INCOMING SHIPS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21264, 19 February 1931, Page 12

INCOMING SHIPS.

“There now ! You’re as neat as a new pin—if anybody gets a job because he looks fit an’ smart, you’ll do.”

Mr Wiggins said that every time she sent “ her man ” out tipon the adventure which during the last few months had rather lost its spirit. Then they hit each other in friendly fashion. They were both descendants of soldiers, and Willie had been at the Avar himself in the old days, so that bravery had got into a sort of habit with them.

Then a period of some inertia ensued. The kitchen clock ticked more loudly than usual—time seemed to go on crippled feet. ’ At three minutes to 1 p.m. Mrs Wiggins Avent to take a last look out of the windoAv. “He must ha’ been round all the yards he mean to try by now,” she murmured. * ■ ,

As she stared on to the street below she suddenly thought of the time Avhen she had first entered the “close” as a bride. Willie had had quite a fair pay then, and she had thought the tAvo-room-and-kitchen flat he had brought her to, if not a palace, at least as near to one as she had ever-expected to get. . She had worn a hat with pink roses she remembered—her dress was grey. She smiled; it was a pretty dress. Just as she was thinking about it she saw Willie coming home. But four men were carrying him. ..Dead, of course—these motors —or a heart strained too long by disappointment suddenly broken. For a moment she stood quite still, looking at the four men carrying the inert body—the .next she was at the closemouth to meet ; Willie coming home—dead.

They brought him into the kitchen and laid him on the bed.

“ Swounded, mum,” explained one of the bearers. . “We saw him .drop just beyond the gates o’ Bartlett, and Bailey's yard; knew Bill wersels —worked alongside him in Hardings —we were sacked same day as him.” ; Nothing seemed to rouse the man on the bed, and Jeannie was ordered to fly for the nearest doctor. Meantime methods, including even that of restoring the drowning, were tried without avail.

The youngest Wiggins laughed heartily, if in hiccoughing manner, as he dallied with a rattle. Attired neatly, but with brevity, in a smart “ jumper ” made out of an old scarf, and a casuallooking skirt that had been evolved out of some part of his father’s wardrobe, he gat by the kitchen fire beside the family cat, which had a slightly attenuated appearance, the humped outline of its hack rather- more sharply rising from its fur than seemed desirable. As the youngest Wiggins' laughed the cat paused in its ablutions for a moment and looked thoughtfully at Jeannie, the elder Wiggins child, aged eight. The door closed on her husband, Mrs Wiggins hurried to fill the kettle and piit it on the fire.

“Never- you mind, Reginald” (that was the cat’s name),,-“when daddy's ship comes ,in you’ll get fish every other day.” Reginald resumed his toilet with an appearance of doubting about these overdue ships. Mrs Wiggins knew quite well what Reginald would have said, but ignored it.

Willie would be home at the “back o’ one,” and she set to “redd-up” the kitchen against dinner-time, to peel a few potatoes, and to place a really quite beefy bone into a large pot of water. The -time passed in cheerful talk of ships coming in, and other such agreeable things as the buying of new boots and hats for Jeannie, of pew toys for Alfred, the youngest Wiggins.

“Aye, he’s been downed so wi’ them refusals,” said a large man with a red « comforter ” round his. lean neck; “ it’s hard to see a feller sufferin’ so.” “Willie wasn’t like that,” said Jean Wiggins shortly; “Willie was at the war—he’s stood more nor that.” “War’s different,” said the big man in the “ comforter,” passing a bony hand thoughtfully down a long scar on his chcsk. ' Just at this moment a small, timidlooking man in a greatcoat, with sleeves suggestive of having been designed for a party with longer arms, stepped forward. “Please, missus,” he said diffidently, “perhaps Bill swounded because he got a job.” “A look like an electric flash passed over the circle of faces. “ Yes,” cried Willie from the bed, suddenly opening his _ eyes, “ Bartlett’s wantin’ men —two ships— yez’ll all soon be in.” Then he closed his eyes, and smiled foolishly. The small man sat down quickly; he had never been strong, “ The brave soul ! ” he said, “no wonner he swounded when it was for all o’ us he done it.” Jean Wiggins rose up, and with a firm step, walked to the fire and put the kettle on. “Yez’ll all have a cup o’ tea,” she said calmly. She was the daughter of a soldier. In the silence that followed the rattle of the youngest Wiggins sprang like a « reveille ” or as the sound of dry bones , dancing.—Rita Richmond, in the Glasgow Weekly Herald.