WAAC GARDENERS AT WORK IN THE CEMETERY 48 WREATHS FROM MOTHERS OF THE FALLEN 48 WAACS IN THE BAKERY 80 WAAC COOKS PREPARING VEGETABLES 80 WAAC ENCAMPMENT PROTECTED BY SAND BAGS 80 THE SWORD OF DEBORAH "_Thou art an Amazon, and fightest with the sword of Deborah._" --1 HENRY VI. 1. ii. THE SWORD OF DEBORAH CHAPTER I A.B.C. This world of initials ... in which the members of the British Expeditionary Force live and move--it is a bewildering place for the outsider. Particularly to one who, like the writer, has never been able to think in initials, any more than in dates or figures. The members of the B.E.F.--and that at least is a set of letters that conveys something to all of us--not only live amidst initials, but are themselves embodied initials. To them the string of letters they reel off is no meaningless form, no mere abracadabra to impress the supplicant, but each is a living thing, coloured, definitely patterned, standing for something in flesh and blood, or stone and mortar; something concrete and present to the mind's eye at the mere mention. Just as, to anyone who does not know New York, it seems as though all the streets must sound exactly alike, being merely numbered, while, to anyone who knows them, the words East Sixty First, say, are as distinct from East Twenty First, distinct with a whole vivid personality of their own, as Half Moon Street from Threadneedle Street--so, to the initiate in the game, the letters so lightly rattled off to designate this or that official or institution stand for vivid, real, colourable things. But at first one is reminded forcibly of that scene in "Anna Karenina" where Levin proposes to Kitty for the second time by means of writing in chalk on a table the letters "W, y, t, m, i, c, n, b, d, t, m, n, o, t," and Kitty, with great intelligence, guesses that they mean "When you told me it could never be, did that mean never, or then?" Kitty, if you remember, replies in initials at almost equal length, and Levin displays an intelligence equal to hers. I had always found that scene hard of credence, but I have come to the conclusion that Levin and Kitty would have been invaluable at H.Q.B.R.C.S., A.P.O. 3, B.E.F.