The Timid Hero.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 915, 25 January 1918, Page 23

The Timid Hero.

A military inedieal officer, speaking in Melbourne the other day, stated that he had met with numerous cases of men who had proved themselves absolutely, fearless in the field as nervous as schoolgirls in the face of a minor operation in the hospital: I met him: on the stairs to-day. • He held his jaw, his face was grave. Three years ago he went away The foe to meet in deadly fray, And proved himself a warrior brave. An empty sleeve across his breast The young Australian hero bore. A dozen sears, that he possessed ~ Were proof enough he'd stood- the test, The pain and penalty of war. Now pale he,stood and tremulous , , "I oan't," he) said, "I- lack the pluck." ' "Why make thi^ : unheroic. fuss," Cried I, "and sigh, and shiver thus— / You who- have faced the German ' ruck?" • ' x 'That's, different. I don't mind guns— These stairs I cannot face Geewhizz ! He's got me cowed. The other ones, Well, they were only bloomin' Huns, But this here bloke a dentist is!" —Melbourne "Punch.'.'