Between You and Me

Between You and Me

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Between You and Me, by Sir Harry
Lauder This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
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Title: Between You and Me
Author: Sir Harry Lauder
Release Date: April 3, 2004 [EBook #11765]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETWEEN
YOU AND ME ***

Produced by Geoff Palmer, Berkeley, California

BETWEEN YOU AND ME
By
SIR HARRY LAUDER
Author of "A Minstrel in France" NEW YORK
THE JAMES A. McCANN COMPANY 1919
_This book is dedicated to the Fathers and Mothers of the Boys who
went and those who prepared to go._
"ONE OF THE BOYS WHO WENT"
Say, Mate, don't you figure it's great To think, when the war is all over,
And we're thro' with the mud-- And the spilling of blood, And we're
shipped back again to old Dover; When they've paid us our tin And

we've blown the lot in, And our very last penny is spent, We'll still
have a thought, if that's all we've got: Well, I'm one of the boys who
went.
Perhaps, later on, when the wild days are gone And you're settling
down for life-- You've a girl in your eye, you'll ask bye and bye To
share up with you as your wife-- Then, when a few years have flown
And you've got "chicks" of your own And you're happy, and snug, and
content, Man, it will make your heart glad When they boast of their
Dad-- My Dad--He was one of the boys who went.

BETWEEN YOU AND ME

CHAPTER I
It's a bonny world, I'm tellin' ye! It was worth saving, and saved it's
been, if only you and I and the rest of us that's alive and fit to work and
play and do our part will do as we should. I went around the world in
yon days when there was war. I saw all manner of men. I saw them live,
and fight, and dee. And now I'm back from the other side of the world
again. And I'm tellin' ye again that it's a bonny world I've seen, but no
so bonny a world as we maun make it--you and I. So let us speer a wee,
and I'll be trying to tell you what I think, and what I've seen.
There'll be those going up and doon the land preaching against
everything that is, and talking of all that should be. There'll be others
who'll say that all is well, and that the man that wants to make a change
is no better than Trotzky or a Hun. There'll be those who'll be wantin'
me to let a Soviet tell me what songs to sing to ye, and what the pattern
of my kilts should be. But what have such folk to say to you and me,
plain folk that we are, with our work to do, and the wife and the bairns
to be thinkin' of when it comes time to tak' our ease and rest? Nothin', I
say, and I'll e'en say it again and again before I'm done.
The day of the plain man has come again. The world belongs to us. We
made it. It was plain men who fought the war--who deed and bled and
suffered in France, and Gallipoli and everywhere where men went
about the business of the war. And it's plain men who have come home

to Britain, and America, to Australia and Canada and all the other
places that sent their sons out to fight for humanity. They maun fight
for humanity still, for that fight is not won,--deed, and it's no more than
made a fair beginning.
Your profiteer is no plain man. Nor is your agitator. They are set up
against you and me, and all the other plain men and women who maun
make a living and tak' care of those that are near and dear to them.
Some of us plain folk have more than others of us, maybe, but there'll
be no envy among us for a' that. We maun stand together, and we shall.
I'm as sure of that as I'm sure that God has charged himself with the
care of this world and all who dwell in it.
I maun talk more about myself than I richt like to do if I'm to make you
see how I'm feeling and thinking aboot all the things that are loose wi'
the world to-day. For, after all, it's himself a man knows better than
anyone