“Me”

I was not always polite, not always biddable. The monotony bored me. I despised the everlasting red tape, the sheep-like stupidity. What one did, all did, and because they always had done such and such it meant that they always must.

Doctor McNair was a pretty good sort, if a bit pompous to her underlings, and a bit servile to her superior. Doctor Sally Bottle, I frankly despised for a toady. She licked the boots of the wealthy and fairly ate the feet off a title. She was terribly almighty over week-ends in the San.

I don’t believe Doctor Sally saw people when she looked in their faces. She saw and calculated the value of the lungs in their chest.

I got on with most of the nurses. I loved Hokey and Matron Lovat.

Serious work had been put out of my life but I used to make caricatures and silly rhymes about the patients and staff, at which they used to laugh immoderately. Because of those laughs they forgave a lot of my shortcomings.

Time ambled by, days alike as peas in a pod—sleeping, eating, resting. They kept me in bed for three months. Then I was a ‘Semi’ but I never was a complete ‘Up’. I only went to table for the noon dinner and walked little.

Lament of the Polar Bear

I perished in the London Zoo

Because it was so hot

I used to lie and bake and bask

And murmur at my lot

Oh, had I been to Nayland sent,

I would not now be dead

But feeling quite at home and cool

Instead.