TOMMY’S TALE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 3 April 1917, Page 5

TOMMY’S TALE.

As I sat down beside him in the tramcar I noticed (says a London writer) an ugly scar running obliquely across his cheek from eye to mouth. A lady sitting opposite saw it too, and was staring at it in a fascinated kind of way The Tommy shifted uneasily in his seat and then leant forward. “Don’t look at me face ma’am,” he said, “I know it ain’t pretty; it never was. Look at me uniform, that’s all right. I got that mark in a scrap down Stepney way. Don’t you pity me,, ma’am; I reckon I deserved it.” The lady smiled faintly, lost interest, and presently got out. “Did you really get it down Stepney way?” I asked. “No,” he said, with a cheerful grin, “got it through runnin up against a ’un’s bay’nit in the dark. She’d bin askin’ questions if I ’adn’t stopped ’er. They all ask questions, and I’m fed up with ’em.’ ’ And a great many modest and simple soldiers are in a like case.