Canadians never showed up better than at such times.
They were so quiet and determined and bore their hardships with a spirit of good nature which rested on something sounder and more (p.

171) fundamental than even pleasure in achieving victory.

About half-past six, when I started back, I met our Intelligence Officer, V.C., D.S.O., coming up to look over the line.

He was a man who did much but said little and generally looked very solemn.

I went up to him and said, "Major, far be it from me, as a man of peace and a man of God, to say anything suggestive of slaughter, but, if I were a combatant officer, I would drop some shrapnel in that valley in front of our lines." Just the faint flicker of a smile passed over his countenance and he replied, "We are shelling the valley." "No," I said, "Our shells are going over the valley into the villages beyond, and the Germans in the plain are getting ready for a counter-attack.