NICKY-NAN, RESERVIST.




CHAPTER I.


HOW THE CHILDREN PLAYED.

When news of the War first came to Polpier, Nicholas Nanjivell
(commonly known as Nicky-Nan) paid small attention to it, being
preoccupied with his own affairs.

Indeed, for some days the children knew more about it than he, being
tragically concerned in it--poor mites!--though they took it gaily
enough. For Polpier lives by the fishery, and of the fishermen a
large number--some scores--had passed through the Navy and now
belonged to the Reserve. These good fellows had the haziest notion
of what newspapers meant by the Balance of Power in Europe, nor
perhaps could any one of them have explained why, when Austria
declared war on Servia, Germany should be taking a hand. But they
had learnt enough on the lower deck to forebode that, when Germany
took a hand, the British Navy would pretty soon be clearing for
action. Consequently all through the last week of July, when the
word "Germany" began to be printed in large type in Press headlines,
the drifters putting out nightly on the watch for the pilchard