AN INTERLUDE.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 8, 7 May 1920, Page 12

AN INTERLUDE.

(Palestine, 1918.) She was more than passing dirty, and the infant that she nursed Showed no sign that he had ever been totally immersed ; ; But I've always held a baby was a . pleasant sight to see, I So I smiled upon the youngster, and . the youngster smiled at me. j Smiled and flung his little hands out, peradventure pointing at The buttons on my tunie or the badge upon my hat, . Even possibly desiring, ag one who shares a joke, To call mamma's atftntion to that f unny looking bloke. She looked and caught me smiling, and she burst into a flow Of vociferous narration in a tongue I did not know. No phrase that I could recognise, no word that I could "place," But I think I caught her meaaiing from the look upon her face. Yes, I'm sure she told the story that was old in Noah's days, Of her clever little baby and its clever litle ways, And gave an alien stranger all the plain, unvarnished truth Of his first attempt to toddle, how h© cut his earliest tooth. I knew just when she mentioned — I could tell it from her tone — How already he showed symptoms of "a strong will of his own," And how plainly he was destined a pro- ' digy to be j At the art of begging backsheesh (tho ' local industry.) She held him out toward mo with a gosture full of pride; She was more than passing dirty — she 1 was not undignified. Oh, I grant you it is seldom that the perfect son occurs, ! But from Palestine to Paris every mother knows it's hers.