LEL!. ERS FROM BOYS AND GIRLS.
THERE is no better test of a charitable institution than its capacity to inspire an esprit de corps in those who have been under its ministrations. If the letters of " old boys " and " old girls " display that feeling and show devotion to " the old place," you may be sure that the institution is doing good work. Judged by this standard, and we are sure it is a sound one, the Boys' Country Work Society, which is also a
Girls' Country Work Society, and. of which Lord Forteseue is the Chairman and founder, comes out with flying colours. In Girls' Country Work Society, and. of which Lord Forteseue is the Chairman and founder, comes out with flying colours. In its last Report, issued from its offices at .7 John Street, Adelphi (Hon. Treasurer, the Hon. Venetia Baring), there in a letter from a London boy who has recently been put upon the land by the Society—for that is its aim and object—which is really priceless. It shows the true spirit of the nation as well as any- thing we have ever read. Here it is :—
" I am writing will you let me join the Army. I hope you will not say no hoping you will say yes I am not .a coward and I don't want people to think so. I don't want to run away but I will unless you let me. I don't want to wait till I am 18 I want to go now."
How Stevenson would have delighted in that letter, and what a glorious proof it is, not only of the eager racing speed of a boy's heart, but of the fact that that heart beats to the essential mood of England. There is nothing sentimental, nothing high- falutin', about it, and yet it is sub-infused with the very spirit of patriotism. Love of adventure and fighting is on the surface, but below we may be sure is the inner mystery, the love of the Mother Country. Suppression does not mean non-existence. How com- pletely does a letter like this give the lie to those foolish persons who think that English people do not know what patriotism is,
and compare us unfavourably with Franco because the French have a greater felicity and facility in expression.
Another delightful letter given in the Report is an " old boy's " letter. He was the first boy ever placed upon the land by the Society. Needless to say, when the war came he enlisted and is now in India. We may read the history of the Society in his manly and tender words :— " I want to thank you for the splendid chance you gave me nearly ten years ago. But for your help I should probably be no more than an anaemio neer-do-weal in London, unable to do my share in this—every Briton's duty. I have never looked back since the day I stood at Paddington waiting to be off to Devonshire to the dear little village where my staunchest friends are, and my wife also. And that is another thing. Had you not sent me there I should never have met her."
A third delightful letter is from a boy who was for about two years on a farm and is now at the front. He evidently must have taken very kindly to the farm life, for note that what troubles him in that awful no-man's-land between the trenches is not the corpses or bones of dead soldiers, but the weeds :— " I have been in France four months, and am pleased to say I am safe and sound. I have been in the 'firing line all the time except the first week. The firing line is a terrible scene of desolation. The country is overgrown with weeds ; trees are shattered ; the farms are in ruins. Behind the lines where we go for a rest, the country is beautiful and farmed in a wonderful way. They cultivate the land right up to the firing line, and even now as they are gathering in the harvest, an occasional shell bursts in the fields."
He, indeed, like Wordsworth's " Happy Warrior," " Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes."
Some of the girls' letters are very attractive, and show how easily the town girl takes to farm life, especially if she is given the care of young creatures. Here is a letter from a girl in Warwickshire :— " I am writing to thank you very much for getting me such a nice situation. We have such lots of animals. We have 80 chickens and about 150 hens and cockerells ; also 12 horses and mares and 4 colts, 3 pigs and some young ones, 12 cows, 9 calves, 8 heifers and 1 bull ; also 3 dogs, 5 cats and 92 sheep ; also we have an orchard with apples, plum, damson and pear trees, gooseberry bushes, rod and black currant bushes. The church round here is very pretty, and a nice little churchyard."
Happy indeed is the Society which has its quiver full of such boys and girls !
It is a Society which must not be allowed to perish for want of support during the war. After -the war it will have the amplest scope for its work. We have given the treasurer's name and address above.
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