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Updated: May 23, 2025
Grandma shook her head mournfully at the degeneracy of the age, while sister Anna spoke sneeringly of Mr. Talbott's cracked piano. Next day, arrayed in my Sunday red merino and white apron a present from some cousin out West I went to see Carrie; and truly, the music she drew from that old piano charmed me more than the finest performances since have done.
Laignier, the sergeant mechanician, was sitting in a sunny corner of the hangar, reading the "Matin," just as I had left him. Lieutenant Talbott's only comment was: "Don't let it worry you. Better luck next time. The group bagged two out of four, and Irving knocked down a Boche who was trying to get at you. That isn't bad for half an hour's work."
Unfortunately for my ease of mind, there were no comrades present with whom I could have conversed in this way. Miller was within five hundred metres and saw me all the time, although I didn't know this until later. Talbott's instructions were, "If you get lost, go home" somewhat ambiguous. I knew that my course to the aerodrome was southwest.
The two patrols of protection left the field exactly on schedule time. At 10.35, Irving, Drew, and I were strapped in our machines, waiting, with our motors turning ralenti, for Talbott's signal to start. He was romping with Whiskey. "Atta boy, Whiskey! Eat 'em up! Atta ole lion!" As a squadron leader Talbott has many virtues, but the most important of them all is his casualness.
Then, if he is an honest old airman whose memory is still unimpaired, the young one who has been listening will have sober second thoughts. "I'm looking for two balloonatics," said Talbott, as he came into the messroom; "and I think I've found them." Percy, Talbott's orderly, Tiffin the steward, Drew, and I were the only occupants of the room. Percy is an old légionnaire, crippled with rheumatism.
As the day drew to a close I was posted at the window to telegraph as soon as "Cap'n Howard's" white horses appeared over the hill. They came at last, but the long box in his wagon told no secret. Father, however, explained all, by saying that he had bid off Mr. Talbott's old piano for seventy dollars!
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