leaned forward, and I stood up and blessed them from the car, and
departed leaving them both grateful and gratified.

The village of St. Jans Cappel had been captured by the Germans in
their advance in 1914, and we heard some unpleasant tales of the
rudeness of the German officers who took up their quarters in the
convent and compelled the nuns to wait upon them at the table. In
1918, when the Germans made their big push round Mont Kemmel, St. Jans
Cappel, along with Bailleul and Meteren, was captured once more by the
enemy, and the village is now in ruins and its inhabitants scattered.

I do not look back with much pleasure to the cold rides which I always
used to have on my return from the line. In frosty weather the pave
roads were very slippery, and I had to walk Dandy most of the distance,
while I got colder and colder, and beguiled the time by composing
poems or limericks on places at the front. Arriving at my billet in
the small hours of the morning, I would find my friend Ross not always
in the best of humors at being kept up so late. The ride back from
Wulverghem or Dranoutre, owing to the narrowness of the road and (p. 115)
the amount of transport and lorries upon it, was rather dangerous. It
was a matter of ten miles to come back from Wulverghem, and the roads
were very dark. One night in particular I had a narrow escape. I had
mounted Dandy at the back of a farmhouse, but for some reason or other
I seemed to have lost control over him and he was unusually lively.
Luckily for me a man offered to lead him out into the road, and just
before he let him go discovered that the bit was not in his mouth.

The Alberta Dragoons had billets in a side road that led to Bailleul.
It was a quiet and peaceful neighbourhood, and they had good barns for
their horses. In the fields they had splendid opportunities for training
and exercise. I often took service for them. One Sunday afternoon I had
been speaking of the necessity of purifying the commercial life of
Canada on our return, and I said something uncomplimentary about land
speculators. I was told afterwards that I had caused much amusement in
all ranks, for every man in the troop from the officers downwards, or
upwards, was a land speculator, and had town lots to sell in the West.
In conversations with privates and non-coms., I often found they had
left good positions in Canada and not infrequently were men of means.
I have given mud-splashed soldiers a ride in the