were absolutely unstrung, and I am sure that most of the men were in the
same condition. It can be easily understood then that when drafts were
asked for, to bring up the regiments leaving for France to full strength,
there was a mad scramble to get away.

Without even passing the surgeon, I finally drifted into the Third
Battalion, ordinarily known as the "Dirty Third." This battalion was made
up of the Queen's Own, the Bodyguards and Grenadier Regiments of Toronto.

I landed in on a Sunday afternoon about three o'clock and was immediately
told by the quartermaster that we were leaving for France in a few hours.
He told me that I needed a complete change of equipment. At this news I
rejoiced, because so far we had all worn, in our battalion, the leather
harness known as the "Oliver torture." I knew that the active service, or
web, equipment could not be worse.

The rush for equipment issue was like a mêlée on the front line after a
charge, as I found out later on. There were some three hundred men newly
drafted into the Third Battalion; there were some three hours in which we
had to get our equipment and learn to adjust it. As it was, many of the
extreme greenhorn type marched away garbed in most sketchy fashion. Some
had parts of their equipment in bags; others utilized their pockets as
holders for unexplained, and to them inexplicable, parts of the fighting
kit.

Another of our trials was the new army boot. In Canada we had been issued a
light-weight, tan-colored shoe, more practicable for dress purposes than
for active service. Now we had the heavy English ammunition boot. This is
of strong--the strongest--black leather. The soles are half-inch, and they
are reenforced by an array of hobnails. These again are supplemented by