WOUNDED BOY'S PLUCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18025, 25 February 1922, Page 2 (Supplement)

WOUNDED BOY'S PLUCK.

SWIMS WITH SHATTERED LEG. PROM WRECKED' BOAT TO SHORE. The right leg of» Walter Johnson, 16, was taVen <>& recently at 'the Paul Kim. ball Memorial Hospital in .lake-wood, New Jersey, which is .'Walter's home town. The boy grinned when lie came out of tho antesth'&tic. Ho told the .surgeons he imagined it would be queer not having two. "regular" legs, but there ought to b« "seme way of fixing him up'' with an artificial one. He was trying not to be downhearted.

Opinion among the surgeons was that Walter was about the pluckiest youth they ever had met. There wasn't the slightest use trying to save his right leg. The day before, while Walter and George White, his chum, were gunning in a rowboat half a mile off shore, at the headwaters of Barnegat Bay a flock of ducks rose, and reaching excitedly' for the shot-gun White knooked it off the scat. It fired, the load from both barrels ripping into Walter's leg and foot and tearing a holo in the bottom of the boat.

Tho boat filled and was down to the gunwale almost More the boys realised what had happened. Walter, in spite of the pain of his wound, kept his nerve, and took command of the situation; White iB two years his junior. ".We'll have to swim," he' told White. " I'll ma'ke it somehow. Come on I"

Walter couldn't move his wounded leg, but he leaned over the side of the 6inking boat and splashed into the water. White followed. Somehow the boys made''the swim ashore in the chill, wintry' water, Walter propelling himself with only one kicking leg. Toward the end White began to givo out, and Walter shouted to him hot to give up. Walter's own progress was very slow. While the shore lino still appeared to the boys to be a great way off Walter'g kicking foot struck a sand bar. Both hoys rested there hefore finishing the'trip 'to the mainland. The cold,water had served to check the flow of blood Reaching shore Walter dropped exhausted,. and White ran off for aid, Rescuers took Walter in an automobile td the hospital, after a temporary dressing had been made and blankets wrapped about his wetplpthes. So far he ha B developed no complications that might have resulted from : exposure. Wealthy folk are taking up a " hero fund" for him at the Laurel Hovse.

Walter has been an important supporting arm for a family left orphans by the death of their parentß three years ago. An aunt took four of the children to her home in Manhattan, but. the others remained in Lakewood to shift for themselves. Joseph, the oldest brother, a n assistant porter at. the Laurel House, marriod and provided a home for Walter and the two younger brothers. The care of tho younger lads has fallen chiefly on Walter, who has been working at odd jobs.