Cleveland County herald., 1918-11-14

tenant Barbey. He pinned an Ameri- can flag on my breast, a French flag beneath it and beneath that the war cross. He kissed me on both cheeks. of course, which was taking advantage of cripple. But it is the usual thing with the French, as you know-I mean the kissing, not the meanness to cripples.
 When he had pinned the medal on he said he thanked me from the bot tom of his heart for the French people, and also thanked all the Americans who had come over from their own land to help a country with which most of them were not connected. He said it was a war in which many na- tions were taking part, but in which there were just two ideas, freedom and despotism, and a lot more things that l cannot remember. He finished by saying that he wished he could dec crate all of us.
 Of course it was great stuff for me and I thought I was the real thing sure enough, but I could not help thinking of the remark I have heard here in the States-'I thank you and the whole family thanks you" And 1t was hard not to laugh. Also it seemed funny to me, because I did not rightly know just what they were giving me the medal for-though 1t was for one of two things-and I do not know to this day. But I thought it would not be polite to ask, so I let 1t go at that.
 There were twelve other naval off, cers who were present and they and all the other people did lot of cheer ing and vived me to a fare-you-well. It was great stuff, altogether, and I should have liked to get medal every day.
 One day I received a letter from a man who had been in my company in the Foreign Legion and with whom I had been pretty chummy. His letter was partly in French and partly in English. It was all about who had been killed and who had been wound ed. He also mentioned Murray's death, which he had heard about, and about my receiving the Croix de Guerre. I was wishing he had said something about Brown, whom I had not heard from and who knew would visit me if he had the chance.
 But two or three days later I got another letter from the same man and when l opened it out tumbled a photo graph. At first all I saw was that 1t was the photograph of man crucified with bayonets, but when I looked at it closely I saw 1t was Brown. l tainted then, just like a girl.
 When I came to could hardly make myself think about 1t. Two of my pals gonel It hurt me so much to think of it that I crushed the letter up in my hand, but later on I could read parts of 1t. It said they had found Brown this way near Dixmude about two days after he had been re- ported missing. So three of us went over and two stayed there. It seems very strange to me that both of my pals should be crucified and if l were SuperStitious 1 do not know what 1 would think about 1t. It made me sick and kept me from recovering as fast as I would have done otherwise. Both Brown and Murray were good pals and very good men in fight. l often think of them both and about the things we did together, but lately l have tried not to think about them much because it is very sad to think xuh f.r +a stand. They were both of great credit to this country.
 The American consul visited me quite often and I got to calling him Sherlock because he asked so many questions. We played lots of games together, mostly with dice, and had a great time generally. After I became conyalescent he argued with me that l had seen enough, and though I really did think so-however much I disliked what I had seen-he got my discharge from the service on account of phys ical inability to discharge the usual duties. After I had been at the hos pital for little over a month l was discharged from it, after little party in my ward with everyone taking part and all the horns blowing and all the records except my favorite dirge played one after another.
 Sherlock arranged everything for me-my passage to New York, cloth ing, etc. l ran up to St. Nazaire and saw my grandmother, loafed around while and also visited Lyons.
 After short time I returned to Brest and got my passage on the Georgic for New York. I had three trunks with me full of things I had picked up around Europe and had been keeping with my grandmother. Among my belongings were several things I should like to show by pho tographs in this book, but no one but mermaids can see them now, for down to the locker of Davy Jones they went.
 (TO BE CONTINUED9
 Shrines to Foxes.