Punch/Volume 147/Issue 3821/Business as Usual
Corkey is the School Attendance Officer and a terror to every boy in the neighbourhood. He looks at the truant and says fiercely, "Where was you?" Then he wags a savage finger at him. "Yes, you was," he says, "you was, you know you was. I caught you in the hact." No boy has ever been known to withstand him.
Yet Corkey has a heart.
William Frederick Wright is our chief boy scout. In the first great days of the war, William was on duty at a railway bridge up the line. Local fame placed him somewhere between French and Kitchener. Sent to round up the truant, Corkey reported in glowing words, "Guarding his country."
A second week's absence produced the same report. Then business instinct began to war with patriotism in the breast of Corkey. During the third week he once more looked the culprit up.
His report was grim and terse. "Warned him," he wrote.
On the following Monday William sadly returned.