The state herald., 1919-05-09

IIIluilsIiiIilIIlIlIiI IIIIIIIllI1lll
tenant Barley. He pinned an Ameri-
can nag on my breast a French nag
beneath 1t 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 country with which
most of them were not connected. He
said 1t was war In which many na-
tions were taking part, but In which
there were Just two ideas, freedom
and despotism, and lot more things
that cannot remember. He finished
by saying that he wished he could dec
crate all of US.
OF course 1t was great stuff for me
and thought l was tho real thing
sure enough, but l could not help
thinking Of the remark / have heard
here in the States-"I thank you and
the whole family thanks yop." 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 thlngs-and l do not know to
this day. But thought 1t would not
be polite to ask, so let 1t 20 at that.
There were twelve other naval ofii-
GERS who were present and they and
all the other people did lot Of cheer.
ing and vived me to a fare-you-well.
1t was great stun. altogether, and I
should have liked to get medal every
day.
One day I received q letter from .
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. II 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 II he had the chance.
But two or three days later got
another letter from the same man and
when opened It out tumbled photo
g1pn. At nrst all ! saw was that Il
was the photograph Of q man crucined
with bayonets. but when I looked at
Il closely saw II was Brown. I
tainted then. Just like girl.
When I came to I could hardly make
myself think about II. Two Of my
pals gonei II hurt me 30 much to
think Of II that I crushed the letter
up In my hand. but later on I could
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. II seems
very strange to me that both OF my
pals should be crucified and II were
1
would think about II. II made me
sick and kept me from recovering a.
fast rs I would have done otherwise.
Both Brown md Murray were good
pals and very good men In n fight
I often think Of them both and about
the things we did together. but lately
! have tried not to think about them
much because II 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 hnd q
great time generally. After became
conynlescent he argued with me that
bad seen enough. and though l really
did think so-however much disliked
what ! had secn-he got my discharge
from the service on account Of phys
icnl inability to discharge the usunl
duties. After had been nt tho hos
pital for little over a month I was
discharged from II. after little party
In my wnrd with everyone taking pnrt
md all the horns blowing and NIL tho
records except my favorite dirge
played ono after another.
Sherlock arranged everything for
mc-my passage to New York. cloth
Ing. etc. ran up to s. Nnxnire and
saw ray grandmother. Ionfed around
while and also visited Lyons.
After q short time returned TO
Brcst and got my passage on the
Gcorgtc for New York. had three
trunks with mo full Of things had
picked up around Europe and bad
been keeping with py grandmother.
Among my belongings were several
things I should like to show by pho
tographs In this book. but no ono but