Here are the quotations for the coming week (March
11th to 17th):
1. By this time the village was old in
experience of war, and, English fashion, had evolved a ritual to meet it. When
the postmistress handed her seven-year-old daughter the official telegram to
take to Miss Turrell, she observed to the Rector’s gardener: “It’s Miss Helen’s
turn now.”
2. “Go to the stile a-top o’ the Barn field,” said
Mary, “and look across Pardons to the next spire. It’s directly under. You can’t
miss it - not if you keep to the footpath. My sister’s the telegraphist there.
But you’re in the three-mile radius, sir. The boy delivers telegrams directly to
this door from Pardons village.”
3. “You’ve got me on your own ground,” said he, tugging at his overcoat
pocket. He pulled out his copy, with the cable forms - for he had written out
his telegram - and put them all into my hand, groaning, “I pass. If I hadn’t
come to your cursed country - If I had sent it off at Southampton - If I ever
get you west of the Alleghanies, if -”
The sources of this week's extracts (March 4th to
10th) are as follows:
1. (...They clawed,
they slapped, they fled, leaving behind them a trophy of banners and brasses
crudely arranged...) This is from "The Vortex"
in A Diversity of Creatures.
2. (...he heard a
sound as though all the earth were humming...) This is from "Red Dog" in The Second Jungle
Book.
3. (...the old
Queen cried the swarming cry...) This is from
"The Mother Hive" in Actions and Reactions.
Good wishes to all, John R
PS In the New Readers' Guide we have just published notes by David Page on the final story
from Abaft the Funnel, "The Last of the Stories", also
notes by John McGivering on a further story from Land and Sea Tales for
Scouts and Guides, "A Flight of Fact".
