OUR NURSE AT SEVEN O'CLOCK.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 99, 1 April 1916, Page 7

OUR NURSE AT SEVEN O'CLOCK.

The following verses were dedicated to Sister Beere, Matron'in charge ot the Red Cross Hospital, Skegness, 'England, by a wounded "Tommy, I whom she had been successful in nur'sing back to health. Sister..Beere is J the only Sister of inspector Boere, of I the Stock Department, and Mr, JD'Arcy Beere, ot the Stratford Dairy ; Company. I'm only a poor simple Tommy, In my hospital tunic of blue; But along with the other "bluebottles," I'm eternaily grateful to voir. We're all of us victims of fortune, With an eye, or a head, or a leg; And some of us hobble on crutches, And some of us still lie abed. You have been gentle and kind to us Tommies, Patient, and tender, and grave; And no matter what trouble we give you. You have always been cheerful and brave. •Gentle and soft as the zephyrs I That whisper the leaves of the trees; Tender and sweet as the lettuce We munch for our suppers and teas. Bra re through the weary night watches, When the long ward is silent and dim; Brave when the surgeon is busy, With his knife on a poor shattered limb. . A space, too, for our good doctor, He's patient and kind with us all, And his smile is ever cheery, When on his round he doth call, And now the time comes for our parting, And we're off to our depot once more, With thoughts of the trenches . and dugouts, And visions of death and of war. It's only a grin and a "Thank yon," A handshake, an awkward "Goodbye!" But we carry a memory with us, A memory that never shall die. When the cold, weary winter is on us. And we're keeping our watch in the trench;" With the blood, and the mud, and the cutlass, And the thoughts of our home parting wrench— As we fitfully doze in our dugouts; In the mud, and the blood, and the "slosh," In my'dreams I shall hear, your, voice calling: „ •> ■ .'-,< •"■•■■ "Seven o'clock, Tommy!—get up and wash!" Pte. R. HARDY, 2nd Devonshire Regt. A "Bluebottle" at the Red Cross Hospital, Skegness.