It's most awfully jolly!"
Incidentally I may remark that Charlie's father had been completely
ruined by the earthquake, his store not being insured, but the small
boy only saw things from his own point of view.
A certain London West-End church, with which I am connected, has a
Resident Choir School attached to it. As the choir-boys' dormitory is
at the top of the building, every time that there was an air-raid
during the war, they were routed out of bed and sent down to the
coal-cellar. The boys were told to write an account of one peculiarly
severe raid as part of their school-work. One small urchin described
it as follows: "The Vicar woke us up and told us there was an
air-raid, and that we were to go down into the coal-cellar in our
pyjamas with our blankets. It was awfully jolly down in the cellar. In
our blankets we looked like robbers in a cave, or like a lot of Red
Indians. The Vicar told us stories, and we had buns and cocoa and sang
songs. It was all so awfully jolly that all the chaps hope that there
will be plenty more air-raids."
Here again the small boy's point of view differs materially from that
of the adult.
To go back to Jamaica, an acquaintance had returned early from his
office, and was having a cup of coffee on his verandah at 2.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196