"I should be most pleased to unfold my story to such friends. But I must warn you chaps, it is not a short account.
"Take ya time pal. It beats running in the heat!" said Grrr.
"Truth" added Bob.
"Well, it was as I recall August 1914. I had just returned home from University where I had read oriental languages and taken a first.."
"Huh?" Asked Grrr.
"Sorta like getting a MA with honors for us pal" explained Bob
"That is correct friend Bob. Well, I had intended to continue my studies. The university of Belgrade and a few years in the Balkans perhaps, but of course with England at war, duty first. So it was off to London to offer my services. I took a commission in the family regiment and was in France for 3 years when some chap in the war office got around to looking at my papers and putting down his tea said "Hum.. Fella speaks several languages spoken in the Ottoman Empire. At war with them, useful that." So orders came down from on high. Now from what friend Grrr has told me I know that both of you are students of history and being a marine and a teacher Bob, you will perhaps understand when I say that while I have the the normal fears, I did not, after 3 years,want to leave my place. My men had come, after several years of battle, to depend on me and I on them. But as my old Sergeant, I think he had been Army since Wellington, told me "Ours is not to reason why sur. Orders wuz orders." 'Of course he was right. So it was off to the Balkans I went. England than, as America does now, supplied allies with money and arms and my duty was to visit with the local army officials Russians, Serbs, Romanian chaps, see who was useful and who was not and arrange supply. So you may well guess that being seen as the doorkeeper to the cornucopia of old England, I was well received. I had an abundance of free time, necessity. as those Balken chaps move at their own pace. I was riding across the woods one day when I heard the music of the Rom." "Rom?" asked Bob. "Gypsies pal" Explained Grrr. Larry nodded at Grrr and continued. "well as a lanquist, I fear that I was always more the scholar than soldier at heart, I followed the music to their camp....
To be continued.
"Take ya time pal. It beats running in the heat!" said Grrr.
"Truth" added Bob.
"Well, it was as I recall August 1914. I had just returned home from University where I had read oriental languages and taken a first.."
"Huh?" Asked Grrr.
"Sorta like getting a MA with honors for us pal" explained Bob
"That is correct friend Bob. Well, I had intended to continue my studies. The university of Belgrade and a few years in the Balkans perhaps, but of course with England at war, duty first. So it was off to London to offer my services. I took a commission in the family regiment and was in France for 3 years when some chap in the war office got around to looking at my papers and putting down his tea said "Hum.. Fella speaks several languages spoken in the Ottoman Empire. At war with them, useful that." So orders came down from on high. Now from what friend Grrr has told me I know that both of you are students of history and being a marine and a teacher Bob, you will perhaps understand when I say that while I have the the normal fears, I did not, after 3 years,want to leave my place. My men had come, after several years of battle, to depend on me and I on them. But as my old Sergeant, I think he had been Army since Wellington, told me "Ours is not to reason why sur. Orders wuz orders." 'Of course he was right. So it was off to the Balkans I went. England than, as America does now, supplied allies with money and arms and my duty was to visit with the local army officials Russians, Serbs, Romanian chaps, see who was useful and who was not and arrange supply. So you may well guess that being seen as the doorkeeper to the cornucopia of old England, I was well received. I had an abundance of free time, necessity. as those Balken chaps move at their own pace. I was riding across the woods one day when I heard the music of the Rom." "Rom?" asked Bob. "Gypsies pal" Explained Grrr. Larry nodded at Grrr and continued. "well as a lanquist, I fear that I was always more the scholar than soldier at heart, I followed the music to their camp....
To be continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment