Hunched in an ancient beehive chair.
Before me stood a little lad
Alive with questions. "Please, Granddad,
Did Daddy fight, and Uncle Joe,
In the Great War of long ago?"
I nodded as I made reply:
"Your Dad was in the H.L.I.,
And Uncle Joseph sailed the sea,
Commander of a T.B.D.,
And Uncle Jack was Major too----"
"And what," he asked me, "what were you?"
I stroked the little golden head;
"I was a General," I said.
"Come, and I'll tell you something more
Of what I did in the Great War."
At once the wonder-waiting eyes
Were opened in a mild surmise;
Smiling, I helped the little man
To mount my knee, and so began:
"When first the War broke out, you see,
Grandma became a V.A.D.;
Your Aunties spent laborious days
In working at Y.M.C.A.'s;
The servants vanished. Cook was found
Doing the conscript baker's round;
The housemaid, Jane, in shortened skirt
(She always was a brazen flirt),
Forsook her dusters, brooms and pails
To carry on with endless mails.
The parlourmaid became a vet.,