Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-10-05
.Holo Jimmy Nelson
Helped
Blanche Elizabeth Wade.

O4CO upon q lille LueT0 WA6 u uLIle
boy who lived in a narrow street
where the city was 80 cold. SO poor
and SO closely built that nowhere
could she get away from the small
spaces and the high, crowding walls
without going ever and ever SO fal
away-too far to walk, and there was
no money to spare for car-rides. Be
sides, this little Jimmy Nelson was
lame, and that made it hard for him to
go even much Of a distance in the
narrow streets near by.
Jimmy's father was dead, his moth
er worked all day in factory, and his
large brother Dick sold papers and
ran errands, and BACKED boots be-
tween times; SO Jimmy had to play by
himself or with the boy1 who happen
ed to be willing once in while to
amuse him, though mostly they liked
better to be off where they could play
exciting games.
Jimmy was so interested in the war
news that he hardly could wait till
Dick came home after selling his even
ing papers to hear what the latest news
was. He liked to hear Of the coming
of the foreign diplomats men,
beers of the different missions from the
nations over the seas; he knew all the
dotngs of the workers for the relief Of
those who 60 to the front so far as a
little boy can understand such things
from hearing his big brother tell them
to him; and one day Jimmy, who
often was lonesome, invented game
which made the other boys 30 anxious
to play with him that lonesomenoss
never was thought of again.
Jimmy named all the little courts,
and alleys, and areas, and walls after
the names Of the most important
places where battles were being
fought. Walls were hills, the narrow
est alleys were trenches. and there
we're cellar-way dugouts, and the area
the boys made wooden guns and
swords; empty barrels were huge
tanks that can 60 over barriers and
trenches; and all kinds of signals
we're invented. Then he formed a
company of Boy Scouts, and the girls,
seeing what fun the game was, begged
to play as Red Cross nurses, and we're
taken in too. They wore red flannel
crosses on their sleeves, newspaper
aprons, and paper head-dresses, and
a mammoth empty hogshead made a
fine ambulance in which a wounded
soldier might be rolled gently to the
hospital.
In the air the birds were supposed
aircraft. Sparrows were one sort of
flying machine, and pigeons were n
more dangerous kind. Once great ex-
citement came to the camp, when one
boy. who once had been into the
country and seen hawk. spied one
aloft in the sky over the city streets,
circling and circling as hawks do.
Obi" cried Jimmy, when the boy
pointed him out. "He is real Zeppe-
lin" Then he ordered everyone into
the bomb-proof cellars.
Always there were endless lines of
clothes dangling over these many
alleys These were aeroplanes-sarea-
planes" Jimmy called them; and big
brother Dick thought Jimmy bright to
have invented that name.
There were castoff-rubberoversh
submarines, and the old-and-rusty-rain
water.pipe periscopes, and many an
other piece of modern warfare
changed by Jimmy's magic little mind
from it's real, rubbish state to suit the
needs of the game.
Jimmy had Liberty Loan forms
made and everybody did his or her bit
with stray buttons for willingly given
cash. Not one boy or girl In any of
the alleys refused to volunteer to
serve his loved America in some way
or other. It was joyful day for the
girls when they rolled bandages of
waste ribbon paper. and worked by
t11rna at tho Ia hor ovon IL the novf IN
serve had to unroll the paper and roll
it over again, for there was not enough
to last for them all.
There were great professions, too. |
The coming. Of Joffre, Balfour. and vi
viana made an occasion for much |
decorating of the alleys now supposed
to be the course for the line of march;
and later the arrival of the other for
eign men of note made more gala days
for the little patriots, who learned
much likewise, and came to know the
different flags Of the different coun-
tries, SO that they could name correct
ly the country to which each nag be- |
longed.
It was thus that little Jimmy Nelson |
who could not play, as he would have |
liked, the active everyday games all
boys love, brought all this activity to
him. and out Of those mean, grimy. !
shut-in alleys won loyal hearts from
thoughtless urchins who as alley
allies learned true love for their coun-
try.
THE DREAMER.
He used to dream of things he'd do
When grown to be a man,