We kept marching slowly, and resting; five o’clock showed on our wrist watches. Then we came to our halting-place.

It was a strange little village to which we came. Perhaps I should not say that it was “strange,” for it was built like all other farming villages of France, but the people were strange: they had never seen Canadian soldiers before, and only rarely since the beginning of the war had they seen the soldiers of their own country. All the people turned out to see us as if a circus had come to town. The soldiers were treated with very much more consideration than they had been accustomed to, and the prices in the village stores were extremely low.

I slept a few hours and then took my bicycle and went out to try to find the Fifteenth Battalion. I could get no information from the orderly room. Everything was being done with the utmost secrecy; we might move at any time. But George, ever-faithful George, told me he had seen the Fifteenth transport officer going to a little village said to be only three miles distant. I started, but found progress very difficult once I had left the village. The gentle mist of rain that had been falling through the night had increased towards morning and caused the wet, oily clay to adhere to the tires of my bicycle; sometimes the wheels skidded, and sometimes I was obliged to dismount and remove the clay that clung so tenaciously to the fork above the front wheel. Once I saw a number of the Thirteenth going towards a village on my right. After I had passed them I became worried. I was not sure of finding the Fifteenth but I felt that I could reach the billets of the Thirteenth by following the lads I had just seen. I continued a little farther on my way, still thinking of the Thirteenth. I dismounted, turned, and began to ride in the direction the Thirteenth soldiers had gone. I had not gone far, however, when I began to think that after all the Fifteenth had much greater need of my services than the Thirteenth; for all I knew then, we might be in the line that very night. I stopped again in the road and stood by my bicycle. Never in my life had I felt such indecision, but it was serious work I had to do—perhaps by tomorrow many of the lads would be killed. And here was I standing in the road almost in a panic—doing nothing!

I now began to pray to the Little Flower. I had never prayed to her before; the Blessed Virgin had always looked after all my wants. I remounted and presently I was going down a long hill very swiftly, finding great difficulty in managing my wheel. Just when I was half-way down I met a runner of the Sixteenth. He had passed me before I could stop, so I turned my head a little to call to him. The next thing I knew I had shot completely over my machine and was on my hands and knees on the road, a severe pain in one of my knees. The runner turned quickly, a look of concern in his eyes; but I had twisted my face into a smile and his face brightened.

He pointed out a clump of trees on the opposite hill and told me I would find the Fifteenth there. I did, and gave some of them Communion.

Chapter LXXVIII
Boves

I returned to the Sixteenth and succeeded in giving Holy Communion to a few soldiers, among whom was the solicitor whom I had baptized at Monchy Breton. But I was by no means pleased with my day’s work, for I had not gotten all the Catholics in each battalion.

At six o’clock we left this area, and towards morning, after marching continuously, were met by a long line of busses that brought us through the city of Amiens to within three or four miles of Boves. We marched for nearly two hours and about ten o’clock came into the city of Boves, from which all the inhabitants had gone.

I was very tired and hungry, but I had not broken my fast, for I wished to say Mass, if I could find time, in order that I might offer it for the success of my work among the soldiers.

I easily found the church of Boves, and just as I entered, met a chaplain of the French army coming out. I saluted and told him who I was. He was a friendly priest and had one of the kindest faces I have ever seen. We talked for a little while, then, as there was no parish priest at Boves, he came back to the sacristy to show me where to find things. Then he served my Mass.