Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-01-24


business. If you blokes want to hear
this story through, don't interrupt"
Happy vouchsafed no answer.
about ten minutes after the fellows
left for the stretcher French got bull
let through the left arm"
Sailor Bill interrupted here:
''How do you know it was ten min
utes?'
key blushed ana answered:
'French told me when he got back
to the trench. You see, he carried the
officer back through that fire, be-
cause the stretcher bearers took too
long in coming out"
I asked key how Corporal French,
being wounded himself, could carry
Leftenant Newall in, because I knew
Lieutenant Newall TO be a Six-footer
and no lightweight. You see, he had
at one time been in command of my
platoon at the training depot in Eng
land.
key answered.:
"Well, you blokes give me the proper
pip, and you can all bloomin' well go
to h" and he shut up like clam.
Hungry Foxcroft got up and silently
withdrew from our circle. In about
ten minutes he returned, followed by
a tall, fair-haired corporal who wore
little strip of gold braid on the left
sleeve of his tunic, denOting that he
had been once wounded, and also wore
a little blue and red ribbon on the left
breast Of his tunic, the field insignia Of
the Distinguished Conduct medal.
Hungry, in triumph, brought him
into our circle and handed him a fag,
which he lighted in the flame from the
candle on the mess tin, and then Hun
CRY introduced him to us:
"Boys, I want you to meet Corporal
French
He shook hands with all the boys.
key got red and was trying to ease
out of the candle light, when Sailor
Bill grabbed him by the tunic and held
him.
Then Hungry Foxcroft carried on:
"French, I'm going to ask you a
mighty personal question, and l know
you'll answer it. How in h did you,
hit in the left arm, bring Leftenant
Newall back from that accommodating
patrol?"
French grew a little red, and an
sWered:
sWell, you see, boys, it was this way.
Honey and I stuck out there with
him, and, taking the sings from our
rifles, Honey made a sort of rope
which he put around my shoulder and
under the arm of the leftenant, and
Honey, getting the leftenant by the
legs, we managed to get him into the
trench. You know, got D. c. M. out
of the affair, because / was the cor
poral in charge. Damned unfair, /
call it, because they only handed Hon.
ney the Military medal, but if the true
facts were known he was the bloke
who deserved, not a D. G.. M, but a v.
G. Victoria Crosse"
We all turned in Honney's direction.
Bill, in his interest, had released his
nOl0 on HOnneyS tunlc anu Honey
had disappeared.
Happy asked French if the leftenant
had died in No Mans land.
French, with tears in his eyes, an
swered:
"No, but the poor lad went west
after we got him to the first-aid dress
ing station, and next day we buried
him in the little cemetery at Fromel-
les. He sure done his bit, all right.
blime me, and here I am, bloomin' we'll
swankiE' with a ribbon on my chest"
A dead silence fell on the crowd.
Each one Of us was admiring the mol
esty of those two real men, French
and Honey.
But such is the way in the English
army--the man who wins the medal al
ways says that the other fellow de-
served it.
And Germany is still wondering why
they cannot smash through the Eng
lish lines.