World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
One of the things which most troubled me during the night was the
recurrence, regularly for many nights, of a torturing dream, in which
I fancied I was being rushed into the fighting again, with my foot
hanging on by a shred, and the pain that I felt in my dream, as well
as the terror, would cause me to wake up with a frightened shriek,
but almost instantly the gentle, cooling hands of my angel nurse
would be soothing my aching head, and in a few moments I would be
myself again.
The blessed woman seemed to be possessed of a wonderful intuition,
for never would I want a glass of lemonade, or some other soothing
nourishment, but it was on the locker at my hand before I asked for
it.
The attentions showered upon us by visitors were so many and varied
that it would take a volume in itself to recount them. Some of them
have afforded me a good laugh, more than once. They were all
heartfelt and sincere, comical as some of them were, in their desire
to do something for us, no matter how small the courtesy might be.
Once when careening about on a wheel-chair, amusing the rest of the
boys by my antics, the head sister brought in a lady visitor. This
lady had befriended a Canadian boy before he went to the front, and
she thought the world of him. The lad had been wounded in the same
action as myself, and, learning of his being in the hospital at
Liverpool, she hastened to try and find him. Incidentally the good
lady had some little comfort for every Canadian boy she ran across.
The lady peered at me through her spectacles, and the head sister,
noticing her short-sightedness, came to the rescue with the following:
"No, although this little fellow came over with the Canadians, he is
not the one you are looking for, for he is only an Englishman."
"Dear, oh dear, you don't tell me! Only an Englishman," the old lady
repeated, half to herself and, smiling at the thought, she resumed
her search for the Canadian.
In the light of the detailed accounts given in the newspapers of the
United States and Canada of the splendid work performed by the
Canadian soldiers on the Western Front, it is barely possible that
the lapsus lingua of the nurse may find a responsive chord in the
minds of some in America. There is no doubt it would make an
admirable talking point for German propagandists in the spread of a
certain phase of their humbug.
Another dear old lady, in the fullness of her heart, and thoroughly
sincere, came into the ward one visitors' day. She carried in her
hand a bag of candy acid drops, which is often advised as an antidote
for thirst. It would take a good many acid drops to ease the parched
throat of a wounded man on a hot summer's night.
"Oh, you poor dear boys," said she, as she gravely placed two of the
acid drops on our lockers, "how you have suffered for us! Sometimes
in the night you may get thirsty, and one of these drops will quench
your thirst."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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