1940-12-17 — Page 7

Night

As I drew near, a strange and improbable sound came out of the the child earth; and I was reminded of Irish | "Loverley dug-out!" fairy-tales, I heard a thin merry the sound of singing:- tinkle of music from the hill, and

"Yes; a loverly dug-out," agreed with wide bluc eyes.

Ba, ba black sheep, Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, Three bags full...

I entered the dug-out and saw. a sight which might have met the eyes of an early Christian in the Catacombs,

In the long, narrow, tomb-like place, my household sat round the child. Upon the floor stood an old nursery gramophone, from whose reluctant vitals proceeded the hearty voice of Uncle Mack Children's Hour.

of

My Gud, what a children's hour!

"Be careful what you say," I was warned. "He's forgotten the

intly i moment to live, and, ny | x-i-r-e-n.” With the pathetic readiness of the light of my torch, went to the a child to be deceived by those he kitchen frusts, he calmed down and was switches. wrapped in a blanket and carried

into the night, cross the paved face into a hole in the hill-side!

I felt admiration for the cour

A Lovely Game

"Isn't it a lovely game, darling?" I heard one say, us dark forms fitted like ghosts in the starlight. "Yes," said the child doubtfully. The hideous wail of the siren had

intense stillness. Yes; I could hear, high up, the hum of aircraft.

in constitutional practice, age and the ingenuity of women. the American Congress lacks this contact with the daily life of the people. The reports of question-¡ time in the House of Com- mons since the war began, show conclusively that in protecting British consti- dled away to be succeeded by an tutional liberties, the sur- vival of this feature has alone been of high value. A Free Parliament and ́a Free Press remaining in active existence, though submitting voluntarily to the necessary discipline of war, are

chief now the outward and visible signs that we present to the

C

It was humiliating to think that, up there near the stars, some im- pulse, or even a sudden jolt, might cause the finger of a young Ger- man to press the bomb-release at the

precise moment when the

and Jurg

I opened a cupizodod and saw some cold sausages a plate. I began to eat one.

OT!

"Was that a b-o-m-b ra g-u-n?" someone asked me, spell- ing the words, so that the child should not seize on them and associate them with fear.

"It was a b-o-m-b," I

-

II

*

Dear Old Thunder

"Gosh! That was near!"

The earth shook.

"Only thunder," said the child happily.

"Yes, of course, only thunder dear, funny old thunder,” we replied. And we looked at each other, knowing that death casually rouming about overhead, near the stars.

was

It is the casualness of death from the air that is so infuriating. You do not kill even blackbeetles by dropping a flat-iron on them.

"Civilisation, 1940," I thought, would be a grand title for us, as we sat in the morgue-like tomb.

When I looked out, I saw the lovely light of a new day trem- bling in the east. The grass was turning green again, and the fields were gold with wheat or white with barley.

The clock said it

back. was fifteen minutes past two. The sausaILE { fasted very good.

"Surely those were G-e-r-m-u-n

The fantasy of that night seem- 'planes the high up ones--ased dispelled. We were like people we came in?"

who had been living under an `evil spell, now broken by the well- "Yes! they were G-e-r-m-a-n." ing upward of a new day. "Noise Noise!" said the child

to

Suddenly, I felt my hand jerk up, and the sausage missed its way my mouth, as an explosion shook the windows; a sound like a gigantic load of coal being un-suspiciously, remembering again tipped.

the ogre-like scream of the siren; and we flung ourselves into ecstasy of normality in order to chase his little mind away from the boundaries of reality, knowing had no right to trespass into one that so young and small a thing

bloody world,

I felt alone and atraid,

Why

was I lingering about like this must get away.

With nerves stretched to meet another explosion, which

I felt must come at any moment I went swittly through the house, out into the pale starlight and across to the dug-out in the hill.

curve of descent would land his cargo of death on this dear and Thin sterns of foxgloves leaned

harmless home.

The bank rose, dark and shaggy

nựt of long grass and netiles.

}

**Now

an

let's play put-a-cake" said someone with a firm, astrin- gent voice, and soon the clammy catacomb echoed to the clapping of hands.

"Isn't it a lovely dug-out?"

And, even as I looked, there came the sound of the "all clear", and I went inside and told them.

The child was asleep. We car- led him to the house and slid him into his cot; and then went back to bed.

In the morning, or rather later in the morning, we learned that "some damage had been done to farm buildings," and that the "loss of life was negligible.”

Whose farm, we wondered; and whose negligible life?

world of one on one Why Bachelors Stay That Way

our faith in liber-

ty and democracy. That

WHY?

AFTER 27 the male begins to use

his head, and it will take an

expert indeed to beat down his panicky ideas.

Bank manager or on-the-dole, all bachelors have fixed obsessions of the worst things that can hap- pen to them.

Ruffy nothings.

THE FINANCIAL SWEEP STAKES

awe a bachelor. He sees it as a race run between heckled husbands to see who can afford the longest autor

• mobile, the biggest front · Lawn and the most expensive fur coat. BEING * TIED -DOWN-. promptly puts away in mothballs all the Errol Flynn adventures most bachelors plan to have. He's scared to death of designing females in ruffles and taffeta who talke about regular meals and an anchorage. He's more scared of a "homebody" than a dozen rattle- snakes and thinks of marriage as making his life's adventures no more than a series of leaks in the roof and furnace trouble,

they should remain in be- Between the ages of 20 and 27 bottles, old magazines are all a likes to keep at least some things | which he would be conscripted to

man is most susceptible. ing and command a high plunge in headlong, eyes

He'll part of his precious sanctum sano- to himself. That's why he joins All in at bridge or negotiate, a blind.forum. With the invasion of a wo- Secret Societies and hides in his non-aggression pact with the measure of public respect But after 27, scepticism sets in man, man sees all these cherished club. They give a man something outraged cook.

"Reasonable Hours" belongings whisked inlu the hall to keep to himself (besides his is the main guarantee of along with

and the bachelor goes into hiber closet for "sale 'the pledge which the nation,

keeping," to be | pipe). He becomes as shy of replaced in prompt order by glass RUNNING A BOARDING Prime Minister authoris marriage as buying a new hat-gadgets, white lampshades, and HOUSE... for his wife's rela- tives is a formidable thought for HIS WIFE LETTING HER.

any bachelor who may be barėly† SELF GO... as soon as she is used to keeping one room under safely and securely married, control. A mother-in-law may wearing the same old hair-do in drop in for tea and stay for the spite of any new styles that winter and spend it prying with might come along, and making | hird-like curiosity into closets and his marriage as dated as a 1929 dusty corners. A brother-in-law, hoping to be set up in business, TWINS

THE parks himself on them until he may be a fent "gets on his own feet.". The him under- thought of coming home every evening to an elongated table of hungry relatives is a scary pros- pect to a bachelor who may be as brave as a lion at his office or the Grand Sachem at the lodge.

AN ARMY OF CREDITORS A MEAL TICKET: ....... Hơe swooning down on his doorstep_to heard that women plan mar-attach his furniture is a regular rlage like going to market to bachelor's nightmare. As a bache- buy a cabbage. He's scared he'ì! | Ior he just manages to keep out of be the cabbage that some wo- | debt, but married he'd feel as un- man sizes up to see if he can balanced as the Federal budget in feed the family.

election year.

mea-

car,

IN

ed Sir Archibald Sinclair to broadcast that it was the policy of Government "to preserve in all essen- tials a free Parliament and a free Press, that all

LOSING HIS FRIENDS. At HAVING those emergency

bachelor dinners the bridegroom || FAMILY sures which restrict the is always spoken of in the past which would make liberty of the subject shall tense. "What a good fellow he used standably proud, but the prospect disappear with the pass-old days?" All this, of course, is a after

to be!" "Didn't we have fun in the of a family of four on his hands the first year makes him ing of the emergeney, and good joke, but it firmly fixes in a doubly cautious. He sees the the bride- serenity of his home upset by a that the new offences bachelor's mind that

groom will never see his friends long series of howls, food formu- created by regulations un- again and that marriage is as las, diapers, clothes lines, clothes

pins, and warming milk bottles. der the Emergency Pow-final as going to war,

WRONG CHOICE... A bache- HIS SAVINGS GO UP IN ers Act and the extraor- lor can't make up his mind on any SMOKE and disappear like dinary powers entrusted one girl. The girls he couldn't live Free Lunch in Scotland with the without ten years ago have money he's been saving for fish- to the Executive will van- changed so much that now heing rods, vacations, golf clubs, and

A SUDDEN METAMOR- ish with the advent of vic- wouldn't be caught out with them. old age. They vanish overnight

PHOSIS ....... of the lady of his He squirms at his narrow, escape, into brown Inoleum, a gas stove

dreams. He's afraid that the tory and peace."

How does he know that to-day's and a three-plece suite.

solgnes woman who made his There is a gloomy spe-choice may not be to-morrow's{ BEING FOUND OUT. is

heart stop boating might change culation which represents mistake. He may be drawn be- one of the most unfortunate mo-

into the kind of frumpy tright tween a young girl with slenderments in a love affair or marriage,

he't seen laying down the law democracy as helplessly charms, or a dowager with a fat When the little lady stops coding

to bewildered-husband.. bank account. He's afraid caught in a trap by war either choice may be a wrong one and begins seeing through, his that about really "understanding him"

TURNING INTO A BUTLER ... for some young lady who, Either, it is argued, it will

Bo, he doesn't choose. alibis it's a sure sign she has his

once married, will relax and fully be defeated in war or des-

MARRYING A BRIDGE CLUB number. It's a plain signal that

expect to coast through life on a is a big proposition. Will he he's no longer the dashing Don

wave of luxury. He sees himself troy itself in winning a come home every evening to find Juan.of courtship days, but the

donning on an apron and cooking war. The Prime Minister bevy of women in complete oc-pladding John Smith of marrings HAVING SOMEONE TO TALK his breakfast, airing the dog and TO INCESSANTLY.... He won dashing off to the office to make shows the way out of this cupation of His living-room like days.

the Soviets in Poland?

ders if he can think of something the wherewithal to meet the bills. supposed impasse. If Par-

Interesting to say to a womasi HIS WIFE, BEING SMARTER. liament permitted itself

every day of his life or if they THAN HE ...,” might turn out to PROPOSING. at all-terrines will just sit and stare at each be the case. Man is afraid to play to be extinguished in war, the general heading of hobbies and a man.. He never auffery more | other.

St. second fiddle to a woman, Sup- to be silenced or fall into souvenirs: Class pictures, whisky gorrised, suspense as during the '.-- BEING DOMINATED

is pose after marriage she continued few minutes when he is waiting the most common marital fear of ❘ to be Miss Jones, Head of the Staff, desuetude on the order of served the essentials of for a girls answer to a proposal all bachelors. It keeps more men earning more than he while his the Executive, the recov- freedom and used its she has been waiting for years for away from the altar than locked salary just takes care of the gas church doors. The bachelor is bill. Or suppose, she were the up- ery of its liberties at the powers in such a way as HISPRIVATE THOUGHTS . afraid the sweet little feminine and-coming *president of the local end of the war would be to carry the support and become an open book when whisp might become a little dicta- garden club while he still be a slow and painful, per-respect of the public will him with quailons and pol

Curious Ittle lady begins prod for overnight, partition his cher-lieved that the Hardy Asters were ished belongings Lands wage the new next-door neighbours; haps impossible, task for be irresistible when it de-into his mental, corners.

mechunised: war with a vacuum and the peonies, the workers of cleaner on everything be wanted | Maxico. a long period to come. But mands the restoration of himself punchingin time

lata, left alone. He sees himself: De 4 And Anally-Havli Parliament which has pre- its liberties:

minority, rele

a dén from around

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO HIS collects all sorts of junks, under POBSESSIONS? The bachelor

him to make, "s

even him: modri kistian und", unimportant activ

A PUNCTURED EGO frightens bachelors thinking of marriage. Very often a bachelor thinks of himself as a Tyrone Power and his success with the lady of his choice due to no less than his irresistible charm. It would shock him to death to really so much due to his charms as the find out that his success was not

fact that the little Indy was just beginning to question the desix- ability of a lifetime behind Ale cases anyway.

woman