Friday September 8, 1916

We woke up early to the welcome call of "tea-up!" and had our regular breakfast of tea, bacon, bread and butter and jam if anyone was careful enough to husband his supply in a tight tin of some kind. A Players Navy Cut tobacco tin seems to be the most popular jam or butter dish.

We moved off again as a division at 7:45 a.m. and were glad to hear that we were only to go six miles back and on a branch road to divisional headquarters in the village of Rubempre. We may stay here a few days for further instructions in bayonet fighting and open fighting or we may move right into it tomorrow. As usual with citizen soldiery, we do a bit of grousing (grumbling) because things are not more comfortable, but there is a fine material in the Canadian 2nd Division and one doesn't need to look far below the surface to see the good fighting quality of the Canadian soldier. He is a resourceful, bright and hardy soldier. I was chosen as one of the picket to regulate the water supply for the troops. There are great canvas ponds in the middle of the village street. The canvas sides and bottom are stiffened by board sides and bottom. The sides are interlocked and then wided to each other across the middle. These are for watering horses and then the tanks are for mens drinking and cooking water. There is a tremendous amount of artillery going thru to the front, all our 2nd Div guns going up to the front to get into the game.