TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11729, 20 June 1916, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A TRAGIC PICTURE. * Sister Martin-Nicholson, in the January " Pearson's Magazine," paints * very moving picture of tho life at a clearing station near tho iiriug lino. " I shall never forget that hall," she says. '"Wo know that tho dawn was coming, for the murmuring ceased a littlo, and' every now and then a fitful fiigh would toll vis surely that the vitality had sunk to its lowest ebbb in this one hour when the lamp of life grows dim, and that quietly with a broken word—" Mother '"—"darling"— some soldier heart had just slipped over the border. " One morning, I remember, cur door flew open, letting in a raw of sun. It fell upon tho heads so near the floor, making a glorious halo round those gaunt faces, and I thought howproud their mothers or wives, their sisters or their sweethearts would' have been of them if they could have seen the stoical endurance with which they awaited their turn. " Passing iu and out among the wounded, I felt ft faint clutching at my overall, and hoard a still fainter whisper:— " ' For Gawd's sake come to me next, nurso." " ' I'm only two away from you, Tommy. I shan't be long.' " A weary emilo broke over the lad's begrimed face, '"All right. . . . SaT S| nurse, 'flve yer seen a bloko wi' red air. my regiment "ginger-nuts," wo call 'im—- pal of mine, ho an' anuwer chum, 'Awkins, was 'urfc yesterday, my turn to-day—l'd' loike to "know ! o"w they're a-doing I Shan't mind this 'ell no much if. I knows as they're orl right!" "I smiled. "' Tlioy are both fltiite all right, so you mustn't worry;,just He quiet and wait until I come to' you." '■ " I did not think it wiso to tell him that his pals "Awkins* and 'Gingernuts ' were, indeed, all right, lying peacefully, with folded hands and closed' eyes, having wended their way Home."