SHORT STORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 54

SHORT STORY.

A CASUALTY.

" Killed. 3843 Lance-corporal John Burn." Tom Burn walked into his mother's kitchen with the list of casualties behind him, and some hazy idea of breaking the news gently to cousin Lizzie ; but when she saw his white face she snatched the paper out of his hand and read it for herself. She did not make a Cuss, as he had feared, but ju?4, dropped quietly into the big chair. He walked over to the window and watched the raindrops trickle down the pancj f6r a, while.

"Wliat'll we say to mother, Liz?" he asked, after a choky interval. "I reckon tbis'll about finish her off. You'll tell her better'n me."

Lizzie did not answer. It dawned upon him that she had fainted. ' So he knocked upon the wall to summon Mrs Green from next door. Meanwhile he bathed her white face with cold Abater, and tried in a man's clumsy way to bring her round. " You ain't got the sense of a hijiot," Mrs Grt&n informed ilia!*. " sgrinjiin' it on

'er like Unit, ai.d them kuepin' cempany Ihi* two ycav."' ■ t was thinkin' most oT mother,"' he apologised, ijizzie opened her eyes and tried to si'y .something, but couldn't. He put his rough hand on her shoulder. " Loul I knows I'm :•' ivy enough for you, Liz," lie im-er.ibly. "I'll go 'up and tell mother.'' She -taught feebly at hi» sleeve. '"Don't,"' she whispciul, ''don't." '' She'll tell her best,"' s?id Mr is Green, officiously. "Men don't, i'eal things like -.vomen."' His fae-e gave a queer coil of Uusl. " JS T ol but wot I des>ay you're sorry." " Sorry !" said he, with a hoarse groan. "Soiry! Old Jack — O God!" He seized his cap wildly. '■ Tom," fjdid Lizzie, feebly. Ho came bick and stroked her hair. Demonstrations of affection were rare with him. "We mustn't toll mother."' " You'll 'aye to tell er sooner or later, my pore dear,' protested Mrs Green. "it she get&--ovei it. ' Lizzie looked app'jahngly at Tom. ■' A week from now it would be a toss up,'' said Tom. "That's what the doctor said.'" Lizzie sat up with an effort. " It's no u«e worrying her til! — we kn.oM."' Tom nodded. There was a feeble rapping on the floor overhead. '" She's kneckin' on the lloor with 'cr stick,"' commented Mrs Green. " Depend upon it she"s "card as there's somethink up." " Tell her he's slightly wounded, Tom," [ said Li/zie. " Maybe she'll think it's a j good thing really^ because it will keep him out of fighting for a time.'" Tom grunted assent and went slowly upstairs.. "Hullo, mother!"' he said. "We've had a bit of news. You mustn't take on. It's nothing serious." "]\iy boy! My Jack,"' wailed the old woman, rocking herself to and fro upon the pillows with which she was propped up. "' ItS very slight, mother, ' he explained, hastily. "Of course it upset me ; and Lizzie took en ; but ' "3.1y boy, my boy!"' ,«he sobbed. "They may say it's ' slight ; but how do tiny know what it'll turn to?" " it's in print, mother, so it must be right." Being unable to lead, his mother had great respect for print. '" 3843 Lancecorporal John Burn, slightly wounded.' 1 "Doesn't it say how? " NNo.c — o. They never do. But it says 'slight' right enough." She shivered. Then she suddenly brightened. " 1011 keep him out- of the fighting for a tjms," she said, with a gleam in her eyes. " I'd be almost glad if I knew that it wasn't very painful." "It stands to reason it can't be," he pointed, out, " being ' slight,' don't you see?" Then ( Lizzie came up with a pale face and a woful smile. " US ridiculous of me to be upset, when we know it's only a trifle, but " The two women cried in one another's arms-, and Tom went downstairs to wash. " It's a fair mess up," he muttered, when he had finished. Then he got the tea ready for himself and Lizzie. As she did not appear he took out hi« pipe to console himself with a smoke. He had halffilled it when he suddenly remembered tha^ old Jack gave it to him. Then he sat down by the table and put his head upon his hands. For a week they kept up the pretence successfully, with one or two narrow escapes from breaking down. Once the mother heard Lizzie sobbing in the kitchen, and took her gently to task for not being braver. " Think how much worse it would be, dearie," she said, "if the poor boy had been killed." Lizzie wiped her eyes and nodded. She could not tru^t her voice. "We ought to be thankful that it's no worse. Come, dearie, let r.ie you smile. You know how he always liked to &cc you smiling." And the poor girl managed somehow to force a smile. In the middle of the week his usual letter came. It was so light-hearted, so hopeful, so full of kindness to them all that Tom's voice kept breaking as he read it. "It queers me to think of the old chap being wounded," he explained, "though we know it ain't really anything." At the end of the week the crisis came. When it was over the doctor told them that she had rounded the comer for recovery. They looked at one another with tears in their ej-es, and said r.othins. Soon they would have to tell her ; but tlioy woiild wait a little yet until she was strong, they said. So they waited for four days. | On the filth day a letter from South Africa j came to Lizzie. "It's no use, Tom. she said, "I can't read it to her, and she'll be asking after it. We must tell her." " Hadn't we better break it to her bit ' by bit, ' he suggested, drawing hard at an vnlit pipe. " I could say there's a correc- j lion in the paper that his wound is dangerous !" Lizzie agreed, so he went out to got a paper. Ten minutes later he came in, with a wild rush. "Hush, hush!" she cried reproachingly. "'My dear little girl," re cried, '" dear little cou&hv dear sister. There was a mistake !" He held the paper for her to read : — i " Correction ; 3843 Lance-corporal John Burn, slightly wounded."' The tears ran down his mother's checks when they told her. " There are people at home as brave as these avlio go to Avar !" she said.