"Ye're the first person that's ever hinted t'me that there's anythin' proivate about this foight. Ain't the Russhin, an' the Prushin, an' the Frinch, an' the Eyetalian, an' aven the Turk in this foight? Is there any just raisin whoy an Oirishman shouldn't butt in, too?" he asked in an injured tone. "But ye've intherrupted me strain of thought."
"Beg pardon."
"Don't mintion it. Oi was goin' to say that, though Oi've hated the Englishman all me loife, Oi'd be afeard to live in his counthry, fer Oi'd get to love him. He's got such a dape sinse of humor. Whoy he praises ye Canadians till he actially makes ye belaive ye're winnin' the war, wid yer two or three hundred thousand min, whoile he's got a couple of million in the field."
"Who took Vimy Ridge, Kelly?"
"We did, sor, we Canadians, wid fifty to sixty percint of British born loike mesilf. An' a damn foine bit o' fightin' it was, too. Sure, truly, sor, Oi wouldn't belittle it fer anythin'. But Vimy Ridge is on'y a couple o' miles long, an' British troops are defindin' somethin' loike a hundred and fifty moiles, an' most o' that is held boy English troops, wid a scatthering of the hated Oirish and Scotch. Look at the casialty lists over a period an' ye'll foind who it is that's doyin' fer liberty. It's mostly the English and the Frinch as fer as Oi kin see. The Canadians have done nobly, sor, no one could denoy it, but they mustn't think they're winnin' the war all boy thimselves.
"The las' toime Oi was in Lon'on, the funniest comedy Oi seen was a couple of young Canadian officers on a bus tellin' an edicated Englishman how the Empire should be run. An' the Englishman listened without aven crackin' a smoile, whoile they criticoized Lon'on fer not havin' a straight street, an' fer havin' old-fashioned busses; an' Lide George fer his lack of firmness wid Oireland; an' so on, an' so on. An' the Englishman listened as if they were the woise min o' the aist, bowin' his assint to all their talk; an' at last he said, wid a long face:
"'There's no doubt you young gintlemen are roight. If we had a few more min loike the Hon. Mr. Hughes of Australia an' Sir Sam Hughes of Canada, we'd be in better shape now. Oi'm very happy to have met yez'.
"An' he shook their hands an' left, whoile they swallied what he said, bait, hook, loine, an' all. So Oi slips up to thim, an' salutin', Oi says:
"'Beggin' yer pardon, sors,' says Oi, 'but Oi happin to know who that man was. It was Lord Rothchoild, the great international banker.' It may have bin the Imperor of Choina, fer all Oi know. But they swallied that, too, an' ignorin' me, one says, 'An' he shook hands wid us!' an' on their faces was a bland smoile of choild-loike satisfaction.
"Oh, ye Canadians are great snobs, so ye are. Whoy Oi've heard yersilf laud to the skoies the noble part taken in the war be the blue-bloods of England. Sure ye're just as big a snob as any of the others. Er—Oi—Oi beg yer pardon, sor, Oi'm sorry fer sayin' it."