CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TOMMY’S BOMBARDIER
Nancy’s unit went into action in northern Australia. The trip up to the new hospital was an exciting experience to these nurses, most of whom had never left the States before.
“Seems queer to find it so much warmer as we go north,” said Nancy during their first day’s travel by train.
“I feel as though I’m living upside down, or something,” remarked Mabel. “When we’re asleep it’s broad daylight at home. While it’s warm at home we’re shivering here.”
Though it was late fall in the southern hemisphere, flowers were still blooming in great profusion in gardens and parks. Many of the flowers were unfamiliar, but Nancy did recognize the hibiscus bushes. The trees, too, were strangers to them and had strange names. They saw the eucalyptus for the first time. Another tree had needles like the pine back home, but fewer branches, which made it less picturesque.
To many of the American girls this was like another world. Yet when the train stopped at stations along the way veterans of the various campaigns came up to the windows of their carriage to greet them, speaking English and asking about America. Most of them had old-young faces, as if each year of fighting had been like ten of ordinary life. Some were so newly returned from the fighting they still had that fixed, dull look in their eyes that was to become so familiar to the nurses later, the look of men who had seen awful things, never to be forgotten.
“I know your men will be glad to see you American Sisters,” said a veteran of Dunkirk at one station.
They learned that the Australian nurses were always called “Sisters.”
The hospital to which they were assigned proved to be far more comfortable than they had anticipated. Several blocks of bungalows in a small town had been taken over for hospital use. These houses reminded Nancy of farmhouses in her own southland, for they were built high off the ground on stilts, so the air could circulate under them. Like the American houses also, they were surrounded by wide porches.
Again the nurses were packed four in a room, and Nancy had the same congenial roommates she had had on the boat. There was little chance to think of their own comfort, however, for they were plunged at once into work. For the first time since they left California their foot lockers were brought to their rooms, and once more they had all their baggage. It seemed good to settle down and actually begin the work for which they had trained and traveled halfway around the world.