Poor old Siggy Swanson’s got an aching in his balls
But his soul goes marching on . . .”
There were envy and regret in the tumult, but there was a dazed happiness in it, too, a note of glad wonder, as at the passing of a miracle. It was less than six weeks since the Maple Leaf had carried the first announcement of the first Canada-leave plan. Only officers and men with “five years satisfactory continuous service overseas” were eligible. Sigurd Swanson, who’d come over with the First Division in December 1939 and had been retreaded from infantry to forestry a year later, was the only member of Number 38 Company who came within six months of qualifying. He became, particularly for the scores of other men in the company who’d been away from home more than four years but not yet five, a kind
