Here are the quotations for next week (January 24th to 30th):
1. ...Long before I reached the Gully of the Horsemen, I heard the shouts of the British Infantry crying cheerily: "Hutt, ye beggars! Hutt, ye devils! Get along! Go forward, there!" Then followed the ringing of rifle-butts and shrieks of pain. The troops were banging the bare toes of the mob with their gun-butts - for not a bayonet had been fixed...
2. The clamour might have continued to the dawn had it not been broken by the noise of a shot without that sent every man feeling for his defenceless left side. Then there was a scuffle and a yell of pain. "Carbine-stealing again!" said the adjutant, calmly sinking back in his chair. "This comes of reducing the guards. I hope the sentries have killed him."
3. Five volleys plunged the files in banked smoke impenetrable to the eye, and the bullets began to take ground twenty or thirty yards in front of the firers, as the weight of the bayonet dragged down and to the right arms wearied with holding the kick of the jolting Martini.
The sources of last week's extracts (January 17th to 23rd) are as follows:
1. (... At the end of the garden stood a hedge of flaming poinsettias higher than anything in the world...) This is from "The Son of his Father" in Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides.
2. ('... Ditta Mull says, “Always fresh takkus and paying money to vakils and chaprassis and law-courts every five years, or else the landlord makes me go...") This is from "Tods' Amendment" in Plain Tales from the Hills.
3. ('...I have taken your keys away from that fat foreigner, and sent him away...') This is from "The Tomb of his Ancestors" in The Day's Work.
We had a good meeting at City University on Jan 20th to demonstrate the New Readers' Guide. It was, though, sparsly attended. Would there be any interest in a repeat session later in the year ?
Good wishes to all, John R
Good wishes to all
John R
