not long before they even criticized us openly, and looking at it from a
distance I do not blame them. Never in their lives had they seen soldiers
like us. They had been used to the fine, well-disciplined, good-looking
English Tommy. Of course I will admit that we were good-looking all right,
but as far as discipline was concerned, we did not even know it by name.
The military authorities could not understand how it was that a major or a
captain and a private could go on leave together, eat together and in
general chum around together.

The English people, I dare say, had read a lot about the wild and woolly
West, but now in many instances they had it brought right home to
Piccadilly and the Strand. With a band of young Canadians on pass, I
assisted once in giving Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square the "once
over" with a monocle in my left eye. A few hours later this same crowd
commandeered a dago's hurdy-gurdy, and it was sure funny to see three
Canadian Highlanders turning this hand organ in Piccadilly Circus.

The folks, of course, took all these little pranks good-naturedly; and, as
a Canadian, I can not speak too highly of the treatment handed out to us by
the Britishers. If there ever was a possibility before this war of Canada's
breaking away from the Motherland, such a possibility has been shot to the
winds. No two peoples could be more closely allied than we of the West and
they of this tiny but magnificent island.

The little training we had had in Canada was good, as far as it went, and
we had devoured it all. But the most vital part of a soldier's up-bringing
was absolutely forgotten by our officers--discipline! As I've said before,
as far as discipline was concerned, we were a joke. Certainly we were
looked upon as such by the Imperial officers.