BOY OF MY HEART HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MCMXVI TO "LITTLE YEOGH WOUGH" A FOREWORD The Publishers wish to state that this is a book of absolute fact--not a work of fiction. From cover to cover it is the truth, and the truth only--a record exact and faithful, both in large things and in small, of the short years of a boy who willingly and even joyously gave up his life and all its brilliant promise for the sake of his country. Even the tragic coincidence of the news of his death reaching his home in the very hour in which he himself was expected there on leave, is what actually occurred. CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER I PAGE WAITING 15 CHAPTER II THE EXTRAVAGANT BABY 26 CHAPTER III THE FIRST STEPS OF THE LITTLE FEET 35 CHAPTER IV THE BOY'S TREASURES AND OTHER THINGS 46 CHAPTER V GOOD DAYS AND GOOD-NIGHTS 64 CHAPTER VI PASSING SHADOWS 82 CHAPTER VII A MOTTO TO STEER BY 100 PART II THE TWO GERMAN GIFTS CHAPTER VIII THE FIRST GERMAN GIFT--A ROSE 111 CHAPTER IX THE WAY OF A BROTHER 124 CHAPTER X THE FEEDING OF LOVE 132 CHAPTER XI THE ANGER OF LOVE 148 CHAPTER XII IN THE DANGER ZONE 157 CHAPTER XIII THE SECOND GERMAN GIFT 194 PATRIOTISM "It is not a song in the street, and a wreath on a column, and a flag flying from a window and a pro-Boer under a pump. It is a thing very holy and very terrible, like life itself. It is a burden to be borne; a thing to labour for and to suffer for and to die for; a thing which gives no happiness and no pleasantness ... but a hard life, an unknown grave, and the respect and bared heads of those who follow."--JOHN MASEFIELD. (Quotation found written in a notebook in the pocket of "Little Yeogh Wough" when he received his death wound, Dec. 23rd, 1915.) PART I CHAPTER I WAITING It is half-past nine o'clock at night and I, an eager-hearted woman, sit waiting still for dinner, with a letter open before me from my son in the fighting line. It is addressed to me in his pet name for me:-- FRANCE, 10.12.15. DEAREST BIG YEOGH WOUGH,--