Captain Beddy asks the men to replace their targets and to get back to their firing positions and continue shooting. On the whole, the officer is pleased with the shooting abilities of the whole platoon.

Tom is back at work and has finished his rounds, the other men have gathered round him to listen to his tales of his shooting week. The other three men who are in the Post Office Rifles are there too, but people love to listen to Tom; he has a way of telling an event that has the listener riveted. Although most of the men are excited at hearing of these stories, it doesn’t inspire any more of them to join up.

The third day of August brings with it devastating news as Tom walks down the street; the newsboy shouts “Germany invades Belgium.” He quickly pulls some coins out of his pocket and hands them over to the newsboy, then walks off with a newspaper.

Back home, he is sitting at the kitchen table with his newspaper wide open. His mother is cooking, and then his father walks in.

“Hello love” he says to his wife then turns to his son “hello Tom”

Tom just carries on reading.

Mother says “he’s been reading that newspaper for hours”

“Eh?” Tom sticks his head out from behind his paper “oh hello father”

Father replies “what’s so interesting in that journal that you have to ignore us?”

“Germany”

“What?”

“Yes, Germany has invaded Belgium”

“Hmm” says father “the house we’ve been decorating, the lady there said that. She said that her husband is going to join the army”

Tom carries on reading “oh yeah?”

“Yes my lad. Have you thought of joining up?”

“Nooo” comes a voice from behind the paper

Mother joins in “it’ll do you good, make a man of you”

Toms’ sisters come in. Liz snatches the newspaper from Tom and puts it to one side,

“It’s rude to read at the table” she says

“Ah, hello sis!”

As the two girls sit down, mother puts food on the table.

Liz turns to Tom and asks “so brother, are you going to sign up and be a soldier”

“No need, the Germans won’t do anything silly, don’t you worry”

Mother pours tea from the pot and with milk added, Tom picks up his cup and “slurp!”

“Aah, there’s nothing like a good cup of tea”

“Don’t slurp you tea!” says mother

“But mother” he replies and looks straight at her “you make such a lovely cuppa”

Tom is on his way home; he stops and strokes a dog when he hears the newsboy shout “read all about it, Britain at war”. He rushes to the news stand and buys a paper. He’s transfixed at the headlines and stands on the pavement continuing to read. He folds up the newspaper under his armpit and runs. He gets home and changes before rushing off past the kitchen. Mother sees the blurred figure run past but then Tom comes back and sticks his head in through the doorway.

“No tea for me tonight mother” and then speeds off again.

He walks at a fair pace. Running up the steps to the grand house, he knocks on the door. Ellen’s mother opens the door and lets in Tom.

“Ellen…” he says running out of breath.

“Calm down and take it easy, come on, breathe slowly”

“Ellen… we’re at war, you know what that means?”

“No, what?”

“I’ll probably have to go to France to fight”

“Oh” is all that Ellen could say.

Tom pauses for a bit and then says “Ellen… would you marry me?”

Ellen looks straight into Toms eyes, gives a big smile and says “yes…of course”

It seems that a lot of other people have the same idea as the earliest date they can get is the day after Christmas Day, the only Saturday available. It is a modest affair but it is a large family; Tom and Ellen look lovely as they pose for the cameras. Even mother manages a smile, of sorts. Finally, her boy might grow up and be more responsible. Afterwards at the reception, both Liz and Ada keep asking Tom “are you going to sign up now?”

“Come on girls, I’ve just got married” as he sips on his beer.

A friend grabs the beer out of his hand and leads him away.

“Forget that Tom” as the man sits him down at the piano “come on play”