Paste Jewels
PASTE JEWELS PREFACE It may interest the readers of this collection of tales, if there should be any such, to know that the incidents upon which the stories are based are unfortunately wholly truthful. They have one and all come under the author's observation during the past ten years, and with the exception of "Mr. Bradley's Jewel," concerning whom it is expressly stated that she was employed through lack of other available material, not one of the servants herein made famous or infamous, as the case may be, was employed except upon presentation of references written by responsible persons that could properly have been given only to domestics of the most sterling character. It is this last fact that points the moral of the tales here presented, if it does not adorn them.
His life is such a coming and going that he would be unhappy unless you
closed every evening meeting with at least one verse, and on these
occasions, when no one knows whether it will be in earth or heaven that
he will meet his comrade next, it is, of course, impossible to close
without it. And so night by night before each regiment takes its
departure some one starts 494. By-and-by, as the train steams out of the
station, it will be 'Auld Lang Syne,' but these are Christian men, and
they are parting from Christian men, and so often with hands clasped and
not without tears they sing,--
'God be with you till we meet again,
Keep love's banner floating o'er you,
Smite death's threatening wave before you,
God be with you till we meet again.'
They will not forget it, these soldier lads, and as they pass one
another on their long marches across the veldt, unable to do more than
shout a greeting to some old friend, it will be 494; and as with rapid
tread they advance to charge some almost impregnable defence, they will
shout to one another--these Christian soldiers--494, 'God be with you
till we meet again!'
=Off to the Front.=
What stirring times those were! What singing in the barrack rooms at
PASTE JEWELS PREFACE It may interest the readers of this collection of tales, if there should be any such, to know that the incidents upon which the stories are based are unfortunately wholly truthful. They have one and all come under the author's observation during the past ten years, and with the exception of "Mr. Bradley's Jewel," concerning whom it is expressly stated that she was employed through lack of other available material, not one of the servants herein made famous or infamous, as the case may be, was employed except upon presentation of references written by responsible persons that could properly have been given only to domestics of the most sterling character. It is this last fact that points the moral of the tales here presented, if it does not adorn them.