SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE INFIRMARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6134, 22 March 1898, Page 4

SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE INFIRMARY.

[By W. PfiTT RlDGErj] (Fall Mall Gazette.) There is brisk anticipation ;jn ,the -.Umg, , riarrcjw ward, this, afternoon, and. $Tumber | Thirteen (revered because she iposs.e.4es a watct. which she kepps under ft£r pillow), passes the' word alqn? that it wants odlj twenty-five minutes to the hour. The scarlet-jacketed women in th,e other beds receive. Mn ''isformatipa, with ji a9.^ of . approyalj and Number Twenty-five, a small boy with his face and shoulders so completely enveloped in white bandages that he looks like a miniature diver about to descend into the ocean to call on mermaids, offers to bet the Ward the sum of one halfpenny that his mother will be the first visitor to arrive. Twenty-five, who is by way of beingspoiled by the women Numbers, is enduring the consequences of a serious burn caused by matches with which he was playing indiscreetly. This was little Twenty-five's true account of the accident given when first brought into the ward and before he had had time to think. Since then the inventive youth has given four separate and distinct accounts of the incident: the first being that a burglar had pushed him into a fiery furnace ; the second that he encountered the injury rescuing a fireman; the third that it occurred while performing the duties of engine-driver on the Underground; the fourth that it happened during a desperate set-to in the Soudan, in which, despite bravery, he had rather the worst of it. To-day little Twenty-five, with only one eye and his mouth showing through the bandages, is too much excited to invent, and everyone else is too full of expectancy to listen. Number Ten lifts herself up by the suspended handle over her bed. " I once had a aunt," says Niunber Ten, pushing her hair back from her forehead, " that had ft first-class situitjgn is a West End hotel, and ■" " You've told us about her before." " £nd she used to come aljd, sej§ me when I was in Guy's with my kMe, aut! ahe never failed to bring m© ——" "Bunch i> 1 grapes, I s'pose ?" . "Twasn't a bunch of grapes, neither," says ; Number Ten, annoyed at the interruption.^ "It was the best part of a pineapple. So there,.clever !" . "How many rel'tives have you got, Ten?" "Goodness knows!" .replies Number Ten, regally. " Ain't sure that I ever took the trouble to co\mt." " Any of 'em comin' to see you this afternoon?" "Bather." "Well to be yew," sighs Number Twelve. "My people are all Devonshire. I were bom close to Bideford." "London's the best place to be born in," advises Number Ten. " Close to Bideford, and it'd cost pounds for my sister to come up to see me. Herd come up if it wasn't for the expense. Lucky enough, my young man, that's porter at Waterloo " "Is it his Sunday off to-day ?" "'Eaven be praised," replies the Bideford young woman, piously ; " yes. What does my head of hair look like ?" A clock chants the three-quarters. Every hand claps joyously, and every face turns to the swing doorways at the end of the ward, although the Numbers know quite well that no visitor will be allowed through the iron gates out in the road until three has struck. A breezy, good - tempered nurse, in her print dress and white apron, having flown down the stairs and along the passage to the street gates, flies back again with the intelligence that there is quite a crowd waiting, and that every one in the crowd bears a parcel, and is thereupon bombarded with urgent questions. " Was muvver there, nurse ?" "Didn't notice my sister, I s'pose, did you, nurse ?" " What sort of a parcel had my young man got under his arm, nurse ?" " Could you tell whether all three of my children was there, nurse ?" The breezy nurse declares good-tem-peredly that she can give no information, and, being further appealed to, states, with a fine assumption of annoyance (which deceives no one), that if another question is askedj she will have the doors locked, so that not a single visitor shall be allowed to enter the ward. Little Number Twentyfive, little dismayed by this extravagant threat, increases the amount of odds on his mother by two to one in halfpennies, and nurse takes it on the understanding that he shall keep perfectly qviiet and not utter another word until she. gives him permission. Number Twenty-five, having thus made his book on the event, rests his bandage-enveloped head on the pillow, his one eye keeping a good look-out