- SELIGOR'S CASTLE -

**JACK AND JILL**

      The book which I have taken this story from is called Merry Tales for Merry Children. It was written around 1916-17 just as the Ist World War started I guess. There are quite a few stories in the annual, and most of them do refere to the war and the enemies that we were fighting against, but I am not sure if I shall write all of them out for you.

      The one below 'My Hospital' is one of the nicer tales and I remember my own sons passing many hours playing with their Airfix* toy soldiers, they used to be scattered everywhere, unfortunately if Misty or Sally found any stray ones they were taken away and chewed to bits. Still enjoy the story below, I have no idea who wrote it for there is no mention of an author listed.

My Hospital.

        My brother Bob is a great general. He has lots of soldiers and every day he makes them fight a battle. He sticks them up in two lines, and then he fires dried peas at them out of a little cannon. He goes on like this for a long time, and then he says it's time for the ambulance wagon to come.

     I'm the ambulance wagon. I'm dressed like a nurse, and I have a red cross band on my arm. Bobstops firing when I come on the battlefield, because  he says, "you must never fire on the Red Cross Ambulance." So I pick up the wounded soldiers and takes them off to hospital.

    My dog Jacko is an ambulance wagon too. Sometimes he picks up the wounded soldiers in his mouth and brings them to me. I'm sorry to say that once he bit off the head of a poor wounded soldier. He didn't mean to do it; but he did it because his teeth are so sharp and he doesn't know it.

     After today's battle I brought in a little blue-jacket with a broken arm. When I had put a bandage on it, Jacko licked him. I suppose he did that to make the blue-jacket well.

I had rather a bad case with one soldier. Bob got his sword at one part of the battle and charged the enem. One soldier had his head sliced right off. But I picked him up and glued his head on quite nicely, and put a bandage over his poor face, and gave him some gruel and put him in bed. Tomorrow I am sure he will be quite well again.

     One thing about these soldiers I don't like at all. They will never give up their guns, but they stick tight to them all the time, day and night. I can't get them to let me put them away in a safe place. They won't even part with them even when they are wounded, so I have to put them in bed, guns and all. Real soldiers don't do that, do they?

                It really is quite annoying

Airfix* brand name for toy model soldiers, amongst many other things.