Dear Sir, - I was thrilled by the one-legged girl's letter in your number dated July 16, as I am also minus my left arm, which ends at the elbow, also my right leg is amputated at the knee.
"Two beautiful stumps," said the doctor, the day I was discharged from hospital. And he was right, for in a short while they were quite scarless and very firm and strong.
Funnily enough, the one-armed and one-legged fascinated me long before my motor-bike accident - in fact for as long as I can remember. Little did I know that I was destined to possess the empty trouser leg and limp jacket sleeve of the maimed.
I prefer a crutch to stump bucket peg, which is so heavy, the former enabling me to swing and stump along in a delightfully irresponsible way. And I have trained my arm stump to do its bit of crutch work with the aid of a strip of leather nailed on the crutch, into which I thrust it to get a grip.
I expect "One-legged Girl" would be thrilled to see me attired in my glossy velvet corduroys - a material I love - and hopping about the house. I seldom use a crutch indoors. The gas mantles I've broken in the rooms downstairs when hopping about upstairs with my hobnailed boot on!
I always have the right leg on my smartly cut corduroy breecher sewn up into a shining little velvet cord bag, with which I wear a highly polished legging. My empty jacket sleeve I prefer to leave as it is, the thick, stiff corduroy of which is very
"handy" for punishing my one-armed friend when we have a friendly tussle together.
Perhaps the following incident will interest "One-legged Girl."
My one-armed chum arrived the other evening attired, as usual, in his rich suit of nigger-brown corduroys - he is a corduroy fan - and he brought a couple of pairs of boxing gloved with him. After putting gloves on our one arms and stumps, we let it rip.
How "One-legged Girl" would have chuckled seeing me hopping round my chum trying to get in a knockout, while he made feints at me with his stump, which is shorter than mine.
Soon we clinched, and the fight developed into a wrestling match. In spite of my one-legged handicap, I manage to trip him up and to keep him down with my leg stump firmly planted on his chest.
Yours truly,
One-Legged One Armed.