do this properly but I walked through
the rows of stalwart, bronzed men and looked into their faces which
were fixed and immovable. Each man was an original, and every unit in
the old 1st Division was represented. For four years and seven months,
they had been away from home, fighting for liberty and civilization.
Many of them wore decorations; many had been wounded. No General
returning victor from a war could have had a finer Guard of Honour.

The troops had to wait on board the ship till the train was ready. All
along the decks of the great vessel, crowded against the railings in
long lines of khaki, were two thousand seven hundred men. Their bright
faces were ruddy in the keen morning air. On their young shoulders the
burden of Empire had rested. By their willing sacrifice Canada had
been saved. It made a great lump come in my throat to look at them and
think of what they had gone through.

I went back to the gangway for a last farewell. In one way I knew it
must be a last farewell, for though some of us will meet again as
individuals it will be under altered conditions. Never again but in
dreams will one see the great battalions marching on the
battle-ploughed roads of France and Flanders. Never again will one see
them pouring single file into the muddy front trenches. All that is
over. Along the coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific, among our cities,
by the shores of lakes and rivers and in the vast expanse of prairies
and mountain passes the warrior hosts have melted away. But there on
the vessel that day the fighting men had come home in all their
strength and comradeship. I stood on the gangway full of conflicting
emotions.

The men called out "Speech," "Speech," as they used often to do, half
in jest and half in earnest, when we met in concert tents and
estaminets in France.

I told them what they had done for Canada and what Canada owed them
and how proud I was to have been with them. I asked them to continue
to play the game out here as they had played it in France. Then, (p. 320)
telling them to remove their caps, as this was our last church parade,
I pronounced the Benediction, said, "Good-bye, boys", and turned
homewards.

INDEX (p. 321)

A

Abbeville, 160, 161.

Abeele, 132, 134.

Achicourt, 302, 303, 304.

Aeroplane, first ride in, 261, 264.

Agnez-les-Duisans, 317.

Albert, 136, 140, 146, 147, 148, 154, 158, 179, 288