When she reached Noyon and turned in at the Evacuating Hospital, she was greeted with a laugh from one of the nurses.
"You are just in time!" she said. "Fifty pink and blue pajamas have just come for the men. They'll surely scrap over them if you don't give them out. There are not enough to go around."
Venna smiled.
"I'll take them in and have them draw lots," she said.
As Venna entered the convalescing tent, there was a general delighted murmur of welcome. That she was the idol of the soldiers was plainly seen by the expressions on their rugged faces.
She held up one pink pajama and one blue.
"Now, boys," she said, smiling brightly, "there are just twenty-five of each. I wish we had enough for all, but we have not. What do you say if we draw lots?"
"Good!" came unanimously as each soldier eyed the alluring garments with envy.
The first to draw a pink pajama was the "baby of the ward," a boy of eighteen who was stretched out with a fractured hip. He was so delighted with his new present that he begged to have it put on immediately.
"Le Bebe' Rose!" shouted the soldiers.