CRICKET AT THE FRONT.] Summer brought cricket and rounders. Real cricket bats were seldom seen, but quite a serviceable substitute can be fashioned out of a packing-case, which will also supply both stumps and bails. With a composition ball and willing and eager fielders many excellent games were played in all kinds of surroundings, on every imaginable--and unimaginable--sort of wicket. A brigade of the Indian Cavalry had a rounders team of which great things were said. The Machine Gun School introduced badminton. The war correspondents’ mess invented a weird kind of pseudo-cricket played with a broomstick and a soft ball. During the winter two concert parties had a great vogue. The one, “The Follies,” was run by the 4th Division, and consisted of army talent assisted by two charming young ladies, one a refugee from Lille, the other, I believe, a daughter of an _estaminet_ keeper at Armentières, where “The Follies” performed several times a week for months. I never heard them, but I am told that their “show” was excellent, and attracted spectators from far down our line. The _pièce de résistance_ was, I believe, the singing of “Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers” by the young female refugee, a considerable feat if you remember that the young person did not know a word of English. Most of “The Follies” are dead by now, killed in action in the spring. Thus does cruel war break up pleasant partnership. The two young ladies were absorbed in the second concert party, “The Fancies,” which also had a successful career. In an existence which, save for the spells of fighting, is comparatively monotonous, the weekly baths arranged for the men are quite an event. The danger of vermin as the transmitters of disease aroused the medical authorities, at an early stage of the campaign, to the necessity of providing regular bathing facilities for the men in the firing-line. The numerous large buildings in this part of France afforded ideal wash-houses, and “bathing-stations,” as they are called, are now established in all divisional areas. Here, while the men are enjoying a good scrub-down with plenty of soap in huge vats and tubs filled with hot water, their uniform is disinfected and their soiled shirts, underwear, and socks are replaced by clean ones. On bathing days, which are mostly every day, these bathing-stations are a sight that does the heart good, so delighted are the men to get their bodies clean, to have the feel of clean underwear next their skin. If needs be, the British soldier will put up with any amount of discomfort. But the discomfort he resents most of all is to be deprived of his soap and water. “Cleaning up” morning and evening is as much a rite with our army in the field as the morning and evening prayer of the Moslem.