coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some, whereby I told thee they were ill for a green wound?

I was still on duty at Versa, but the conversation in the R.A.M.C. Mess bored me, particularly at meals; it was all sputum and latrines, gas gangrene and the relative seniority of the doctors one to another.

Darrell was a man of business, a most capable officer, a good Mess Secretary, and very easy to get on with.

Before this offensive began I had slept in a hut above ground, but the Major had now insisted that I should sleep in a small dug-out half-way up a steep bank, at the bottom of which our Mess Hut stood in an orchard stretching down to the river bank.

The Sergeant was torn into several pieces, one of which landed on the top of the Officers' Mess and another in a gun pit 150 yards away.

A twelve-inch shell also burst very close to the Battery's Mess, killing a number of Italian telephonists next door.

Our own officers' Mess had several narrow escapes, especially on one occasion when the impact of an enemy shell was broken by a trench cart and a box of tools, only seven or eight yards away.

Only a few splinters came into the Mess and did no harm, all the occupants, myself included, warned by the sound of the approaching shell, having flung ourselves face downwards on the floor.

"Well, we've made rather a mess of things, so far," Ken observed, somewhat cheerlessly.

This is old Uncle Jonas Boone who by the aid of his heavy cane walks to town and makes the round of his white folks homes to be given some old shoes, clothes, or possibly a mess of greens or some sweet potatoesin fact whatever he may find.

" These were the mildest of the remarks that passed between the smarting Numbers of the gun detachment, but they would have been astonished beyond words if they could have heard what their instructor Sergeant "Cut-the-Time" was saying at that moment to a fellow-sergeant in the sergeants' mess.

B Company's proud of you, and so'm I." "An' I admit I felt easier after that rough-tonguin'," 'Enery told B Company that night over a mess-tin of tea.

'Ere's luck to 'im," and he drained the mess-tin.

An hour before the quavering mess-call sounded for the midday meal, when the sun was shining almost perpendicularly, a boat's crew from one of the cruisers were sent over to the supply-ship for a load of beef.

Am I, then, to make a mess of this!I who have always been willing to make any sacrifice for my children?

" "It is a mess indeed," Captain Martin, said.

"You have gotten Uncle Sam out of a bad mess," the ambassador said, when Ned had finished his narration, "and you will find that you will be well rewarded when you return to Washington.

"'Tis the beginnin' of life that boys make such a mess of, as a rule!" Roy's eyes were tearful as he watched the train disappear.

"Many a time have we messed together," added Smith; "ay, and many a time have we hunted in company for the food we made a mess of.

Did father scold him for mess-making, or laugh at his attempt that had little shape except in his own baby brain?

But where is your horse, and how did you get into this mess?

Just as this valorous decision had emerged in the full splendor of its dignity from the mess of vacillation in his weak, irresolute character, Rafael heard voices down the road.

Wherever he went on foot, especially when he slipped out of the Prison for dangerous spy-work among the forces of the mutineers, rebels, rioters and budmashes of the city, he was followed by his servant, an African, concerning whom Colonel Ross-Ellison had advised the servants of the Officers' Mess to be careful and also to bear in mind that he was not a Hubshi.

Nothing remained but to clear up the mess and begin afresh with more wisdom and sounder policy.

With some flour and lard, (the only things we had except salt water,) it made us a fine little mess.