A CHEERFUL OFFICER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 107, 6 May 1916, Page 7

A CHEERFUL OFFICER.

“My chief consolation at this moment is the knowledge that I can’t possible be sent on leave for another three months .anyhow,” says an officer, formerly a member of the London “Daily Express” staff, in a letter from the trenches to a friend at home. “I go to bed every night rejoicing in the thought that I’m being paid to lead a life which I would cheerfully pay large sums (if I had ’em) to lead. I take my 8/6 (plus field allowance) every day and I shall continue to take it. Sometimes I almost persuade myself that I earn it, too.

“Anyway, this is a right joyous life, and I’m hanged if I can understand why anybody needs persuasion to lead it. I don’t know whether I would rejoice quite so much if I were in the infantry—unless I had a machine gun section. But to sit in a puddle and see your gun chuck tons of real estate about when you press a button is simply glorious. “When wo were kids nobody let us sit in puddles. If we smashed anything we were treated to lectures and the soles of slippers. Now we can’t sit in anything but puddles, and Ave have free license to smash every d tiling in sight; and yet, with all our childhood's dreams come true, some of us aren't satisfied. There are actually some fellows who hope the war will soon be over.”