INTERESTING ITEMS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 204, 6 May 1915, Page 7

INTERESTING ITEMS

THE FOUR SONS. They were talking quietly among themselves as I came into the cmll little "commercial room" the soldier, his mother and his father. He wa s a Highlander, and wore, the familiar huff apron over his kilt. Somehow you felt sure h e had been in action, though no bandages betrayed the fact. The father vrxs considering aloud whether he should order some "leomonade," in order as he put it " to get quat o' a wheen o' they coppers." They were pleasant folk.

i "I wonder if Davie'll be bade," said ! the mother, "will r.e has gotten the I wire? I wad think sae." j -\E-100 lang does it take to go frae I Aldarshct to Lanark?" the father aski e.i of his stalwart son. I was able tc •' give the information and thus gained | their acquaintance. > "Ay, Davie'3 the youngest." saW tne | father' to me by wry r>i explanation. j "HeMs been in hospiWi awn? in PerlhI -JiHTo A'y, he got a n-csly kiv/ck. If • i-as in a br/ooet charge, an' he gc&. {'•% fo:'h clawed oJf/y'n. gid'3 an' a in th? othnr that cam' oot in his oi-, na <; }j« tummies! over. fe'la here has boon at. the front since the varra beginning." "Ar e you going ba-.k?" I asked the son. "Well, it's voluntary for casualties," said he, with a swoon of the eyes. "Deed;. ye'v) 8 fmd ,-ncusb," linteßpolated the mother; and then to me, a little T've gr'en fovrtp a'thegither and let some others tak' j their share. Mine's ha s done theirs." ! In her prime I could picture her as handsome as one of Tom Faed's women, but wrinkles had come, and this day the old eyes had red rims. - "Ay, my youngest wa s very severely hurt,"' said the father, stroking the j back of his brindled head. "Oh. there's mony waur nor that," said kilted experience. "There was a fella on the boat comin' name had tae hav e his left ta'en aff, an' he kept on savin' ho ccuM £n J the pain in th? ankle that wasna there. That, was nerves Cc? ye, Jist norves. I-Is was a cheery chap a' the efternoon, but when I passed his bun!: through the nioht, the puir fella was sobbin' like to break his c'rt, Y e see he had bean thinking,'" and if ye're wounded or hurt it disna bear thinkin' aboot." "There's aye a chanc e while braith is left to ye," murmured the mother, with a quivering lip; and, diverting my eyes, I noticed the old man in the arm-chair draw his sloeve across his eyes. The son's face remained stolid a moment, then he spoke. "My mither wa s tellin' ye she gied fower. There's jist three now. • Ma brither has died in hospital here, wi' pneumonia. We're here to bury him the morn." "Ay .... Jim," the father sighed, looking for the image of the dead one in the fire's Jive oai.—R.A.G. in "Glasgow Herald'" ,