CHAPTER IX 
CHRISTMAS, 1915 
Christmas again in the forest, but again a war 
Christmas ! The candle ends which we saved from 
last year have been used up on our this year’s Christmas 
(palm) tree. 
It was a year of difficulties, with a great deal of extra 
work during the early months. Heavy rainstorms had 
undermined the spot on which the largest hospital 
ward stood, so that I had to decide to build a wall 
round it, and also to lay stone gutters throughout the 
hospital to carry off the water which streamed from the 
hill just above it. This needed a number of stones, 
some of them big ones, and these were either fetched 
by canoe or roUed down from the hill ; but I had always 
to be on the spot, and often to lend a hand. Our next 
object was the wall, for which we got help from a native 
who knew something about building, and we fortunately 
had on the station a cask of half-spoilt cement. In 
four months the work was finished. 
I was hoping now to have a little rest, when I 
discovered that, in spite of all our precautions, the 
termites had got into the chests where we kept our 
store of drugs and bandages. This necessitated the 
opening and unpacking of the cases, a work which 
occupied all our spare time for weeks. Fortunately, I 
had noticed them in good time, or the damage done 
