JENNY
For the delightful diversion which little Jenny, with her frolics and gambols, provided for the A.S.C.’s when they really had a moment to spare another medium will have to be sought. Though of short duration, her life appeared a charmed one whilst it lasted. Her freedom of action was the envy of every soldier along the beach. Her disregard for the enemy’s bullets and shells commanded our unbounded admiration. But whether her immunity for six months was due to the kindness of the Turks or their bad shooting, or her own good judgment, who can say?
Jenny’s origin is enveloped in some obscurity; but it is said that with her parents, Murphy of Red Cross fame and Jenny Senior, she toddled into our lines when quite a mite; and, once having crossed over the border into civilisation, the three emphatically refused to return whilst the objectionable Hun element obtained in their native country.[10]
Jenny the younger was no mere mystic mascot for the humouring of an especially created superstition. Her congenial company and high spirits, her affectionate ways and equable temperament, were the factors which gained for her the obvious rank of “Camp Pet.” Her friendly regular visits will be missed, and the picture of her patrician head and dark-brown shaggy winter’s coat. Her refined voice was music compared with the common “hee-haw” which characterises her kind, or the peremptory foghorn of the sergeant-major.
But now she is no more. Our sorrow is immeasurable. The mother never left the babe whilst it suffered excruciating agony through a deadly shrapnel pellet. Skilful, indefatigable attention, innumerable applications of the “invincible iodine,” proved futile. Jenny Senior is grief-stricken, and now lies upon the neat little grave in which her infant was placed by the big Australian playmates who now mourn their irreparable loss.
F. C. Dunstan, L.-C.,B Depot,6th A.A.S.C.
FOOTNOTES:[10]This origin is a myth. The parents landed with the troops on April 25, 1915. Murphy, who bore a red cross between his two long ears, is said (in company with his master, Pte. Simpson, 3rd Australian Field Ambulance) to have carried 72 wounded men from the firing line through Shrapnel Gully, at the time when that valley thoroughly earned its name, before his master met his death on one of these errands of mercy. Murphy himself was subsequently hit by a shell, but happily survives, and was, we believe, brought safely away from Anzac.—Eds.
[10]This origin is a myth. The parents landed with the troops on April 25, 1915. Murphy, who bore a red cross between his two long ears, is said (in company with his master, Pte. Simpson, 3rd Australian Field Ambulance) to have carried 72 wounded men from the firing line through Shrapnel Gully, at the time when that valley thoroughly earned its name, before his master met his death on one of these errands of mercy. Murphy himself was subsequently hit by a shell, but happily survives, and was, we believe, brought safely away from Anzac.—Eds.
[10]This origin is a myth. The parents landed with the troops on April 25, 1915. Murphy, who bore a red cross between his two long ears, is said (in company with his master, Pte. Simpson, 3rd Australian Field Ambulance) to have carried 72 wounded men from the firing line through Shrapnel Gully, at the time when that valley thoroughly earned its name, before his master met his death on one of these errands of mercy. Murphy himself was subsequently hit by a shell, but happily survives, and was, we believe, brought safely away from Anzac.—Eds.