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Rh ESCAPE

"August 6, 1916. Officer previously reported died of wounds, now reported wounded:—Graves, Captain R., Royal Welsh Fusiliers."

This vivid resilience occurs not only after the most cruel physical agony, but during the long wearing-down of winter in the trenches—as difficult to bear as protracted toothache.

TO ROBERT NICHOLS

From Frise on the Somme in February, 1917, in answer to a letter saying: "I am just finishing my Faun's Holiday. I wish you were here to feed him with cherries."

by a snow-bound river

In scrapen holes we shiver,

And like old bitterns we

Boom to you plaintively:

Robert, how can I rhyme

Verses for your desire—

Sleek fauns and cherry-time,

Vague music and green trees,

Hot sun and gentle breeze, 40