midnight
`` He is a brave and patriotic boy , '' replied Colonel Marshall . `` It is in his blood and breeding , sir . No Butler of my line was ever yet a coward , or ever failed to respond to a patriotic call . '' And as for Pen , midnight found him speeding northward with a heart more full and grateful , and a purpose more splendidly fixed , than his life had ever before known . It was late in the day following his departure from New York that Pen reached his destination in Canada . In a certain suburban town not far from Toronto he found a great training camp . It was here that selected units of the new Dominion armies received their military instruction prior to being sent abroad .