WHAT SAMMY SAYS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 41, 12 November 1918, Page 2

WHAT SAMMY SAYS

Sammy is in my ward, and I like him, writes an English nurse iii tho "Daily Mail." Hi': face she describes as "ono of th,; sort that ouly a inothaji. aansl love," but somehow, lantern-jawed and high-cheeked as' it is; it appeals to me. Even more than his face i like his conversation. His experiences during' the war are, I suppose, much tho same . iis those of othei men; his mode of relating them is. peculiarly his own. The picturesque imagery with which he adorns his speech may be an old story In "God's .country''—to me it is a tiling of wonder and a joy for ever. Ho came over "the big drink", somo months ago He had a.pleasant voyage, saw no "tin fish," and had plenty to oat— "six meals a day, three up and three down." On arrival at the port they got into "the dinkiest little train ever." Boforo it started tho captain asked for a kej>' to- wind it up with. Sammy says that personally he intends to take one homo a& a charm to hang on his watch chain.

They vent into camp, where they spent their time "hiking" about the couniiyside. Tho "eats'' here wore not over good. They were given tea "which I lasted like the last water Noah , kept ' n/loar in" and fish "that was never caught but must havo given itself up." However, they stuck it out bravely. The ono thing that really "got their goat" was bavins to sleep on terra fii'iua. That, Sammy says, is Latin for "terribly hard." Ultimate!) he and his companions crossed to the front. The country pleased Sammy, but lie found the language difficult and the French people, slow of comprehension. On one occasion lie vrnntxl a pair of duck shoes, so he went into a bootmaker's and quacked—but ho couldn't get tho old dame "wise" to it. For tho fight that put him out of action Sammy says his lieutenant was re-, sponsible. "He was sure tired of his position and crazy on becoming a captain or an angel." Sammy was ready enough to help, but a Boche shell intervened and insisted on sending in his name with an application "for immediate transfer to the Flying Corps." Hence his presence; in hospital. It is my duty to give Sammy his letters, and to-day, as he read a voluminous epistlo his face brightened to such an extent that I was forced to inquire what good tidings had arrived. He hesitated, then grinned. "I don't t mind, telling you, nuruo," he said. "It's my wife writing, and from what she says I calculate when I get home there'll be something besides a fence running around my lk'tio place in Seattle." Sammy goes to-morrow, and I. shall miss him badly. He himself is all .anxiety for an early roturn to a front whero he anticipates a real good tU'.vo for tho Yanks and a corresponding bad' one for "Jerry." The latter is assuredly up against the "straight goods" at last. Anyway, whatever happens to the English, for tho U.S.A. force it is. going to be "heaven,-hell, or noboken by Christmas." Sammy says so.