Princess Mary's Gift Book Part 16

_Painting and Drawings by_ NORMAN WILKINSON, R.I.

"OH, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers, With England's own coal, up and down the salt seas?"

"We are going to fetch you your bread and your b.u.t.ter, Your beef, pork, and mutton, eggs, apples, and cheese."

"And where will you fetch it from, all you Big Steamers, And where shall I write you when you are away?"

"We fetch it from Melbourne, Quebec, and Vancouver, Address us at Hobart, Hong-kong, and Bombay."

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"But if anything happened to all you Big Steamers, And suppose you were wrecked up and down the salt sea?"

"Why, you'd have no coffee or bacon for breakfast, And you'd have no m.u.f.fins or toast for your tea."

"Then I'll pray for fine weather for all you Big Steamers, For little blue billows and breezes so soft."

"Oh, billows and breezes don't bother Big Steamers, For we're iron below and steel-rigging aloft."

"Then I'll build a new lighthouse for all you Big Steamers, With plenty wise pilots to pilot you through."

"Oh, the Channel's as bright as a ball-room already, And pilots are thicker than pilchards at Looe."

"Then what can I do for you, all you Big Steamers, Oh, what can I do for your comfort and good?"

"Send out your big wars.h.i.+ps to watch your big waters, That no one may stop us from bringing you food.

"_For the bread that you eat and the biscuits you nibble, The sweets that you suck and the joints that you carve, They are brought to you daily by all us Big Steamers, And if any one hinders our coming you'll starve!_"

Copyright in the U.S.A. by Rudyard Kipling.

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[Ill.u.s.tration: Big Steamers

_Painted for Princess Mary's Gift Book by Norman Wilkinson, R.I._

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A TRUE STORY FROM CAMP

BY THE BISHOP OF LONDON

_Drawings by_ JOSEPH SIMPSON, R.B.A.

YOU boys and girls must picture a huge common, and four groups of khaki-clad soldiers standing at attention in different parts of it. They are about to be reviewed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces.

The men had given up a great deal to come and join the Territorial Forces, but it had not yet thoroughly dawned on them any more than on the rest of England, how great was the crisis, and none of the battalions had come out in sufficient strength to be sent out on foreign service.

The inspection by the great General took a long time, and when the order came for rank after rank to lie down, they did so with obvious relief.

At last the inspection was over, and all the battalions were asked to converge on one point. At this point a waggon was placed, and all the five thousand men lay down round it, the Generals and their staffs lying behind it. It was a fine sight from the waggon to see those five thousand fine fellows lying there in the light of the setting sun, but was it possible to rouse them to see the country's urgent need?

I began by painting the beauty and the glory of England, the loveliest place in the world, for you may go all over the world, children, and you will never find anything so glorious or welcome on your return as the white cliffs of Dover, and the railway run through the hop gardens of Kent.

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But what touched them most was the thought of what England stood for in the life of the world. It always has been, and always will be, the _Home of Freedom_. Let a slave once reach a British man-of-war--he is free.

Britannia's daughters are rallying to her now because she has given them _Freedom_, for they see that she is the champion in this war of the Freedom of the World against a universal Tyranny.

Then I turned to what they themselves owed to England, their homes, their faith, their security to work, their happy friends.h.i.+ps, and their love of wife, mother, and children. What they had not realised up to now was that _all this was in deadly peril for the first time for a hundred years_!

One mistake of our Fleets, one crus.h.i.+ng defeat in France, and the foe would be upon us; the fate of Belgium would be the fate of England!

What more glorious than to follow the example of those who had fought and died for England?

"Nor needs he any hea.r.s.e to bear him hence Who goes to join the men of Agincourt."

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In spite of the presence of the Generals a great cheer broke from the five thousand men when I said, "I would rather die than see England a German province"; but finding that they were allowed to cheer, as deep a cheer followed the statement that, if it came to the last Waterloo, it was far better to slip across the silver streak and fight it on the other side than let an invaders foot _for the first time for a thousand years_ stain our native land.

In the evening all the four battalions present volunteered for foreign service, and as four more at the neighbouring Camp had volunteered the day before in answer to a similar appeal, eight battalions were added to the fighting strength abroad of the British Army.

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THE EBONY BOX

BY A. E. W. MASON

_Painting and Drawings_ by W. B. WOLLEN, R.I.

_Copyright in the U.S.A. by A. E. W. Mason_

"NO, no," said Colonel von Altrock abruptly. "It is not always true."

The conversation died away at once, and every one about that dinner table in the Rue St. Florentin looked at him expectantly. He played nervously with the stem of his winegla.s.s for a few moments, as though the complete silence distressed him. Then he resumed with a more diffident air: