FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   >>  
scattered on its ledges. But from this same window, on a winter morning, when affairs were urgent in France, I have seen youth assembled by that wall. Youth was silent. There was only a sergeant's voice in all the street. I think I hear now the diminishing trampling of quick feet marching away; and see a boy's face as he turned near the top of the rise to wave his hand. But look now, and say where are the shades on a bright morning! I went out, a dutiful citizen, to celebrate. No joy can be truthfully reported till just this side of the High Street, where there were three girls with linked arms dancing in lax and cheerful oblivion, one of them quite drunk. Near them stood a cart with a man, a woman, and a monkey in it. The superior animals were clothed in red, white, and blue, and the monkey was wearing a Union Jack for a ruff. The ape was humping himself on the tail-board, and from his expression he might have been wondering how long all this would last. His gay companions were rosily chanting that if they caught some one bending it would be of no advantage to him. The main thoroughfare was sanded, and was waiting for the official procession. Quiet citizens were strolling about with their children, and what they were thinking is as great a mystery as what the populace at Memphis thought when the completion of the Great Pyramid was celebrated by the order of Cheops. In a room of an upper storey near the town hall a choir was singing the Hallelujah Chorus, and below, on the pavement, a hospital nurse, in a red wig, stood gravely listening, swaying to and fro, holding her skirts high, so that we saw beneath the broad slacks of an able seaman. The chorus ceased, and in gratitude for the music the nurse embraced a Highland soldier, who was standing near and who was secretly amused, I believe, by the nurse's trousers. Then we heard the bands of the military procession in the distance, and it was in that moment I saw a young officer I knew, who was out as early as Neuve Chapelle, gazing, like everybody else, in the direction of the martial sounds. Before I could reach him through the press he had turned, and was walking hurriedly down a side street, as though in flight. I could not follow him. I wanted to see the soldiers. My reason was no better than some sentimental emotion; for I saw the original Contemptibles march off for Mons; and was with a battalion of the 9th Division, the first of Kitchener's men to go into the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   >>  



Top keywords:
turned
 

monkey

 

street

 

morning

 

procession

 
ceased
 
holding
 

skirts

 
slacks
 

beneath


seaman

 

chorus

 
gratitude
 

Hallelujah

 
celebrated
 

Pyramid

 
Cheops
 
completion
 

populace

 

mystery


Memphis

 

thought

 

storey

 

hospital

 

pavement

 

gravely

 

listening

 

Chorus

 

singing

 

swaying


soldiers

 
wanted
 

reason

 

follow

 

walking

 
hurriedly
 

flight

 
sentimental
 

emotion

 
Division

Kitchener
 

battalion

 
Contemptibles
 
original
 

military

 

moment

 
distance
 

trousers

 
soldier
 

Highland