nothing special , nothing heroic-he was a hero , all right , jerry mackenzie , got shot down and all , but the stories dad told were all about what he was like as a kid-how he made a martin house , but made the hole too big and a cuckoo got in ; what he liked to eat when he 'd come here on holiday and they 'd go into town for a treat ; how he filled his pockets with winkles off the rocks and forgot about them and ruined his trousers with the stink- '' he broke off , and smiled at her , his throat still tight at the memory .