An Old Soldier's Cottage.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 4 (Supplement)

An Old Soldier's Cottage.

By FRANK SPEDDING. Hinomoa St., Rotorua (ago 13).

I found the old soldier busy cleaning his favourite rifle on the doorstep of his picturesque cottage. It was nestled in the hollow of the valley, just a mile from the small village store. Running up to his door was a cobble-stone path on either side of which bloomed daisies and pansies. The whole side of the house was covered with thick ivy. On the thatched roof above the doorway was a model cannon acting as a weather-cock. The interior was a picture of comfort. Blazing in an open grate was a warm coke fire. On the opposite wall hung a water-colour picture of the King. Three oak chairs, an old oak table and a shelf» on which were pots and crockery, formed part of the furniture. Around the walls wore hung pictures of various designs. In the corner by his sturdy camp bed stood a bookstand of his own workmanship, in which were books by various authors, mainly consisting of war, drill) Bible and many magazines of adventure and daring courage. The mantelpiece was decorated with shells and bullets, and in the middle stood a picturo of the old man taken on the day he had enlisted. A fine man of forty he was then. Black hair, shining buttons, polished legging>> shoes, straps, buckles, belt and numerous other details all helped to create his fi Q ® appearance. As he hobbled back into the cottage with his beloved rifle and sat down in an oak chair ho remembered how he had scaled the steep cliff at Gallipoli and how ho had been shot down just as he reached the top. He had been picked up by stretcher-bearers and carried to the boats. Few people knew this old colonel, hat when I saw him last lie was living peacefully in bis cottage of content.