It is very well for MacAlpine of Ben Lomond, who has stalked his
haggis and devoured it raw, who beds down on thistles for preference
and grows his own fur; but it is very hard on Smith of Peckham, who
through no fault of his own finds himself in a Highland regiment,
trying to make his shirt-tails do where his trousers did before. But
the real heather-mixture, double-distilled Scot is a hardy bird with
different ideas from _nous autres_ as to what is cold: also as to
what is hot. Witness the trying experience of our Albert Edward.
Our Albert Edward and a Hun rifle grenade arrived at the same place
at the same time, intermingled and went down to the Base to be
sifted. In the course of time came a wire from our Albert Edward,
saying he had got the grenade out of his system and was at that
moment at the railhead; were we going to send him a horse or weren't
we?
Emma was detailed for the job, which was a mistake, because Emma was
not the mount for a man who had been softening for five months in
hospital. She had only two speeds in her rimg-cap-pertoire, a walk
which slung you up and down her back from her ears to her croup, and
a trot which jarred your teeth loose and rattled the buttons off your
tunic. However, she went to the railhead and Albert Edward mounted
her, threw the clutch into the first speed and hammered out the ten
miles to our camp, arriving smothered in snow and so stiff we had to
lift him down, so raw it was a mockery to offer him a chair, and
therefore he had to take his tea off the mantelpiece.
We advised a visit to Sandy. Sandy was the hot-bath merchant. He
lurked in a dark barn at the end of the village, and could be found
there at any time of any day, brooding over the black cauldrons in
which the baths were brewed, his Tam-o'shanter drooped over one eye,
steam condensing on his blue nose. Theoretically the hot baths were
free, but in practice a franc pressed into Sandy's forepaw was found
to have a strong calorific effect on the water.
So down the village on all fours, groaning like a Dutch brig in a
cross sea, went our Albert Edward. He crawled into the dark barn
and, having no smaller change, contributed a two-franc bill to the
forepaw and told Sandy about his awful stiffness. His eloquence and
the double fee broke Sandy's heart. With great tears in his eyes he
assured Albert Edward that the utmost resources of his experience and
establishment should be mobilised on his (Albert Edward's) behalf,
and ushered him tenderly into that hidden chamber, constructed of
sacking screens, which was reserved for officers. Albert Edward
peeled his clothes gingerly from him, and Sandy returned to his
cauldrons.
The peeling complete, Albert Edward sat in the draughts of the inner
chamber and waited for the bath. The outer chamber was filled with
smoke, and the flames were leaping six feet above the cauldrons; but
every time Albert Edward holloaed for his bath Sandy implored another
minute's grace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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