The top of this building is in ruins as shells
are constantly hitting it, but we are down below, and we have
wire-netting to catch the falling debris.
"I was received by a young Major and the Adjutant, Lieutenant Andrews. I
had lunch with them and the other officers in the (Headquarters)
mess-room."
There let us pause for a moment. There are scenes in one's life,
pleasant and otherwise, which one can never forget, which ever rest
vividly in the eye of the mind. There were many such scenes during my
experiences in France and Belgium; but none do I recollect more clearly,
and few with more satisfaction, than this my first meal with the 2/5th
Lancashire Fusiliers. Never was a subaltern given a more friendly
welcome than that which Major Brighten extended to me. I was made at
home at once. Padre Newman, who seemed little more than a young
undergraduate with a gay and affable countenance, but with that
unselfish and utterly unostentatious heroism depicted in every
feature--a typical example of the kind of hero which our public schools,
with all their failings, have sent forth in hundreds and thousands
during the last five years--was placing jolly records on a gramophone
when I entered the little cell; and the mess-waiters were preparing
lunch on a table which had been erected for the purpose.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45