The only trouble was that visitors kept coming at all hours to ask for engineering materials, not knowing that the character of the abode had changed.

Early one morning, an officer came in a great hurry, and waking me up, asked if there were any winches there,--he pronounced the word like wenches.

I sat up in bed and looked at him sternly, and said, "Young man, this is a religious establishment, I am the Senior Chaplain, and there are no wenches here." He did not know quite what to make of the situation.

"I mean wooden ones," he said.

I replied, "Young man, there are no wenches here, either wooden or any other kind; the engineers have gone forward." He apologized and left.