The Ballad of Ensign Joy — Reading Companion

THE BALLAD of ENSIGN JOY

E. P. Dutton & Company

THE BALLAD of ENSIGN JOY

[Ill 9011] IS is the story of

````That I love for each gentle English

````Who jumped to his country's

````By their fire and fun, and the

`````deeds they've done,

````I would gazette them Second to

````Who faces a gun in Gaul!)

|IT is also the story of Ermyntrude

````A less appropriate name

````For the dearest prig and the

`````prettiest prude!

````But under it, all the same,

````The usual consanguineous squad

````Had made her an honest child

````And left her to play the game.

|IT was just when the grind of

`````the Special Reserves,

````Employed upon Coast Defence,

````Was getting on every Ensign's

````Sick-keen to be drafted

````That they met and played tennis

`````and danced and sang,

````The lad with the laugh and the

`````schoolboy slang,

````The girl with the eyes intense.

|YET it wasn't for him that she

`````languished and sighed,

````But for all of our dear deemed

````And it wasn't for her, but her

`````sex, that he cried,

````If he could but have probed

````Did she? She would none of his

`````hot young heart;

````As khaki escort he's tall and

````As lover a shade uncouth.

|HE went with his draft. She

`````returned to her craft.

````He wrote in his merry vein:

````She read him aloud, and the

````Ermyntrude bore the strain.

````He was full of gay bloodshed and

````His flippancy sent her friends

````Ermyntrude frowned with

|HIS tales of the Sergeant who

````Left Ermyntrude cold and

````The tactless truth of the picture

````And some of his jokes were

````Yet, let him but skate upon

````And he had to write to her twice

````Before she would answer him.

|YET once she sent him a

````And her pocket felt the brunt

````Of tinned contraptions and

`````books and socks--

````Which he hailed as "a sporting

````She slaved at his muffler none

````And still took pleasure in mur-

````For a friend of mine at the

|ONE fine morning his name

````Looking so pretty in print!

````"Wounded!" she warbles in

````And pictures the reddening

````The drawn damp face and the

`````draggled hair . . .

````But she found him blooming in

````Grosvenor Square,

````With a punctured shin in a

|IT wasn't a haunt of Ermyn-

````That grandiose urban pile;

````Like starlight in arctic altitudes

````Was the stately Sister's smile.

````It was just the reverse with

````In his golden greeting no least

````In his shining eyes no guile!

|HE showed her the bullet that

````He showed her the trick,

````He showed her a table timed to

````And a map that an airman

````He spoke of a shell that caused grievous loss--

````But he never mentioned a certain

````For his part in the escapade!

|SHE saw it herself in a list next

````And it brought her back to his

````With a number of beautiful

````Which were mostly over his

````Turned pink as his own pyjamas'

````To her mind he ceased to em-

````Sank into her heart instead.

|I WONDER that all of you

````"My blighters were not that

````"But it says _you_ 'advanced un-

`````der murderous fire,

````Machine-gun and shell com-

````"Oh, that's the regular War

````"'Advanced'--with that leg!--

`````'on his hands and knees'!"

````"I couldn't leave it behind."

|HE was soon trick-driving an

`````and dancing about on a crutch;

````The _haute noblesse_ of Grosvenor

````Felt bound to oblige as such;

````They sent him for many a motor-

````With the wistful, willowy wisp of

````Who never again lost touch.

|THEIR people were most of

`````them dead and gone.

````They had only themselves to

````His pay was enough to marry

````As every Ensign sees.

````They would muddle along (as

`````in fact they did)

````With vast supplies of the _tertium

````You bracket with bread-and-

|THEY gave him some leave

`````after Grosvenor Square--

````And bang went a month on

````For Ermyntrude had a natural

````For the least unusual plans.

````Her heaviest uncle came down

````And entertained, at a fair hotel,

````The dregs of the coupled clans.

````To keep the wolf from the

````The economical Ermyntrude

````Had charge of the dwindling

````When a Board reported her

````As--some expression she didn't

````And he left for the Front once

|HIS crowd had been climbing

`````the jaws of hell:

````He found them in death's dog-

````With little to show but a good

````In their fissure of smoking

````There were changes--of course

`````--but the change in him

````Was the ribbon that showed on

````And the tumult hidden be-

|FOR all he had suffered and

````Seemed nought to a husband's

````And the Chinese puzzle of mod-

````For subtlety couldn't compare

````With the delicate springs of the

````To be led with a highly sensitised

````In a slightly rarefied air!

|YET it's good to be back with

`````the old platoon--

````"A man in a world of men"!

````Each cheery dog is a henchman

````Especially Sergeant Wren!