or looks, for the climate along the border makes a type of
complexion and even of features with the second generation which is
readily distinguished from the English type.

"What part of Canada do you come from?" asked an officer of a private.

"Out west, sir!"

"What part of the west?"

"'Way out west, sir!"

"An officer is asking you. Be definite."

"Well, the State of Washington, sir."

There was a good sprinkling of Americans in the battle, including
officers; but on the baseball field and the battlefield they were a part
of the whole, performing their task in a way that left no doubt of
their quality. Whether the spirit of adventure or the principle at stake
had brought her battalions to Flanders, Canada had proved that she could
be stubborn. She was to have her chance to prove that she could be
quick.

XXVI

THE TANKS ARRIVE

The New Army Irish--Irish wit--And Irish courage--Pompous Prussian
Guard officer--The British Guards and their characteristics--Who
invented the tank?--The great secret--Combination of an armadillo, a
caterpillar, a diplodocus, a motor car and a traveling
circus--Something really new on the front--Gas attacks--A tank in the
road--A moving "strong point"--Making an army laugh--Suspense for the
inmates of the untried tanks.

The situation on the Ridge was where we left it in a previous chapter
with all except a few parts of it held, enough for a jumping-off place
at all points for the sweep down into the valley toward Bapaume. In the
grim preliminary business of piecemeal gains which should make possible
an operation over a six-mile front on Sept. 15th, which was the first
general attack since July 14th, the part that the Irish battalions
played deserves notice, where possibly the action of the tried and
sturdy English regiments on their flanks need not be mentioned, as being
characteristic of the work they had been doing for months.

They were the New Army Irish, all volunteers, men who had enlisted to
fight against Germany when their countrymen were largely disaffected,
which requires more initiative than to join the colors when it is the
universal passion of the community. Many stories were told of this Irish
division. If there are ten Irishmen among a hundred soldiers the stories
have a way of being about the ten Irishmen.

I like that one of the Connaught man who, on his first day in the
trenches, was set to digging out the dirt that had been