All horses and mules were carefully examined and checked, with the result that Divisional, Corps and Army Orders became full of notices as to animals "found." Spare animals are excellent things on active service, but awkward at official inspections. Motor-lorry trips were organized to different places, of which Lille was by far the most popular; and once a week a full load of cheery people would drive off from Warlus at 8 a.m. in the morning for several hours' journey through a land covered with frozen snow. The weather was like at our first initiation into active service--bitterly cold with heavy snow and hard frost, but generally a bright sun, though a biting wind.