Page:For remembrance, soldier poets who have fallen in the war, Adcock, 1920.djvu/82

58 There are delightful stories of his love for children and his exquisite understanding of them. 'Children, as a matter of fact,' writes Mr. Ridley, 'affected him a great deal. His love of them was noticed by many people. Nothing was more astonishing than to see the way a child would intuitively know him as a friend and treat him as one of its own age.'

After he came home from America he had a curious wish to open a book-shop in Chelsea, under an assumed name; but the war came to prevent a realisation of that pleasant ambition. He applied, then, at once for a commission, but was rejected owing to a weakness in his sight, and eagerly accepted an opportunity to serve with the American Red Cross Society in France as driver of a motor ambulance. This was better to him than remaining 'one of the useless ones,' but he was not satisfied and presently returned to England, and, after another rejection, was in February 1915 'given a commission in the regiment of his clan, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.'