For Distinguished Conduct

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 41, 5 April 1940, Page 3

For Distinguished Conduct

(By

M. H.

M.

a new recruit became a hero and incidentally, a sergeant, all in the space of a few short minutes, and the only reason it did not get into the papers was the regrettably incurable habit of all reputable mewspapers of putting in a full stop just before coming to the best bits. You remember, or more probably you do not remember, an inconspicuous paragraph about a tent; first it was on fire, then again it was.not on fire, and that was all. No drama, not a word to stir the imagination. If there had been you might have seen-first, a blazing tent, and emerging from it, in no sense unhurried, a blazing Sergeant-Major, the front of his drill tunic rosily aflame. Then in an infinitively split second, a recruit flashing across the greensward, throwing his arms about his SergeantMajor in an abandoned embrace, hugging him closer, closer still, till willy-nilly, the fire went out. no secret and never was, the way Then-a scorched. but happy. recruit stammering excuses: " But, sir, I’ve only been joined up two weeks." And his C.O.: " Never mind about that, my man, you're a Sergeant." Chorus: "And a jolly good Sergeant, 0" (apologies to G. and S.) (Note: This actually occurred at Ngaruawahia about two months back.)