Boys will be . . .
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Boys will be . . .
Colonel Cyril Croft, in the days when he was simply young Croft belonging to the lowest form of life in the offices of the Wandsworth and District Gas Company, greatly desired a handsome brass model of a 2-2-2 express engine, spirit fired but of stylish appearance and noble proportions. At the time it was one of those gadgets which opticians used to catch the eyes of the public before prescribing spectacles.
This particular optician was approached. He named his tremendous price. So Croft and a fellow office boy formed a joint venture. Long months of midday hunger and self-denial at last rewarded them with the cost of the engine. One lunch hour they rushed out, bought it, and bore it back in secret triumph to the offices. Of course they had no sort of permanent way, but they meant to steam the engine at once, and there was a vast empty board room with its handsome parquet floor.
Soon after, the syndicate's locomotive was tearing up and down under the cold eyes of the directorial portraits, each owner receiving it wicket-keeper fashion as it rushed towards him. It was the very best of plays; time sped, and oily-watery tracks multiplied on the superbly polished floor. Suddenly Croft saw his co-owner blench with horror, stop the engine in a nick of time and hold it. Framed in the classical doorway, Olympian, whiskered, frock-coated and heavy with doom stood the chairman.
In silence cold and utter as of outer space, they waited, quaking, for Jupiter to hurl his thunderbolt.
Jupiter spoke.
"My word that's a jolly thing."
He fell on his hands and knees and scrambled towards the engine.
Hamilton Ellis
Model Railways, 1838-1939
This particular optician was approached. He named his tremendous price. So Croft and a fellow office boy formed a joint venture. Long months of midday hunger and self-denial at last rewarded them with the cost of the engine. One lunch hour they rushed out, bought it, and bore it back in secret triumph to the offices. Of course they had no sort of permanent way, but they meant to steam the engine at once, and there was a vast empty board room with its handsome parquet floor.
Soon after, the syndicate's locomotive was tearing up and down under the cold eyes of the directorial portraits, each owner receiving it wicket-keeper fashion as it rushed towards him. It was the very best of plays; time sped, and oily-watery tracks multiplied on the superbly polished floor. Suddenly Croft saw his co-owner blench with horror, stop the engine in a nick of time and hold it. Framed in the classical doorway, Olympian, whiskered, frock-coated and heavy with doom stood the chairman.
In silence cold and utter as of outer space, they waited, quaking, for Jupiter to hurl his thunderbolt.
Jupiter spoke.
"My word that's a jolly thing."
He fell on his hands and knees and scrambled towards the engine.
Hamilton Ellis
Model Railways, 1838-1939
RIGFindlay- Posts : 420
Join date : 2014-02-06
Age : 82
Location : Bridport
Re: Boys will be . . .
Wonderful!!!!
StephenRWells- Posts : 605
Join date : 2013-07-15
Age : 72
Location : Arncott,Oxfordshire
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