It is no doubt
encouraging for a soldier who has lost both arms to be told by a
kindly and enthusiastic visitor at his bedside that all will be well,
and he will be able to manage without them; but a certain measure of
scepticism and despair may remain to darken his waking hours. But
when a little fellow in precisely the same plight shows him how the
disabilities have been conquered, his zest in life begins to return.
Seeing is believing, and believing means new endeavour. The result is
that the crippled soldiers at Chailey, taught by the crippled boys,
have been transformed into happy and active men, and not a few of them
have discovered themselves to possess faculties of which they had no
notion. There is even an armless billiard-player among them; and I
could not wish him a happier setting for the exercise of his skill.
For here is one of the finest Y.M.C.A. recreation halls in the
country, with a view of the South Downs that probably no other can
boast. Whether or not the method of learning from a young cripple the
art of being an old one is novel, I cannot say, but it has been proved
to be eminently successful; and one of its attractions is the pride
taken not only in their mature pupils by the immature masters but in
the boys by the men.
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