t of all. Well, after we got everything loaded up, we went
back to camp, and there we found the boys as busy as bees--we were
telling them about Sandy when suddenly we heard a humming sound--every
one gazed skyward, and across the camp flew one of the British
dirigibles. What a sight it was to us! The big cigar-shaped,
silver-coloured airship dipped and climbed, and finally came down so
low that we could plainly see the men in it. You should have heard the
cheer we gave them. We watched it till it disappeared out across the
sea. After awhile we got used to seeing airships of all kinds and we
took no notice of them, but at first they were very interesting.

Another thing that happened on our first day in camp (by the way, we
were quartered in Shorncliffe, right on the seacoast)--a few of us were
standing looking across the Channel to France, and wondering what was
happening there, when _boom-boom-boom_! we heard the guns in Belgium.
We could hardly believe our ears. I don't know about the other
fellows, but it sent a queer feeling through me to know that only fifty
or sixty miles away our boys were fighting and dying. Before this the
war had seemed very unreal, but the sound of the guns made me realize
that it was a grim reality, and I wondered how I would face it when the
time came.

Well, the next few days saw us settled in camp and then our training
commenced in real earnest. We thought the six months' training in
Canada had made us hard, but what we went through for the next two
months made us like nails. We had shooting, skirmishing, night
marches, trench-digging, besides all the special courses. Three other
battalions were in the same camp--the 27th from Winnipeg, 31st from
Calgary, and the 29th from Vancouver--and the four of us were formed
into what was called the "Sixth Brigade"; after the Battle of St. Eloi
they were known as the "Iron Sixth." The only thing we objected to in
the training was the length of time it took. It seemed as hard to get
to France as it had been to get to England. We didn't eat from tables
as we had in Canada, but each of us was provided with exactly the same
equipment as they have in France,--namely, a mess tin. When the meal
was called we would all line up, and meat and potatoes and everything
would be dished into our can; then we would hike off to our tents and
eat it sitting on the ground. Each day an orderly officer went the
rounds to ask if there were any complaint