Ned, asleep by the stove, woke up and yawned, “Hello Ned,” said his master, with a half-smile, “I told a girl about you, back in a wood, You’d like that girl. She’d rub the back of your ears. And Bailey’d like you too. I wish Bailey was here. Want to go to war, Ned?” Ned yawned largely again. Ellyat laughed. “You’re right, old fella,” he said, “You get too mixed up in a war. You better stay here. God, I’d like to sleep by a stove for a million years, Turn into a dog and remember how to stand cold.” The clock struck five. Jack Ellyat jumped at the sound Then he sank back. “No, fooled you that time,” he said, As if the strokes had been bullets. Then he turned To see his mother, coming in with a lamp, And taste the strange tastes of supper and quietness.