The First Canadians in France: The Chronicle of a Military Hospital in the War ZoneBell, F. McKelvey (Frederick McKelvey)
History
The First Canadians in France: The Chronicle of a Military Hospital in the War Zone
Bell, F. McKelvey (Frederick McKelvey)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals -- France; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
Reggy loved sleep. It was his one passion. Not the sweet beauty sleep
of youth, but the deep snoring slumber of the full-blown man. But, oh,
those cruel "Orderly Officer" days, when one must rise at dawn! Reggy
thought so, too.
Six a.m. The bugle blew "Parade." Reggy arose. I opened one eye in
time to see a bedraggled figure in blue pyjamas stagger across the
sloppy floor. His eyes were heavy with sleep, and his wetted forelock
fell in a Napoleonic curve. The murky dawn was breaking.
Outside the tent we could hear the sergeant-major’s rubber boots flop,
flop, across the muddy road.
"Fall in, men! Fall in!" His tones, diluted with the rain, came
filtering through the tent. It was inspection hour.
Reggy fumbled at the flap of the tent, untied the cord, and through the
hole thus made thrust his sleep-laden head.
"Parade, ’shun!" shouted the sergeant-major (a sly bit of satire on his
part). The warning wasn’t needed. The sight of Reggy’s dishevelled
countenance was enough; Bill Barker himself "shunned." Somewhere from
the depths of Reggy’s head a sleepy muffled voice emitted this succinct
command:
"Serg’nt-major; dish-mish th’ parade."
"Right turn! Dis-miss!" With a shout of joy the boys scampered off to
their tents.
A moment later Reggy tumbled into bed again, and soon was fast asleep.
And within two hours, at breakfast, he was saying, with virtuous
resignation: "How I envied you lucky devils sleeping-in this morning! I
was up at six o’clock inspecting the parade." And the halo of
near-truth hovered gently about his head.
Thus passed three weeks of rain and mud. In spite of ourselves we had
begun to look like soldiers. How we ever developed into the finest
hospital unit in the forces none of us to this day knows—and none but
ourselves suspects it yet. We had, and have still, one outstanding
feature—a sort of native modesty. Whatever in this chronicle savours of
egotism is merely the love of truth which cannot be suppressed.
And then, one eventful day, the surgeon-general came to inspect us. He
seemed pleased with us. Presently he passed into the colonel’s tent,
and they had a long and secret conference together. Finally the pair
emerged again.
"What about your horses?" the general queried.
The horses had been our greatest worry. They came on a different boat,
and the two best were missing or stolen. Once Sergeant Honk discovered
them in the lines of another unit, but was indiscreet enough to proclaim
his belief to the sergeant-major of that unit. When we hurried down to
get them they were gone. No one there had ever heard of a horse of the
colour or design which we described. We were discouraged, and in our
despair turned to the senior major, who was a great horseman and knew
the tricks of the soldier horse-thief.
"Don’t get excited," he said reassuringly. "They’ve only hidden away the
horses in a tent, after you chumps recognised them. To-morrow, when they
are not suspicious, I’ll go down and get them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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