We can do that ourselves--no need to ca' the tired firemen oot again.

And then there's the hoose itself! Puir hoose! But how should it have remained the same?
Man, you'd no expect to sleep in your ain hoose the same nicht there'd been a fire to put out?
You'd be waiting for the insurance folks.

And you'd know that the furniture was a' spoiled wi' water, and smoke.

And there'll be places where the firemen had to chop wi' their axes.

They couldna be carfu' wi' what was i' the hoose--had they been sae there'd be no a hoose left at a' the noo.
Sae are they no foolish folk that were thinking that sae soon as peace came a' would be as it was before yon days in August, 1914?
Is it but five years agane?
It is--but it'll tak' us a lang time tae bring the world back to where it was then.