He determined that to-morrow he would go to
Etaples and report, after which he would proceed to his battalion.
That evening, he visited the men in the hospital, coming upon many
Canadians whose joy in seeing a chaplain from their own country touched
Barry to the heart. 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.
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