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to get up and down from the height of the bed than from the floor, as, owing to the condition of my legs, I was constantly afraid of falling with the baby when rising or lying down.
Mr. Hunt went to Shanghai and I had no opportunity to speak to him before he left, yet he took the trouble to find my husband in Shanghai and report to him. This was truly an instance of great thoughtfulness. To anyone uncertain as to a life partner in marriage, I proffer this advice. Pick your man in conditions as near resembling a camp as possible, give him no bed, no change of clothes, no dishes, no cooking utensils, no matches, a few tins of food, uncooked rations, and not much of it. Do not let him know it is a test, and watch his spirit. This reminds me of how some of our lads, including George, used to blossom forth in changes of khaki suits. We discovered they had undressed corpses and helped themselves to clothes, water bottles, and kits. The corpses were all decently buried in payment for the clothes they were lending. Stanley had been one of the most stubborn battlegrounds, for here was one of the places where the forces had not known of the surrender and so the Japanese had been merciless in retribution. Thus a favourite word was "scrounging," and Clyde and Celene took delightedly to the pastime. Celene found a broken cold cream bottle with cream in it, a bottle of iodine, books and other oddments. Clyde found a red silk purse for Celene, some fret saw files, part of a chess set, including the board, a large gunny sack full of Lionel train tracks and gadgets (but no cars or engine), bottles, nails, tins. When George required nails or bolts or other things for his various engineering efforts, he came to Clyde's "dump" which was under a tree duly placarded "Clyde's dump. Please do not touch."
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