"He has already cleaned up the ward, emptied the slops, cleansed pans, got rid as well as possible of all the more offensive things. He does not slip out at night through the hedge, as some of the other infirmiers and orderlies do, to visit a neighboring estaminet and get drunk. He is a faithful little man, is my Erard.
"I must speak to each of my children first, or they would feel the day had begun wrong. Then I look to see that all things are in order, and start instrument boiling. Ah, that instrument boiling! It is an endless task.
"Taking temperatures and marking charts is the next duty. Face washing and mouth rinsing go with this, and Erard officiates at the combined ceremonies.
"The doctor comes about eight o'clock, and after he goes I am left to my own resources for the rest of the day unless something unexpected happens to some of my patients.
"Dressings follow, and the first to manage are the more important ones. Sometimes I accomplish only three or four of these before the bell rings for soup at a quarter to eleven. At first these major wounds almost keeled me over! The washing of huge shrapnel holes, the putting in of drains, the probing for bits of shell—all the horrible by-bits of work that the surgeons have no time for!
"We nurses have our déjeuner à la fourchette immediately after the patients are fed, crowding into a small detached hut where we eat and gossip as fast as possible. It is the single hour of general relaxation during the day. There is not another American girl here (am I American, I wonder?), but they are all lovely to me.
"Mail arrives immediately after lunch. And those blessés who receive little presents from home—oh, how they are envied by the others! Dear fellows! they almost always pass the goodies around, even though they be but a few cheap candies. And I am obliged to take my share. These gifts I often hide away, however, to slip into some poor fellow's hand before I go at night. It is marvelous what comfort there seems to be for even the most sorely wounded in a peppermint or a lime wafer.
"The remaining dressings follow, and so all the afternoon. Then comes soup for my children—and for myself—after which I give massage to those who need it, prepare soothing drinks for the night, give injections and play 'ma mère' in general to the ward—stuffing cotton under weary backs and plastered limbs; and so bid all good-night. Then I polish my instruments, clean up in general, and am relieved by my harelipped infirmier, who comes stumbling in for another vigil, bravely blinking the sleep out of his eyes.
"Ah, Tante, I shall want to forget all this some day. I wonder if I can!
"You say Captain Dexter has called. If he comes again give him my best love—the dear, brave man! If he is as interested in flying as you say he is, he must know what has become of Mr. Sanderson."