A London volunteer corps was in Aldershot for a course of training. One Sunday, the men had assembled for church parade, and as usual there were a few who wished to excuse themselves. Each case was dealt with on its merits, and at last only two men, both of whom evidently thought a bad excuse was better than none at all, were left. They pleaded that they were Unitarians ①, and asked to be relieved on that account.
The commanding officer was a man of ready resource, and at once called up the sergeant-major, and with an immovable face asked what a Unitarian was. "Unitarians, sir," promptly replied the old soldier, who was up to every dodge; "why, sir, they're the chaps who stay at home and do all the dirty work." And sure enough they did! There was no skulking during the remainder of the time the regiment was under canvas. ②
倫敦一個志願軍團在奧德肖特受訓。一個星期天，將士聚集，準備赴教堂校閱。和平常一樣，有幾個人託詞不去，每一個都按情況處理之後，剩下兩人。那兩人顯然認為，託詞即使不高明，總勝過沒有，就自稱是唯一教徒①，因此請求不參加教堂校閱。
那司令官為人機智，馬上把軍士長召來，一臉正經，問什麼叫做唯一教徒。軍士長是個老軍人，最懂得應付託詞，說道：「報告司令官，唯一教徒嘛，就是那些留在家裏專做骯髒工作的傢伙。」骯髒工作果然就落在那兩個唯一教徒身上。從此，在營受訓期間，軍團再也沒有人躲懶。
① Unitarians是否認「三位一體」和「基督是神」的基督教派。
② Canvas指「帆布」或「帳幕」，所以under canvas指軍隊、童子軍等「住在帳篷裏」。