ORIGINAL VERSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1917, Page 3

ORIGINAL VERSE.

: 'BILI. MASSEY'S STEW." 1 met him in a hotel just on furlough from the camp, He'd been having several bitters, so his voice was rather damp; • And he wore a bran new uniform, with buttons nice and bright, "Which," he said, "I'll have to blacken just 'before I go to tight." So wishing to be friendly like before we went to tea. I said. "Look here, old chappie, have this alonge with me." Then 1 asked him very gently how he liked a soldier's life. And whether he was single, or did he have a wife? "I'm married, mister, maried, been spliced about a year, And now my wife's gone home again, and I'm a soldier here, "Then as to how I like the life, why everything is new, The camp, the drill, the tucker, except 'Bill Massey's Stow.' That's the fly that's'in the ointment, that keeps us on the rack It reminds a bloke about the straw what broke the camel's back. We get it every blooming day, we dream of it all night, And when we wake next morning, its waiting there all right!"

Then his talk grew very mournful, and damper grew his voice, So I shouted several bitters, that seemed to be 1 his choice. When suddenly he brightened up: "Look 'ere," he said to me, "No doubt we leave that stew behind when we put out to sea, But should we take it with us, take it all the way to France, We'll fire it in the shells at Fritz and make the beggars dance. So that when the war is over and We've put the Germans through, Wc can claim a thorough victory with old 'Bill Massey's Stew.'" -H.J.E. Koru, December 20.