At fifty yards I can not begin to describe the look on the sergeant’s face—­to say that his eyes, nose and mouth were twitching is putting it mildly.  Nevertheless, Number One missed.  Then, something that never happened before on a rifle range on this earth electrified us all.  Sergeant Jones shouted at the top of his voice:  “Number One, attention!  Fix bayonet!  Charge!  That’s the only d——­d hope you’ve got.”

Disappointments were frequent enough in camp.  Take the case of the Fifth Western Cavalry, who could sport the honor of their full title on their shoulder straps in bold yellow letters.  It was they who had to leave horses behind and travel to France to fight in what they termed “mere” infantry.  To this day we know them as the “Disappointed Fifth.”  There was also the Strathcona Horse of Winnipeg who were doomed to disappointment and much foot-slogging with their horses left behind.

Among those made into reserve units we of the Ninth had for companions the Sixth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Seventeenth Battalions.  It was obvious that somebody had to be kept in reserve, and we were the unlucky dogs.  We cursed our fate, but that didn’t mend matters.  We had nothing for it but to trust to a better fortune which should draft us into a battalion going soon to the fighting front.

The First Brigade consisted of men of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Battalions of Infantry.  All of these battalions came from Ontario.  The Second Brigade was made up of men from the West, including Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver.  They were in the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Battalions, all infantry.

The Third Brigade was commonly known as the Highland Brigade and was made up of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Battalions.  This last brigade included such splendid old regiments as the Forty-Eighth Highlanders of Toronto, the Ninety-First Highlanders of Hamilton and Vancouver, and the Black Watch of Montreal.  There were also some of the far eastern men in this brigade.

After all this rearrangement had been made, it was only a few days till the rumor flew about that the battalions might leave for France at any time now.  It seemed to us poor devils of the old Ninth that everything was going wrong.  The unit lying next to us, the Seventeenth Battalion, was quarantined with that terrible disease, cerebro-spinal-meningitis.  For a few days we buried our lads by the dozen.  Speaking for myself, my nerves were absolutely unstrung, and I am sure that most of the men were in the same condition.  It can be easily understood then that when drafts were asked for, to bring up the regiments leaving for France to full strength, there was a mad scramble to get away.

Without even passing the surgeon, I finally drifted into the Third Battalion, ordinarily known as the “Dirty Third.”  This battalion was made up of the Queen’s Own, the Bodyguards and Grenadier Regiments of Toronto.