BILL'S TOMBSTONE
along with us, do, and not bother her. And Oswald, with his usual delicacy and good breeding, made the others do as she said.
But we were not to be thus repulsed with impunity. We made complete but cautious inquiries, and found out that the reason she cried when she saw soldiers was that she had only one son, a boy. He was twenty-two, and he had gone to the war last April. So that she thought of him when she saw the soldiers, and that was why she cried. Because when your son is at the wars you always think he is being killed. I don't know why. A great many of them are not. If I had a son at the wars I should never think he was dead till I heard he was, and perhaps not then, considering everything.
After we had found this out we held a council.
Dora said, "We must do something for the soldier's widowed mother."
We all agreed, but added, "What?"
Alice said, "The gift of money might be deemed an insult by that proud, patriotic spirit. Besides, we haven't more than eighteenpence among us."
We had put what we had to father's £12 to buy the baccy and pipes.
The Mouse then said, "Couldn't we make her a flannel petticoat and leave it without a word upon her doorstep?"
But every one said, "Flannel petticoats in this weather?" so that was no go.
Noël said he would write her a poem, but Oswald had a deep, inward feeling that Mrs. Simpkins
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