Omaha daily bee., 1918-09-02
III

|
A la Cantine Americaine, Limoges Sun
day, July 28, 19l8.-Dearest Agnes: Your
letter came this morning. ! could have
shouted for joy--only 10 days and | knew
what YOU were doing such short time ago.
| | could lust see you in the old garden, and
| somehow your being alone there and father
| fishing reminded me so much of that Fourth
after mother died, when you and were alone
and Johnums spent the day with the Babbs-
how about the baby?-and you gave up your
| trip east to take care of me. came so near
never recovering myself at all. owe my
health to your care at that time. letter
| from Guy this morning OF course brought
| the association more clearly to mind: he
sent picture of himself raising the honor
flag for the Liberty loan campaign.
How glorious everything is now! won
der of you get wave back Of the joy that is
surging over France. The most disgruntled
| are now jubiant; the Americans are idols.
| | wish I could tell you and dad some OF the
glorious things | know OF what is going to
| Happen in certain contested region, but you
will hear it all in good time.
Our boys are so hnel They stream into
our base hospital. We give them cgarets
and ice water as they file out of the station,
either walking or on litters, all calm and pa
tent and proudly conscious. We fairly wor-
ship them, and the tenderness of the bran
carders and the hospital ambulance men is
something never to forget.
We went through the De Luxe hospital
train built in England after our designs. 1t
| is like first-class boat, exqulsitely dainty
and with every convenience and comfort.
| The boys would stop us and after fumbling
| in their ever-present Red Cross kit bags
bring out.the ragged bits OF shrapnel or shell
casing that had been taken out of their legs
and arms. They were as proud of them as
tsof Croix de Guerre.
Officers of every rank were vying with
| one another to do them some service. had
| been having dinner with a captain and he was
| so eager to do something for the boys that
he completely forgot himself and demanded
box OF matches from colonel, and darted
off to light the cigarets our girls were put
ting into the mouths of the filter cases. The
colonel handed it over and then realized
| what had happened, exclaimed over the
young cubs nerve" and | had to accompany
| the colonel into our kitchen to get him box
of matches. They are scarce commodity in
France.
always try to fill the canteen with flow
ers on Saturdays as they are hard to buy
Sundays. l had particularly choice assort-
ment yesterday and was amazed this morn
ing to find not sprg in any OF our pots
The night shift had visited the train wearing
few sweet peas. The boys had begged
| them and the girls rushed back and denuded
the canteen. We have wonderful roses and
sweet peas, gladiolas and larkspurs, and
cover my egg baskets with them as drive
| down from market in my open facre. Eggs
are $4.25 dozen, and there are none--or Sc
the Limogins will tell you, but bonne
femme gathers 80 dozen a day for me and
sneaks them to the carriage. Americans
buy good deal for officers mess and hos.
pitals and canteen, and it keeps prices up
though heaven knows we should like to see
them go down. buy about a thousand
francs worth a day of food from the market
and French and American quartermasters.
! Our work has grown so with the boys
| taking over the railroads and operating al
| down the line and coming in at all hours foi
meals, and they want meals, too--no non
sense. AS soon as the hospital boys get ou
of bed they come streaming down for reg
ular feed, then, of course, they lnger to tel
| their experiences and to sell souvenirs, etc
! have no feeling for the souvenir. | think
father might like some, but unless can ge
something really interesting / can't affort
the money or space for them. A boy
brought me in a first aid package he tool
| from dead German and the thing gave me
horrors.
Speaking of horrors, just as we were