Chapter I: Foreword

_Down South, in the Valley of the Somme, far from the spots recorded in this book, I began to write this story._

_In billets it was. I strolled across the old farmyard and into the wood beyond. Sitting by a gurgling little stream, I began, with the aid of a notebook and a pencil, to record the joys and sorrows of my first six months in France._

_I do not claim any unique quality for these experiences. Many thousands have had the same. I have merely, by request, made a record of my times out there, in the way that they appeared to me_.

BRUCE BAIRNSFATHER.