On Monday
perhaps we would have to go down to a certain battery located on this
road, and there would be a dozen intact farmhouses in the course of a
half mile. On Friday of the same week, one or more of them would be
burned down, while the shell holes in the fields and road around them
indicated deliberate concentration of fire.
Our work was interesting and we kept busy all the time. The monotony
of working seven days a week, however, becomes very great after a few
weeks and seriously affects the health and the ability to work. In the
other army services work came in periodical bursts; ours was a steady
grind of seven days a week.
We saw the hay mowed and gathered in; we noticed the grain fields
gradually turn to gold, saw the reaping and all other operations of
mixed farming carried on in all its interesting detail. Meanwhile the
First Canadian Division had settled down in the Ploegsteert section,
which was out of our area, and the second Canadian Division had
arrived and joined up with them. The Second Division had come over to
teach the First Division a lot of things and there was a fair amount
of feeling between them as will be seen from the following
confidential conversation between two brothers in different
divisions, upon meeting for the first time:
"Say, we have had a hell of a time trying to live down your
reputation," said the younger brother.
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