It was mostly about regimental details, though one chap, who was in better spirits than the rest, observed that this was the last Christmas of misery, and that next year he would be holidaying at home with full pockets.

The others assented, but without much conviction.
The winter day was short, and most of the journey was made in the dark.
I could see from the window the lights of little villages, and now and then the blaze of ironworks and forges.

We stopped at a town for dinner, where the platform was crowded with drafts waiting to go westward.

We saw no signs of any scarcity of food, such as the English newspapers wrote about.

We had an excellent dinner at the station restaurant, which, with a bottle of white wine, cost just three shillings apiece.