World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
Some idea of my knowledge of things military may be gleaned from the
following:--chatting with Burt, he suddenly espied a large car, with two
girls, shooting up the street to the station, and called my attention to
it. One of the girls was my sister. I immediately scented trouble. I
skipped across to the other side of the depot, intending to board the
train from the other side when it came in; I was not going to have my
soldiering interfered with if I could help it. Standing in the shelter
of a pillar, I did not notice two husky recruits in khaki behind me.
"Is your name Grant?" they asked. "Yes." "The Colonel wants to see you
at once," they informed me, and they marched me back.
As I approached, my sister was talking earnestly and energetically to
the Colonel and I could plainly see I was the object of the
conversation. I waited.
"How is this, Grant, this lady says you are not of age. Is that so?"
asked the Colonel.
"I am of age and--"
"Stand to attention!" snapped the Colonel. I straightened up and folded
my arms respectfully across my chest.
"Stand to attention, damn you! Don't you know how to stand to
attention?" I shifted my feet a little uneasily, wondering how he wanted
me to stand.
"Put those heels together," he snorted. I did so. "Keep your toes
apart," he half hissed and half shouted. I spread my toes apart. I still
had my arms folded. Almost purple in the face with his violence, he
roared, "Put those damned hands of yours down!" and he grabbed my wrists
and flopped them down. "Young lady, you'll have to take this matter up
at Valcartier; there is no time to do anything now. You can go," this
to me. I turned on my heel.
"Here," he roared. "Don't you know enough to salute your superior
officer? Salute!" I gingerly raised my hand to my forehead and held it
there, much after the fashion, I think, of a man shading his eyes from
the sun, or a nautical chap gazing intently seaward.
"You idiot!" he bellowed, as he grabbed my hand and fiercely flung it
down. "Don't you know how to salute? Here, do this"--and he saluted. I
followed as well as I was able, but the utter disgust that was plastered
all over his visage as he turned on his heel would not have left much
hope for soldierly qualifications in one any less hopeful and
enthusiastic than I was.
My sister, in spite of her tears, could not keep back the smile as I
again kissed her good-by.
It was about noon next day when I reached Valcartier and after a month
of solid work, the like of which I had never before experienced, I was
as hard as a nail, and as tough, as indeed was every man in that honor
division of Canada's expeditionary forces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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