The Larks Nest 13 



without waiting for an answer, " will they thrive 

 yet, do ye think ? " 



I see the old 'uns about, sir," says Bill. 

 14 There's a chance as they may take to 'un again, 

 if the eggs be ant to' cold 'owever." 



"Then the Lord '11 love you, Bill," said the old 

 man, quite simply, and turned away up his 

 garden. And Bill went home too ; he told no 

 one the story, but the parson's last words got a 

 better hold of him than all the sermons he had 

 ever heard him preach. 



And so it came about that, years afterwards, 

 as he trudged along that Belgian highroad, 

 besides Polly and his mother and the cottage, he 

 saw the Rectory and the old parson, standing at 

 the gate waiting for the postman, perhaps with 

 news from the seat of war. " I never wrote to 

 'un," thought Bill, "as I said I would, to let 'un 

 see a bit of my scrawlen 



But a nudge of the elbow from the next man 

 drove all these visions away. 



"D'ye hear that, youngster?" said this neigh- 

 bour, an old Peninsular veteran, once a serjeant, 

 and now degraded to the ranks for drunkenness ; 



