A diary without dates.

  • Bagnold, Enid.
Date:
[1918]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A diary without dates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of California Libraries where the originals may be consulted.

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    before the sergeant used to whip the horses as they got to the jumps, before the sergeant cried out Cross your stirrups ! ? It isn't his fault; there are strong and feeble men. A dairyman's is a gentle job ; he could have scraped through life all right. He sleeps in the afternoon, and stirs and mur- murs: Drop your reins. . . . Them 'orses, sergeant! I'm'comin', sergeant; don't touch 'im this time! And then in a shriller voice, Don't touch 'im. ... Then he wakes. Poor mass of nerves. ... He nods and smiles every time one looks at him, frantic to please. There are men and men. Scutts has eleven wounds, but he doesn't mind the war. God made many brands of men, that is all; one must accept them. But war finds few excuses ; and there are strange minnows in the fishing-net. Some- times, looking into the T.B. ward, I think : It ahuost comes to this : one must spit blood or fight. ... Why don't you refuse ? my friend would say to the dairyman. Why should vou fight because another man tells you to ? ii8