"Why, they haven't even come over yet, sir."
"Don't tell me that: I know better. They've been out here for months."
"But they haven't," I persisted. I told the truth this time.
"Yes," he shouted angrily.
"Well, how many of them are there?"
The division yarn had gone down well. And perhaps I was slightly heated. My spirit ran ahead of my judgment. "Five and a half to seven million," I said.
He exploded. And called me everything but a soldier. I could not help but reflect that I had overdone it a bit. And I certainly thought that I was "for it" then and there.
To make matters worse he asked the others and they, profiting by my mistake and following the lead of the first man questioned, put Kitchener's army at four and a half million; which was only a trifle of four million out. So I determined to be reasonable. When he came to me again I confirmed the latter figure, explaining my earlier statement by my lack of exact knowledge. And so that particular storm blew over.
The general came back to me again. "You Canadians thought this was going to be a picnic, didn't you?" He was very sarcastic.