us small family does not have to leave them to the mercy of
public charity and "Patriotic Funds" and go into the front line to
fight. There is a place for everybody.

The nation is mobilized and everybody knows that if a man is left
behind at the counter, in the mill, or on the farm that it is so
ordered, and that that is his place in the service of the State. The
people who have experienced this form of service despise the
volunteering system, first, because it bears unjustly on the brave and
patriotic, and, secondly, because a paid soldier they say is a man
hired to kill.

I asked the mother of a handsome lad of seventeen at one of our
billets near Cassel when she asked me if the war was likely to
continue another year, if she regretted if her boy might have to
serve.

"Oh, no, sir," she said. "I fully realized from the first day that I
rocked him in his cradle that he would have to fight for France. I am
resigned and proud to give two sons for France."

That is the spirit of the French people, calm indomitable and
persevering. The spirit that endures to the end and will prevail.

CHAPTER XXX

WANTED. MORE AND MORE OF THEM

When General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien came to see me he suggested that
I should take a few weeks' rest in England. I objected and said I
wanted to be in the big British spring drive in Belgium. He replied
that a few days' holidays would not deprive me of that honor, and that
he considered the Allies might postpone the offensive until the
autumn.

I accepted his suggestion and crossed to England. I met at Bologne an
officer of one of the Scottish regiments and he was good enough to get
me a pass and a military automobile to take me to La Toquet Hospital,
where I renewed old acquaintances with Dr. Shillington, the clever
surgeon in charge of the Canadian Hospital there and an old Ottawa
friend. When I arrived in London I was notified to attend a medical
board at the war office that insisted on giving me three months' sick
leave to get my lungs fixed up. I refused to accept more than six
weeks.

When I was up in Scotland enjoying a holiday and doing the Loch Lomond
country, I received a telegram from Colonel Carson in London telling
me that the Minister of Militia would like me to return to Canada for
a few months to lecture to the officers in training and assist in
recruiting.

In accordance with these instructions I returned to London where I
received the following letter from