He is an interfering and impertinent ass, in my opinion, but what else he is, I don't know." It is fair to say that the sergeant major bore the chaplain no grudge for his part in the affair.

The whole battalion, however, soon became possessed of the tale, adorned and expanded to an unrecognisable extent, and revelled in ecstasy over the discomfort of the C.O.The consensus of opinion was that on the whole the sergeant major had come off with premier honours, and as between the "old man" and the "Sky Pilot," as Barry was coming to be called, it was about an even break.

As for the Pilot, he remained more than ever a mystery, and on the whole, the battalion was inclined to leave him alone.
The chaplain, however, had partially, at least, achieved his aim, in that the regulations governing the canteen were more strictly enforced, to the vast improvement of discipline generally, and to the immense advantage of Harry Hobbs in particular.
Soon after this, another event occurred which aided materially in bringing about this same result, and which also led to a modification of opinion in the battalion in regard to their chaplain.
To the civilian soldier the punctilio of military etiquette is frequently not only a bore, but at times takes on the appearance of wilful insult which no grown man should be expected to tolerate.

To the civilian soldier born and brought up in wide spaces of the far Northwest this is especially the case.
It is not surprising, therefore, that McCuaig, fresh from his thirty-five years of life in the Athabasca wilds, should find the routine of military discipline extremely irksome and the niceties of military etiquette as from a private to an officer not only foolish but degrading both to officer and man.

Under the patient shepherding of Barry's father, he had endured much without protest or complaint, but, with the advent of Sergeant Major McFetteridge, with his rigid military discipline and his strict insistence upon etiquette, McCuaig passed into a new atmosphere.