Part 32 (1/2)
”Absolute terrors,” declared everyone, but I liked them
Many of the children were middle class, children of doctors, lawyers, architects, and so on; nice kiddies they were The bigger girls could speak English, and I used thelish escort took charge The first task was lish doctors and four or five Dutch doctors prepared for action Our job was to marshal the kiddies, help them to take their shi+rts off, and then bundle them into the inspection room It sounds easy, but it was a weary business You looked down the list for No 258, and you found a name
”Mitzi Dvoracek!” you called, and wondered whether a boy or a girl would appear There was no answerand an hour later you found a little girl who had lost her identity card, and you concluded that she was Dvoracek, but she wasn't; her na that
I was greatly troubled by their questions Following awith garrulous Dutches, I answered ”Ja” and ”Nay” alternately Many of the children stared at me in wonder and I marvelleduntil I discovered thatme the way to the lavatory After that I just pointed to a door in the hen a boy asked me a question, and when one lad didn't seem to understand, I took hih the door Then I found that he had been asking the ti to questions after that
The children had all been examined, and one lad stood alone; he had no card and no one could place him Then he confessed that he was a stoho had been too old to join the batch, and had boarded the train quietly at Vienna Mrs Ensor, the secretary of the Fa that she would take hiood Dutch folk also rose to the occasion, and went out and bought him a pair of short trousers
In the afternoon I sat down beside a few boys And then I did a fatal thing A boy dropped his pencil and I picked it up, threw it over the houseand then produced it from another lad's pocket That did it In two seconds I had a hundred children roundatly told her to explain to theust followed, and I was on the point of losing ot the lady to explain to theh ed reat time One lad beat me, but then he had toothache, a blistered heel, and was ho to s of their hoerly and as well as the girls In England boys usually hate singing I s, and one of the girls explained to s; more than that, every school has the sa a hundred miles apart e 67 of e are you at?”
They de_, and, by special request, _Tipperary_ Then I asked thean it, but the children did not follow her Atit because now they feel that they have no Austria left to sing about”
A , and they rushed indoors, for it was the voice of their beloved Ministry of Health doctor, who had brought theot me at once and left meall but one Little Hansi put her wee hand in led closerand that's why I love her so verythey all took up their packs, and we set off for England via the Maas boat and station We packed into carriages and set off There was no water on the train, but we laughed and said: ”We'll be in Flushi+ng in two hours! We are a special!” We were We left the Maas station at one o'clock, and we travelled until three
Then we drew upand found ere back at the Maas station
Where we had been I don't know, but it was the biggestpast picturesque villages where woave us water to drink
And at eight o'clock we reached Flushi+ng all very weary and extreood meal set out on white tablecloths, and the doctor and I had the best Pilsener of our lives We handed over the kiddies to the shi+p stewards and the fresh escort froland, and retired to rest
I awoke at six and found that all the children were on deck, and the bad English boy alround and his head far doards the water He was looking for fish, he said None of the children had seen the sea before, but I think they were too tired to be excited about it They did become excited when they saw the cliffs of Dover
Much tothe_ on the way over I was annoyed because I kneas a piece of jingoism meant for the journalists at Folkestone When we drew up at the pier, sure enough the gentleirls who could speak English sang _God Save YOUR Gracious King_ I thought it a beautiful touch; the finest piece of good taste I have ever come across
I didn't like the well-dressed ladies who ca around at Folkestone Frankly I was jealous As I was leading the children off the steamer, one of them touched me on the arm and asked me to make way for the children And I sed soet in front of the camera
We took the children to Sandwich by rail and then to a ca the lorry, but after six trips I found that every child was in ca with self-satisfaction at all I had done, I lit a cigar and walked outside A gentleman passed me
”Are you a worker?” he demanded
”I--er--I suppose I am--in a way,” I said ht find so to do?” he asked
”There's plenty to do, you know”
Then for the first time in my life I understood the old Mons Ribbon men who used to annihilate the recruit with the terse phrase: ”Afore you came up!”
The pressmen passed by, a dozen of them with the stoay in their midst Presently they posed him and a dozen cameras snapped while a cinema burred And next day the papers told a romantic story; the stoay had crept into the train at Vienna, and, foodless, had hid until he arrived in Rotterdam Then darkly he had crept on board the shi+p and had been discovered at Folkestone Also when next day I saw in the pictorial papers a photograph of a boy violinist playing to his chums, I was not very much surprised to find the title of the photo was: _The Stoay Entertains His Companions_ As a matter of fact, the fiddler wasn't the stoay at all, but this incident makes es one boy into another, ein our history Henry VIII may only have had one wife, and the reporter who interviewed hi with the journalistic touchHarold being shot through the eye at the Battle of Hastings urative expression that Willia the account of the landing of the Austrian children, can I believe the tale of theinto the water to lead the Nor And as for the tiland expects every man to do his duty,” I don't believe they were ever uttered--not now
I a out journalists as special misreporters Not one of us can report an incident truly There is a good exay and Everyday Life_, just published Swift prepared a stunt as a test for his adult class In the midst of a serious lecture two men and tomen students created a disturbance outside in the lobby, then they burst into the room One held a banana pistol-wise at another's head Swift dropped a toy bo: ”I' a brick, and all yelled and made much noise The class was seriously alarmed until they were assured that the whole affair was a put-up job Each student was asked to write an account of what had happened, and the result of their atte that the reader becomes uncertain whether any witness in a law-court ever tells the truth Few, if any, students could identify one of the wranglers; every account said that the banana was a real pistol; only one or t the brick drop The strangest thing was that many were quite sure of the identity of the actors
and one or two of the accounts nae I write froiven