The Railway Game, Clifford Dyment

"...Railway Amalgamation. This, now due in a few months' time, was the consequence of the Railways Act of 1921, which provided that the hundred-odd separate railway systems of Great Britain were to be re-formed into four big combines - the L.M.S.R., the L.N.E.R., the G.W.R. and the S.R. Each combine, as Mr. Belton explained to me, was to consist of Constituent Companies, that is, the larger lines in its territory, and Subsidiary Companies, the smaller lines. All these Companies, Constituent as well as Subsidiary, were to lose their identities in the digestive processes of four monster corporations. "

"Poor Hugh! He so wanted to be a normal young man - to be healthy and strong, able to work, to go courting, to get married, have a family. But I never went with him again to the house in the trees, because the next time we visited Newport Mon he was dead."

"One day in downcast mood I walked
Along the busy street,
Sick of my useless self - and then
A child's voice did me greet.

'Please, sir, I want to cross the road,'
The child to me did say;
'Please will you take me over, sir?'
I could not answer nay

Because the child looked up at me
Without a doubt that I
Was fit and fearless, being man
Standing six feet high.

So through the traffic I set out,
Small hand in large hand thrust -
A hopeless life in which a child
Had placed a perfect trust.

My eyes were wet with tears, though they
Weren't tears of grief, but glee-
For I felt strong because a child
Felt strong through being with me!"