He took their messages which he promised to transmit to their folks at home, and left with them something of the serene and exultant peace that filled his own soul.
From Ewen Innes and others of the Wapiti draft, he learned something of his father's work and place in their battalion.

Soldiers are not eloquent in speech, but mostly in silence.

Their words halted when they came to speak of their sergeant major's soldierly qualities,--for his father had become the sergeant major of the battalion--his patience, his skill, his courage.
"He knew his job, sir," said one of them.

"He was always onto it." "It was his care of his men that we thought most of," said Ewen, who continued to relate incidents that had come under his own observation of this characteristic, tears the while flowing down his cheeks.
"He never thought of himself, sir.

It was our comfort first.