Plot
The platoon is energised by the arrival of a Tommy Gun, or 'Chicago piano' as an excited Pike prefers to call it. While the men combatively discuss who is to have first turn of it, Godfrey reveals he has a problem. In the office, assisted by Jones, he reveals the truth. More than forty years before, as a 'dandy young buck' he had become involved with a friend, a young woman working as a servant in a nearby Great Hall. At first Mainwaring is naturally baffled as to the relevance of all this, but it turns out she had later married a farmer, and was now a widow, her fields needed harvesting (100 acres of wheat).
Mainwaring, inspired by a burst of patriotic fervour, decides to harness the platoon to help with the harvest. They quickly drive out to the farm to offer their assistance. Meanwhile, Warden Hodges has had a life changing experience, having narrowly survived a bombing raid. He reveals that the German bomb had knocked the pint glass out of his hand, but not exploded. He attributes this to some form of higher destiny, and is now resolved to love his enemies, though "not Hitler of course", and having sought guidance from the Vicar, he decides to assist Captain Mainwaring in his work.
Fortunately Corporal Jones is acquainted with the machinery, and demonstrates it to the rest of them as best he can. Walker and Wilson appear more interested in three land girls. With an uncharacteristic unity the wardens and home guard work together, in the process they manage to overcome a number of problems/incidents, including Jones falling into the hopper, losing his trousers. After finally completing the job, they are delighted with their work. After consuming large amounts of potato wine in celebration, the platoon head outside for the Vicar to bless the harvest. Unfortunately the drink has turned them belligerent, and it descends into a mass brawl.
Read more about this topic: All Is Safely Gathered In
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
““The plot thickens,” he said, as I entered.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“Trade and the streets ensnare us,
Our bodies are weak and worn;
We plot and corrupt each other,
And we despoil the unborn.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)