"Oh no! why should I hit him? I couldn't speak his 'lingo,' and he couldn't speak mine, so I smiled at him and he smiled back at me. Then I offered him a cigarette, and he offered me one of his, and we were the best of pals all the journey."
That is it, the man who had shot the British soldier, and the man who had been shot by his pal, the best of friends! After all, why should not nations emulate the example of their soldiers?
Aye! They have seen suffering—these men—and they have risen superior to it, and speedily they forget the suffering, but they never forget a kindness shown. As Private Simmons of the 1st Cameronians says: "I have seen hell, for I have seen war, and I have seen heaven, for I have been in hospital."
They are worth all that is being done for them—these splendid fellows—and still they go on singing, the words that Mr. Robert Harkness has recently written for them:
Sometimes the clouds hang heavy and low,
Nor can we see each step as we go;
No silver lining the cloud doth bestow.
Are we down-hearted? No!
Bravely we march in the battle of life.
Fierce is the conflict, the turmoil, and strife;
Fraught with such peril, danger so rife,
Are we down-hearted? No! No! No!