Williston graphic., 1919-01-23
crlpples.

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 country with which
most of them were not connected. He
said 1t was war in which many ma
tions were taking part but in which
there were just two ideas, freedom
and despOtism, and lot more things
that I 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 l thought was the real thing
sure enough, but could not help
thinking of the remark have heard
here in the States-"I thank you and
the whole family thanks you." And it
was hard not to laugh. Also 1t seemed
funny to me, because did not rightly
know just what they were giving me
the medal for-though it was for one
of two things-and 1 do not know to
this day. But l thought it would not
be polite to ask, 80 let 1t 60 at that
There were .welve other naval on
GERS who were present and they and
oil 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 q medal every
day.
One day I received letter from q
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 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 I opened it out tumbled a photo
graph. At first all l saw was that 1t
was the photograph of man crucified
with bayOnets, but when I looked at
it closely l saw it was Brown.
tainted then, just like girl.
When came to I could hardly make
myself think about it. Two of my
pals gone! 1t hurt me so much to
think of it that I crushed the letter
up in my hand, but later on could
read parts Of it. 1t 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 were
superstitious I do not know what /
would think about it. It made me
sick and kept me from recovering as
fast as l would have done otherwise.
Both Brown and Murray were good
pals and very good men In a fight.
often think of them both and about
the things we did together, but lately
I have tried not to think about them
much because it is very sad to think
, what torture they must have had to
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 became
convalescent he argued with me that
had seen enough, and though really
did think sO-however much disliked
what had seen-he got my discharge
from the service on account of phys
ical inability to discharge the usual
duties. After had been at the hos
pital for little over a month 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. ran up to st. Nazaire and
saw my grandmother, loafed around
q while and also visited Lyons.
After a short time returned to
Brest and got my passage on the
George for New York. I had three
trunks with me full of things had
picked up around Europe and had
been keeping with my grandmother.
Among my belongings were several
things 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.
| CHAPTER XVI.