In such ways I tried to understand and to visualize all that had taken place there.
We returned to Gondrecourt Sunday evening. On Monday I had a new and comic experience. The Y.M.C.A. announced an auction of all its supplies and I was asked to conduct it, being the only American who spoke French. They tell me that I have missed my vocation, that I ought to have been a saleslady. Any way I made a lark out of it, and gave the shrewd old French ladies tit for tat, which delighted them.
Now I am back in Chaumont working in the library of the "Y." It is a temporary job. I have half an idea I shall be homeward bound soon.
Goodbye dear family. This pen will drive me distracted, and they cost ten dollars over here!
June 25th.
Officers' Hut, Chaumont.
Another change of job. From buck privates to elderly majors and lieutenant colonels! About a week ago I was assigned to the Officers' Hut at Chaumont. This has been, naturally, the largest and pleasantest officers' "Y" in France, but owing to the daily diminishing of the personnel at G.H.Q. the business of the "Y" is rapidly falling off. I was sent here principally on account of my knowledge of French. Ahem! There is a large restaurant and a French force employed, and I am the medium of communication with them. I manage to keep the peace by translating the orders diplomatically, softening them and politening them.
There are many pleasant aspects to this work. I enjoy very much being with cultivated people again, though my fondness for the expressive doughboy is as great as ever. After all, there is something comfortable about good grammar, and I confess that a conversation with a dash of high-browism contains a pleasure all its own.
The first day I was here I met Colonel MacC. of Chicago. He has been very kind to me. Sunday evening he took me to call on some French friends of his and we had a very delightful time.
The atmosphere of Chaumont is totally different from that of dear little Pouillenay. There are many American girls, Red Cross, Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., and giddy telephone girls. Every night there is a party at the château and much gaiety. The boys here certainly have a great deal of entertainment. The social pace is too much for me. I get out of things as much as I can without being too rude. It won't last much more than a week anyway, and then I shall be ready and glad to come home.
Peace has come! "Le jour de gloire est arrivé." Early yesterday morning, I was awakened by the strains of a band approaching nearer and nearer. It didn't sound like an American band, and I jumped out of bed to see what it was. There in the early grayness of morning French soldiers were marching to a band composed of bugles and drums. They marched seriously, with rifles over their shoulders and bayonets fixed. This was their triumphant march, yet there was no triumph in it. As I watched the little blue figures keeping step to their strange yet spirited march, the tears came to my eyes, and I felt the tragedy of France, and I loved her. In Paris they say there were all sorts of gay doings, in which the Americans took part, but I shall always remember this little column of men, marching solemnly through the town of Chaumont.