TRIALS OF A HOSTESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23507, 18 November 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

TRIALS OF A HOSTESS

WHAT are the evacuated children to' be called for short? The question is asked by a correspondent, of The Daily Telegraph, writing from a Midlands village. They are known in some places, the writer adds, as "Vacks" or "Vackies;" but it is a point on which the countryside is not, yet of one mind. Perhaps the countryside fools that its new guests belong to too many different species to lie fitted with a general name. They range from "little darlings" to "little horrors," while in between come all shades and varieties. Can ono word embrace every sort of London child?

The fact that in the fifth week of tho great experiment the villagers hereabouts are still tied up with the uncouth word "evacuee" is suggestive. When some homely-sounding term has established itself for tho purpose wo shall know that tho countryside has succeeded in the adoption of the city's children. On tho surface all things look as usual in this comfortable county. Hound tho sandstone church the thatched cottages cluster like chicks about a hen. Between huge elms tho Elizabethan mansion contemplates a pastoral scene that has not changed for centuries. But beneath tho surface unprecedented.; tilings are happening.

Entertaining Cockney Ch Evacuated from London

Three times on September 2, for instance, at the big farm on the hill, the bull was released from its enclosure by six-year-old Billy from Willcsdcn. And on the same day tho expression "I don't mind if I do" was hoard for the first time at Miss W.'s toa-tablo in tho sense of "Yes, pleaso." "Another piece of toast, dear?" was tlio hostess' question; "I don't mind if I do," the answer. Tho expression suggested indifference, and tho child was not pressed further. Somewhere in North-East London one result of the war will bo that, thanks to Miss \V., tho phrase "I don't mind if I do" will no longer bo used to mean "Yes. please." As for Billy, there is no bringing home to him tho gravity of his offence. A new billet had to be found for the young rascal. He appi'eciates his notoriety. To the question, "And who are you, little boy?" tho answer comes: "I'm the chap what let the bull out!" In the market town on Saturday mornings notes aro compared by hostesses from half tho county. Tho village of B. is delighted with its guests —girls from a secondary school at Hackney. All that distresses this village is that the London schoolgirls are like Jack Sprat—they will out no fat. When roast beef comes to tho table only tho lean is considered to bo ediblo. This js quoted in the market-place as an, example, among many others, of tho Cockney's sinful wastefulness. Darker stories come from the village of "S." The guests arrived bringing parasites. "5.," that model village, awoke early—very early—ono September morning to find itself lice-ridden. Tt had probably never been in that state since the Wars of tho Roses; and a visitation of the plague could hardly have caused a livelier shudder. It was ho time for tho formulae of ordinary politeness. Off tho guests of the village must go" then and there to the nearest washhonso to b(5 de-loused. "S." is a placid village, but its housewives that day seemed stirred by a kind of sacred fervour. They declared, as it were, a Holy War, not on tho human enemies of Britain, who wero forgotten for the nonce, but on a subdivision of the insect world.,