ing to
brag about, yet, taking it all in all, even they were pretty good.

By this time the majority of us had received our uniforms and our badges,
and had been given a number, and instructed to mark this number on
everything we had. Mine was 18535.

We had no "wet" canteens at Valcartier, so we were a very sober camp. Each
battalion had a shower bath, and there was no excuse for any man to be
dirty. Even at that it was not very long before those little "somethings"
which are no respecters of persons, be he private, non-com, commissioned
officer or general, found their way into the camp. I'll never forget the
first gray-back I found on me. I cried like a baby, and old Bill
sympathized with me, saying in consoling tones that I'd soon get used to
them. Bill knew.

For amusement at Valcartier, we had free shows and pay shows, also moving
pictures. The pay show got to be so amusing that we made a bonfire out of
it one bright September night, and found it more entertaining as a
conflagration than it ever had been as an entertainment. At all events,
that was how one of the boys of the Fifteenth Battalion put it.

The second week in camp we were inoculated, and again examined for overseas
service. Through some very fine work, I escaped the examination, but could
not get out of the inoculation. We were promised three shots in the arm,
but after the first I resolved that one was more than enough for me. German
bullets could not be worse, I thought, and when I got one I didn't change
my mind.

As the days wore on we grew more and more enthusiastic. Already rumors were
spreading that we would be leaving "any time now" for France. The
excitement certainly told on some of the boys. In my regiment no less than
nine, I guess they were ex-homesteaders, went "nutty." One chap, I recall,
killed hundreds of Germans on the bloody battle-fields of Valcartier. The
surgeon assured us the mania was temporary.

We were pretty thoroughly equipped by the end of the third week, when we
were given puttees instead of leggings. It was sure funny the way some of
the boys looked when they first put them on, for many of them got the lower
part of the leg much bigger than the upper part, but of course that might
happen to any one who had never seen puttees before.

There was considerable grumbling about these same puttees, because, at
first, they were undoubtedly very uncomfortable. However, before many days
the majority of us were ready to vote