OUR SOLDIERS' GRAVES. 



II 



a lorry at my disposal in half an hour. In two loads we had every- 

 thing at the nursery and began heeling-in. 



" On the morrow I took the corporal down and we checked it all. 

 By 3 p.m. we had got everything into temporary quarters. The 

 men have orders now to plant out properly all the small stuff, only 

 leaving the big standards heeled-in. I left them about 3 and came 

 on to H.Q., where I learnt that the consignment from Barbier had 



arrived at D and was being hauled. [This latter place is distant 



some 100 km. from M .] 



" I ran down there next morning and got things working properly 

 and spent that day and the next in counting and checking while the 

 men were planting out and trenching. In the evening I went to V — — 

 [some 20 km. away], and though it was nearly dark I went across 

 to the railway sidings and hunted up a sergeant-major and inquired 

 about a truck from Paris. He said he thought there was one newly 

 arrived, so I told him to get it along to the nearest spot to the cemetery 

 to which a lorry could come, and this he promised to do. 



" Then I went to the R.T.O. at A and found that the truck 



was on their sidings. In black dark and driving rain I stumbled 

 over wastes of sidings till I found the truck and made sure that our 

 own box cars could not haul it ; so I had to find transport. 



" I went to the Sucrerie, got a lorry at 8.30, but on going out to 

 the sidings I found the truck in a place approachable by nothing 

 less than a tank ! 



" So I raced off down the line till I found an engine — seized it 

 and ordered it to come with me. It came along, hitched on to the 

 truck and steamed off to where I had the lorry waiting. 



" Then ensued a day of pure misery ; rain, half a gale- and mud in 

 endless and increasing quantities. But we got the truck unloaded in 

 five trips by 3.30. I then sent the men into their hut and rushed 

 back to D to supervise the planting work there. 



" I found things running in a bath of oil. The sergeant pruning, 

 our men planting, and planting well, and four men trenching the 

 ground. Everything underground and safe from frost, and the whole 

 place taking shape and order. A sight for sore eyes. 



" Next day I got back to H.Q. in time for lunch and a change. 

 I was wet and had been wet for two days, but I am quite fit and all 

 goes well." 



Many of these plants were put out in the cemeteries, and many 

 were being retained for planting out later ; but unfortunately two of 

 our original nurseries fell into the hands of the enemy last year and 

 all the plants were destroyed by shell fire. Many of the cemeteries 

 too, where a considerable amount of planting of roses, hedges, and 

 trees had been carried out, also fell into the enemy's hands and most 

 of our work was destroyed during the great straggles and devastating 

 fire of the advance and retreat. The destruction of work on which 

 so much time, thought, and careful labour had been bestowed must, 

 no doubt, be reckoned among the fortunes of war, but nevertheless 



