The First Canadians in France
"I'm afraid you're in love, René," I teased, after he had given me a glowing account of his trip.
"I t'ink dat's right," he exclaimed, with sparkling eyes. "Why, dat's de purtiest gal what I ever see. Dose arms of hers! Gee, dere ain't lilies so white like dat, an' de roses of her cheeks! – every time I meet her, I see her like more kinds of flowers!"
"But you'll see another bud next week, René," I interjected, "and forget all about this dainty little flower."
"Me forget? Non!" he declared, with conviction – and then a wistful look crept into his big brown eyes. He sat upon the edge of Reggy's cot opposite and reminiscently smoothed the hair off his brow before he continued:
"Sometime wen you're up de Gat'-ineau at home, an' de lumbermen free de logs in de riviere, you see dem float so peaceful down de stream. De water is run so slow an' quiet you don' see no movement dere; but bimeby de riviere go lil' faster, de ripples wash de banks, de logs move swifter an' more swift until dey come above de falls – dey fall, crash, boom! One gets stuck, annuder an' annuder; dey jam – dey pile up higher an' more high – more hun'reds of logs come down, an' jam an' jam. De water can't pass – it overflow de bank an' spread out in a great lake over de fields."
René had risen in the excitement of his description. The candle light shone faintly upon his broad shoulders and handsome, inspired face. His right arm was extended in harmony with the vehemence of his description. He continued more softly:
"Dat riviere is me; de falls is my lil' gal at de turnin'-point of my life, an' de great lake is my love which has burst over de fields of my fancy an' freshes all de dry places. I can't tell you how I love dat gal – sometimes I tink – maybe – I marry her some day."
At this juncture the senior major had thrust his head inside the tent.
"René," he called sternly, "get back to your work! Wash my rubber boots and keep an eye on the tent 'til I return."
And poor René, thus rudely brought to earth, had crept silently away.
At seven-thirty p.m., the shrill call of the bugle sounded "Officers' Mess":
"The officers' wives get pudding and pies,The soldiers' wives get skilly – "It is the one call which every officer, senior or junior, knows by heart, and answers promptly.
A mess dinner is a parade, and is conducted with all the pomp and dignity peculiar to a Chinese wedding. Woe betide the untrained "sub" who dares seat himself before the Commanding Officer has taken his place at the centre of the table! For the first time since our arrival in France, we were to be honoured with the presence of several ladies, and the whole mess was in a state of excitement compatible with the seriousness of such an occasion. It was so long since any of us had dined under the charming, but restraining, influence of the fair sex that, as Reggy afterward remarked, he was in a condition bordering on nervous prostration lest he forget to eat the ice cream with his fork, or, worse still, "butter" his bread with paté de fois gras.
Reggy had other worries on his mind as well. He had been taken aside early, and solemnly warned that if he, his heirs, executors or assigns, dared to bring forth upon the table so much as a smell of his ill-favoured cheese, he would be led out upon the sand dunes at early dawn and shot. This precaution having been duly taken, he was permitted to retire to the pantry with Fraser and Corporal Granger, and amuse himself making thirty Bronx cocktails for our express delectation. Promptly, as the last note of the bugle died away, the colonel and matron ushered our fair guests into the Mess Room.
Had our long separation from the beautiful women of Canada whetted our sense of appreciation? Or was it some dim recollection of an almost-forgotten social world which stimulated our imagination? Certainly no more exquisite representatives of the, to us, long-lost tribe of lovely women ever graced a Mess Room in France!
After the customary introductions had taken place, the twenty-five officers who now comprised our Mess distributed themselves in various awkward positions about the chairs of the five ladies – all the rest of our chairs were at the table – each trying vainly to give himself that appearance of graceful ease which indicates that the entertainment, of grandes dames is our chief sport in Canada.
What a dreadful encumbrance one's hands are on such an occasion! A military uniform does not take kindly to having its wearer's hands thrust deeply into his breeches pockets, and, as every one knows, this is the only way to feel at ease when addressing a lady in her evening gown – if you fold your hands unostentatiously behind your back, it hampers your powers of repartee.
Lady Danby, who conducted a Red Cross Hospital in a near-by town, appreciated our embarrassment, and did her best to make us feel at home.
"What a delightful Mess Room!" she exclaimed, as her tall, lithesome figure sank into an arm chair. "It must be so restful and refreshing after those dreadful operations!"
"Captain Reggy finds it very restful indeed," Burnham volunteered mischievously; "he spends a great deal of his time here – mixing drinks."
"Ah! – and he does them so very well too," exclaimed Madame Cuillard, with a flash of her beautiful dark eyes toward the hero of the moment, and lifting her glass to him in gracious compliment. "He is a man after my own heart."
"Madam, you flatter me," Reggy murmured, with a low bow, "and yet I fear I am not the first who has been 'after' such a kindly heart?"
"Nor you shall not be the last, I hope," the little widow returned, with a rippling laugh. "Still, 'Weak heart never won' – ah, non – I am forgetting my English – let it pass. A heart is so easy to be lost in France – you must be careful."
Fraser's Gibsonian figure towered above the others as he and Father Bonsecour and the senior major stood chatting with two Canadian guests. The girls made a pretty contrast, petite, dainty and vivacious; the one with blue-black hair and large soft brown eyes, the other fair as an angel, with hair of finely spun gold and eyes as blue as the sea over the dunes.
"May I take your glasses?" Fraser queried.
"Thank you, by all means," said the little brunette smilingly. "There's nothing I regret more than an empty glass or a flower that is dead."
"The former leaves little to hope, and the latter hopes little to leaf," asserted the senior major sententiously, animated by the beauty of our guests.
"What a dreadful pun, Major Baldwin!" cried the pretty blonde. "You deserve five days C.B.!"
"Thank Heaven," laughed the major, "we don't always get our deserts! We incorrigibles may still, for a moment
"'Take the cash and let the credit go,Nor heed the rumble of the distant drum'!"But the Colonel interrupted these delightful inanities by offering his arm to Lady Danby and showing her to the seat of honour on his right. The other ladies were distributed as impartially as was possible amongst the remaining twenty-four of us. We stood for a moment with bowed heads while our chaplain repeated that concise but effective military grace:
"For what we are about to receive, thank God!" and then we took our seats.
The dinner was progressing splendidly. Wilson hadn't spilled the soup; René hadn't tripped over the rug; course after course had proceeded under Granger's worried eye with daintiness and despatch. The sole meuniere was done to a turn, the roast pheasant and asparagus had been voted superb, and the ice-cold salad a refreshing interlude. Even the plum pudding, with its flaming sauce, had been transported without accident to the guests, when Reggy beckoned with a motion of the head to Granger, and whispered something in his ear.
Granger was the best lad in the world when he wasn't disturbed, but if he became excited anything might happen. The order was transmitted to René, and in a moment the murder was out. Whether through misunderstanding, or René's secret pride in its possession, Reggy's cheese had been excavated, and before it was possible to interfere, its carcase was upon the table!
The scent of hyacinth and lilies-of-the-valley faded on the instant; the delicate charm of poudre de riz was obliterated and all the delicious odours of the meal were at once submerged in that wonderful, pungent, all-embracing emanation from the cheese.
The colonel turned first red, then pale. He cast an appealing glance at Reggy – it was too late. The rest of us glared surreptitiously and silently at the culprit. An inspiration seized him. Unobserved, he signalled the mess president, who rose to his feet on the instant.
"Mr. Vice – The King!" he commanded.
"Ladies and gentlemen – The King!" came the formal but inspiring reply.
The cheese was forgotten. We were upon our feet, and lifting our glasses we drank to our sovereign. Cigars and cigarettes were passed around, and we waited patiently until the colonel lighted his cigar – for no one smokes at mess until the O.C. has set the example, or given his permission. The offending element had been quickly but quietly removed from the table, and once more peace and happiness prevailed.
But Reggy's fate as Mess Secretary was sealed!
CHAPTER XI
The first line of a certain popular song emphasises a bold and truthful platitude, namely: "The World's growing older each day." The incontrovertible fact is plumped unexpectedly before us, and blocks our only exit down the passage of argument. If it had read: "The World's growing smaller each day," we might have run to our text-book of Elementary Physics, and, placing a stubby but argumentative forefinger on the Law of the Indestructibility of Matter, have proved it a falsehood of the Nth. degree. But, of course, this must all have happened before the War. Every one knows now – every Tommy can tell you – that the world is really and truly smaller; for, if not, how is it he meets Bill, or Jake, or Harry on the streets of Poperinghe or Dickibusch? He knows instinctively that the world is shrinking, and Halifax and Vancouver may be found any time jumbled together in a little Belgian village on the wrong side of the Atlantic. I hadn't seen Jack Wellcombe for twenty-five years – we had been school chums together – and his name had almost faded from the pages of my mind; so that on entering the hospital the morning after Reggy's last dinner, I received a slight shock as I lifted a new chart from the table and saw this name staring up at me:
"Captain J. Wellcombe. Royal Army Medical Corps."
Had the world really become so small? Could a quarter century be bridged in an instant? I seemed to see the little old stone schoolhouse once again; its low-ceilinged room, the big box-stove, the well-hacked seats, and the rows of little boys and girls bowed over their greasy slates. The scent of midday lunches stowed away floated back to me in memory's dream, and the haw-tree brushed its leaves against the window pane. I saw Jack as he was then, with frank blue eyes and waving golden hair – courteous, genial and big-hearted, beloved by all; and I wondered as I stood there if by any chance this might be he.
The nursing sister awoke me from this reverie: "He arrived in the early morning," she volunteered, "but as he was not seriously hurt I didn't call you, and dressed the wound myself."
It was with a feeling of nervous tension and expectancy that I followed her down the hall to his room and entered. Alas! the world is full of disappointments. It was not Jack – this dignified man with the touch of grey about the temples – but still the resemblance grew stronger, the kindly blue eyes, the same winsome smile – I wondered still.
We passed the customary greetings and chatted commonplaces for a few moments, and all the time his face wore an expression of puzzled enquiry, as if he too were trying to recall some faint memory from the past. At last I blurted out:
"Are you by any chance related to Jack Wellcombe, of K – ?"
"A very close relation," he returned laughingly. "I am his dearest friend; in fact – himself. And you – you are Mac – dear old Mac!" he cried, stretching out both hands to me in his impetuous, warm-hearted way. I could have hugged him, I was so glad to see him!
"What a queer game is Life!" he exclaimed a moment later. "For years you and I have been shaken about, with many a jolt, in the dice-box of the world, and now, like two Jacks, we are once more tossed together upon the Table of Fate!"
While we were chatting over old times, the nurse unwound his bandages.
"I hope it doesn't hurt too much?" I asked him, as I examined his wound preparatory to dressing it.
"It's a mere scratch," he returned lightly; "a piece of shrapnel through the flesh of the thigh; but the surgeon at the Field Ambulance thought I should come back to hospital for a week or two. Things are rather noisy around Ypres."
"But what possessed you to join the R.A.M.C.?" I enquired. "You should be with the Canadians."
He laughed. "Oh, you chaps were too long in coming over. I'd have lost three whole months of the war. I was in England when it broke out, and came over with the First Expeditionary Force."
"You were in the retreat from Mons, then!" I exclaimed in envious admiration.
"Every foot of it," he replied. "That wasa fight, you may well believe. But the Huns didn't have it all their own way. I saw a strange scrap one day between a French and a German battalion. The Huns sprang suddenly out of an ambush and were upon the French with the bayonet before you could catch your breath. Taken by surprise, the 'poilus' ran for all they were worth for about a quarter of a mile – and they are some sprinters too – the Huns following them, shouting like demons. Suddenly the French stopped – they must have been running to get their second wind – wheeled about, and with fixed bayonets charged back like a streak of forked lightning through the Germans. You never saw such a surprised and rattled bunch of Huns since you were born. If it hadn't been so awful I could have shrieked with laughter. But the French weren't satisfied with going through them once; they turned about and came back at them again, like a regiment of cavalry. The Huns seemed stupefied with amazement and terror; they fought like men in a daze, and very few ever got back to tell the story of the 'cowardly French who ran away'!"
"We, too, have underestimated the French, I'm afraid," I said. "We are beginning to realise their possibilities as a fighting force, and the Germans aren't yet awake to their strength and determination."
"They fought well at the battle of the Marne," Jack remarked. "It makes me smile still as I picture a fat little French officer with drawn sword – God only knows what he intended doing with it – who stood behind a haystack waving to his men to come on. He was absolutely fearless. Again and again he charged up that steep hill with the men, and when they couldn't make it, back he would come to hide behind his hay-stack and wait until he could induce them to try it again. About the fifth attack they succeeded and went on over the hill."
I questioned him about the battle of Ypres. (This, of course, was the first battle of Ypres – not that in which the Canadians distinguished themselves.)
"It was fast work at 'Wipers,'" he said, "with shells falling into the town like a thousand roaring devils. They dropped one into the signaller's billet. It tore a hole in the side of the building large enough to march an elephant through, and killed every mother's son of them. A 'Jack Johnson' came through the roof of our hospital and dropped into the ward – exit ward! There wasn't a bed left standing. Luckily we had removed most of the patients into the cellar – but those who were left are still there, buried in the ruins."
"The usual German respect for the Red Cross!" I commented bitterly.
"The flag makes a good mark for their artillery," he returned, with a smile; "they always look for us."
"You've had many narrow squeaks, I presume?"
He laughed merrily. "So narrow that if I had had a big stomach it might have been whittled down to sylph-like proportions. I was standing one day close to a dug-out, talking to two brother officers. The 'Whizz-Bangs' and 'Coal Boxes' were sizzling over from time to time, but not especially close. An old friend of mine" (Jack always had an "old friend" everywhere!) "stuck his head out of the dug-out and shouted up to me:
"'Drop in and have a drink, Jack – the water's fine!'
"I told him I was never thirsty in the mornings. He looked surprised, but called back again:
"'If you'll do me the honour to descend, I'll make you a fine long John Collins!'
"'Well, well,' I said, 'as you're so kind and such a persistent beggar, I'll humour you.' The other two officers said they wouldn't go in, and so I climbed down into his dug-out and sat down.
"Just as I did so a big shell came – bang! – right where I had been standing. We sprang to our feet and looked out – the poor chaps I had just left had been literally blown to pieces!"
He lay pensively silent for a moment or two, and there was a suspicious glint of moisture in his eyes as he turned his face toward the wall. Then he turned on his side once more, and smiling brightly up at me, murmured:
"It's been a great lesson to me!"
"In what way?" I queried.
"Never to refuse a drink!"
It will take more than a world's war to depress Jack. His cork-like spirit will always make him pop up serene to the surface of the whirlpool of life.
"You know the Guild Hall at Wipers?" he exclaimed a moment later.
"No; I haven't been to the actual firing line yet," I returned. "The only time we realise there is a war back here is when the trains of wounded come in; or, on a stormy night, when the wind blows fiercely from the trenches, and the boom of the great guns is driven here intermittently with the gusts."
"As soon as I can stand upon this peg of mine, you and the colonel and I will motor up and see it all," he declared, with assurance.
"Agreed!" I cried. "You may now feel confident of a speedy recovery. But tell me more about 'Wipers.'"
He raised himself on one elbow, and commenced reminiscently: "Our dear old colonel was billeted in the tenement row which used to be in the square of Ypres, close to the Guild Hall. We had been shelled out of place after place, but for several days lately Fritzie had left us in peace. It was too good to last long. One night they started chucking big shells into the cathedral and what was left of the square. I counted fifty-seven falling over and around the colonel's billet. I began to suspect the place. Taken as an exhibition of fire-works, it was a success, but as a health resort it had defects.
"It was about eleven o'clock, and some of the houses in the row had already been hit. Ye gods! Vesuvius in its balmiest days was like a Chinese lantern to this – for a second, in a lull, you would hear the whine of a big shell; then, crash! it went into a building, and shell and house went up together in one frightful smash-up.
"I went over to wake the old boy, as he showed no symptoms of having been disturbed. It was useless to rap – there was such an infernal racket with shells bursting, roofs toppling in and walls falling out. I stumbled up the dark stairs to his room. He was sound asleep – think of it! I spoke to him, but he didn't wake; so I shook him gently by the shoulder and he opened his eyes.
"'Hello, Wellcombe!' he growled, in his rough but genial way. 'What the devil brings you prowling around at this time of night?'
"I told him that I thought the billet was becoming a trifle unsafe, as some of the other houses in the row had already been hit.
"'Is that all you came to tell me?' he asked, with indifference.
"I said it seemed sufficient to me, and told him we had no wish to lose him.
"'Well, well,' he came back at me, but not unkindly, 'and you woke me out of a sound sleep to tell me this! Go and get me a drink and then run along like a good fellow and go to bed.'
"And after the old chap had his drink he thanked me, turned over in bed, and I believe was sound asleep again before I got out of the house – while a continual hell of fire and shells tore the guts out of the town about him! When I went back in the morning, there was only one house left standing in that row – the colonel's. The others were a crumpled mess of bricks and mortar!"
I chatted with him as long as I could, and then, telling him I would drop in later in the day, continued my rounds on the wards.
As we entered one of the smaller rooms, I noticed a bright-eyed, red-cheeked Scotch lad, not more than seventeen years of age, seated upon his cot. He was chatting animatedly with several others, but sprang to attention as we approached. The nurse unwound the bandages and showed me his wound – a bayonet cut across the palm. We had already heard from his comrades that this slip of a boy, with the smiling eyes and ringing laugh, was one of the finest bayonet fighters in his battalion, and had to his credit a string of German scalps that would make a Pawnee Chief green with envy. His wound was the result of grasping his opponent's bayonet during one of these fights.
The nurse looked up at the boyish face – the big blue eyes and laughing mouth – he did seem such a child!
"How can you," she cried involuntarily; "how can a little lad like you bear to kill men with a bayonet?"
His lips parted over his even white teeth in a broader smile than ever, but he flushed deeply as he exclaimed: "Oh, ma'm, when ye're in a charge an' ye see them steekin' yer best chums – ye go fair mad – everything turns red afore ye, an' ye could kill the whole bleedin' lot!"
"Bravo!" cried the little nurse enthusiastically, clapping her hands – she had been carried away, as I admit I too was, by his sincerity and vehemence. "May you live long and grow to be a great man, as you deserve!"
After dressing his hand and the wounds of the others, we passed on into the next room, where a poor fellow, shot through the hip, lay suffering in heroic silence.
It required three of us to do his dressing, because, on account of the peculiar position of the wound, he had to be turned upon his side each time, and with a fractured hip this was a process of great difficulty. This wonderful war has produced its many heroes, but when the great Recorder above opens His book at doomsday, He will find the name of William Hoare written large on the pages of valour.
Throughout the painful dressing Nursing Sister Dolly stood at his head, and, placing her strong little arms about his great shoulders would tell him to lift himself by her; and Hoare would gratefully lock his hands behind her neck and help to raise himself. What he suffered, God only knows! He made no sign of complaint, but gritted his teeth together like a vise and never spoke until the operation was over. Beads of sweat stood upon his brow, and his face was pale, but no groan had escaped.
"Have a little brandy, Hoare," Sister Dolly coaxed; "it'll do you good – you look so white." Tears of sympathy stood in her eyes, but Hoare smiled bravely up at her and said simply:
"Thank you – it would be welcome."
"You are a splendid soldier, Hoare," I remarked, as Sister Dolly hurried away for the stimulant.
"I'm not really a soldier, sir. I've only been a few months in the ranks," he answered. "I'm a 'bus driver in London."
I thought to myself: "A 'bus driver in London – but a hero of heroes in France!"
He raised his head as Sister Dolly held the glass gently to his lips. "You are very kind," he murmured gratefully. "I'm a deal of trouble to you."
The little sister smiled sadly and shook her head, then without a word dashed from the room.
"I'd have burst out crying – if I'd stayed another minute," she exclaimed impetuously, when I met her a moment later in the hall. "I'm a fool, I know – I'm too chicken-hearted to be a nurse."
"You're a real woman," I ejaculated in genuine admiration; "the world is the better because you were born!"
We then visited the large ward. There were forty patients in it, most of them looking as jolly as if hospital life were one of the most amusing experiences in the world. Some were reading, some playing cribbage, some of those with minor wounds were helping about the ward, and all were smoking.