WHAT SAMMY SAYS.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIX, Issue 3997, 22 November 1918, Page 1

WHAT SAMMY SAYS.

Sammy is in my ward, and I. like him, writes an English nurse in tha "Daily Mail." His face she describes as "one of the sort that only a mother could love," but somehow, lanternpawed and high-cheeked as it is, it appeals to me. Even more than his face I like his conversation. His experiences daring the war are, I suppose, much the same as those of other men ; his mode of relating them is peculiarly his own. The picturesque imagery with which he adorns his speech may be an old story in "God^s cpuntry"—to me it is a thing of wonder and a joy for ever. He came over "the big drink" some months ago. He had a pleasant voyage, saw no "tin fish," and had plenty to eat —"six meals a day, three up and three down." On arrival at the port they got into "the dinkiest little train ever." Before-it started the captain asked for a key. to wind it us with. Sammy says that personally he intends to take one home as a charm to hang on his watch chain. They went into camp, where they spent their time "hiking" about the countryside. The "eats" here were not over good. They were igiven tea "which tasted like the last water Noah kept afloat in" and fish "that was never caught, but must have given itself up." However, they stuck it out bravely. The one thing that really "got their goat" was hav-' ing to sleep on terra firma. That, Sammy says, is Latin for "terribly hard." Ultimately he and hisi companions crossed to the front. > The country pleased Sammy, but he found'the lan-' guage difficult and the French people slow of comprehension. On one occasion he wanted a pair of duck shoes, so he went into a bootmaker's andquacked—but he couldn't get the old dame "wise" to it. For the fight that put him out of I action Sammy says his lieutenant was responsible. "He was sure tired of i his position and crazy on becoming a' captain of an angel." Sammy was ready enough to help. But a Boch'? shell intervened and insisted on iftnrfing in his name with an application "for immediate transfer to the Fljin? Corps." Hence his presence in hospital. j It is my duty to give Sammy hi r I letters, and to-day, as he read a v lumin us epistle his face brightened t> such an extent that I was forced tv inquire what good tidings had arrived. He hesitated, then grmned. "I don't mind telling you, nurse," he said. "It's my wife wnting, and from what she says I calculate when I get horns there'll be si mething besides a fence runnirig around my little place in Seattle." Sammy goes to-morrow, and I shall miss him badly. He himself is all anxiety for an early return to a front where he anticipates a real good time for the Yanks and a corresponding bad one for "Jerry.' The latter is assuredly up against the "straight goods" at last. Anyway, whatever happens to the English, for the U.S.A. force it is going to be "heaven; hell, or Hoboken by Christmas." , Sammy says so. " '