East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1918-04-06

NContinued from Wednesday,

NContinued from Wednesday
The nurse nodded He came and sat
at the side of the bed and shook hands
with me. He asked as to what part of
the United States ] had come from,
how had got my wounds and what
the nature of them were, how / was
getting along and what l particularly
wished done for me. 1 answered his
questions and said that everything 1
could possibly wish for had already
been done for me.
Thanked by King and Decorated for
Bravery.
81 thank you" he said, "for myself
and my people for your services. Our
gratitude cannot be great enough to-
ward men who have served as you
have"
He spoke in a very low voice and
with no assumption of royal dignity.
There was nothing in the least thrill
ing about the incident, but there was
much apparent sincerity in the few
words.
After he had gone one of the nurses
asked me what he had said.
"Oh," / said, George asked me what
/ thought about the way the war was
being conducted, and / said I'd drop in
and talk it over with him as soon as
was we'll enough to be up"
Then happened one of the great dis
appointments of my life. She didn't
see the joke. She was English. She
gasped and glared at me, and 1 think
she went out and reported that was
delirious again.
Really, l wasn't much impressed by
the English king. He seemed a pleas
ant, tired little man with great bur-
den to bear and not much of an idea
about how to bear 1t. He struck me
as an individual who would conscien-
tlously do his best in any situation, but
would never do or say anything with
the slightest suspicion of punch to it.
A few days after his visit to the hos
pital l saw in the Official London Ga
zette that / had been awarded the dis
tingulshed conduct medal. Official let
ters from the Canadian headquarters
amplified this information, and no.
tice from the British war office in
formed me that the medal awaited me
there / was told the king knew that
the medal had been awarded me when
he spoke to me in the hospital. De-
spite glowing reports in the Kentucky
press, he didn't pin it on me. Probably
he didn't have it with him, or perhaps
he didn't consider it good form to hang
a d. c. NJ. on q suit of striped presen-
tation paiamas with a prevailing tone
of baby blue.
While l was in the King George hos
pital l witnessed one of the most won
derful examples of courage and pluck
have ever seen. A young Scot only
nineteen years old, McAuley by name,
had had the greater part of his face
blown away. The surgeons had patch
ed him up in some fashion, but he was
horribly disfigured. He was the bright
est. merriest man in the ward, always
Joking and never depressed. His own
terrible misfortune was merely the top
ic for humorous comment with him.
He seemed to get positive amusement
out of the fact that the surgeons were
always sending for him to do some
thing more with his face. One day he
was going into the operating room and
a fellow patient asked him what the
new operation was to be.
"oh, ne Salu' III gong 10 nave
cabbage put on III place o1 neau'
TN grow better than the one 1 have
now"
Once in fortnight he would man
age TO get leave to absent himself from
the hospital for an hour or two. He
never came back alone. 1t took
couple of men to bring him in. On the
next morning he would say;
"Well, it was my birthday. A man
must have few drinks on his BIRTH