AT THE FRONT.




CHAPTER IV.

SOME SAMPLE EXCITEMENTS OF LIFE IN THE TRENCHES.


[Illustration: MY SKETCH BOOK.]

I don't think I'm a bit sentimental in the matter of souvenirs, and
anyway I can't need anything to remind me of the unforgettable, but all
the same there's one souvenir of my experiences in the trenches and the
firing line that I shall never part with--and that's the little notebook
(measuring 5-1/2 ins. by 3-1/2 ins., bought in Armentières) which I
carried with me through everything, and in which are the originals of
the sketches here collected, taken "under fire," either literally or in
the sense that they were taken within the zone of fire. In the nature of
things I might have been finished myself by shot or shell before I
could have finished any one of them. Sketched in circumstances that
certainly had their own disadvantages as well as their special
advantages, I present these drawings only for what they are. There were
many happenings--repulsions of sudden attacks, temporary retirements,
charges, and things of that sort--that would have made capital subjects,
but of which my notebook holds no "pictured presentment," because I was
taking part in them.