The view from the site selected, overlooking the rolling
fields, with the Mt. de Cats surmounted by its monastery to the left,
and Mt. Rouge to the right, is about as fine as anything I have seen
in Belgium.
With the aid of a carpenter from the Canadian casualty clearing
station, we built the hut, 40 feet by 20 feet, ourselves, and when I
left for England early in October, it was a great satisfaction to feel
that we were established in what a Surgeon-General subsequently stated
to be "an ideal field laboratory."
On the way from what proved to be my last stay in France, we visited
the Somme area and saw some of our old comrades. The Canadians had on
the previous day suffered heavy casualties in trying to take Regina
trench and we passed homeward through the tent covered area behind
Albert with the knowledge that more of our old school friends were at
that moment lying out wounded and dead in no man's land.
As we drove along the moonlit road from Albert on the way to Boulogne
we passed company after company of soldiers trudging along towards
the front; they did not sing. It was the 4th Canadian Division going
into action--about to experience that great adventure of battle for
which they had trained so long and had come so far to obtain.
Farther along the road we could hear away in the distance a song; we
could not distinguish the words but we knew that soon we would hear
"Pack up your troubles in your own kit bag and Smile, Smile, Smile!"
They were Canadians coming out of the trenches.
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