A GREEK PRIVATE.

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 6, 8 January 1916, Page 10

A GREEK PRIVATE.

"The Be* style of lieutenant m«st be rather puzzling to the old Tommies. I heard of one—an ex-public school master --who read Spenser's "Faerie Queen," of all things in the world, out loud in the trenches to keep his men diverted under shell fire," writes Mr. Spender in the .Westminster Gazette. ■

"One must revise one's ideas about Soldiers in these days. Not long ago I found a learned Greek among the last convoy of wounded in Our hospital. He had graduated at Athens, spent a 'year at Heidelberg, sat under Bergson in Paris, fought in the Balkan wars between times, and had come to London to collect another degree when the war broke out, and (being a British subject) had immediately enlisted.

"He was writing a book on the philosophy of epic poetry, arid we quoted Homer together, and he taught me how to pronounce it in the true Greek way. He became dithyfambic about the British soldietj whom lie declared to be the best fighting man in th ye world* and the best of coirirades; I suggested that he might get a commission, but he wouldn't hear of it; he was going'oil to the end as a private, and loved just being a 'common.Boldiei''" ■ ■ •

"Well, Master Jackson," said _a minister, walking homeward after scrvicse with an industrious labourer, who was a constant attendant, "Sunday must bo a .blessed day of rest for you, *ivho *ofk to hard all this week. And you make a good uso of tho day, for you ate always to bo seen at church." "Aye, sir," replied Jackson, "it is", indeed, a Dl&gsfed day. I ■works hard enough all the. week, and, then I comta to churth. a' SumlS.y*, and ,«*V> ,'di«s d.S*S «l«l "Iftj J9JS U#» .»f< kflS