The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-11-23
CHAPTER XIII
En- Route.

When the battle was over, the San.
itary commission unit which Ann
joined moved into the town Of Gettys-
burg, and with great difficulty the girl
managed to get message through to
New York announcing Hendricks
well-being. The result was as she had
feared, bombardment of kilograms
from Mrs. Cortlandt clamoring for
her immediate return, but as there
were not nearly enough nurses at the
front, and as at last she was where
she had for so long wanted to be,
Ann ignored the summons. She
thought she had, m the past two
the wounded soldier, but she had
known nothing like the suffering she
found there.
She was put to work In an operat-
ing-room; sometimes she mopped the
floor, where blood spread like GRIM
son lake, and sometimes she forced
stimulants between white and icy lips,
endeavoring TO snatch men back to
life when they were already in the
grasp of death himself. She worked all
day and far into the night, and she
was so tired that her sensibilities were
mercifully dulled. Her feet ached,
her back ached, her eyes ached, her
very soul ached, as she beheld the
courage of her suffering soldiers.
Never in all her life before had she
been so sure that she was doing the
right thing, and she was determined
to stay until the crisis was over Un-
| fortunately, however, Mrs. Cortlandt
knew a colonel, and she was not a
woman to let privilege lie idle; week
after the battle ended the girl was Of
fcially ordered home.
The blow was somewhat softened
| by the fact that the Sanitary commits
sion was sending trains of wounded to
the North as fast as the railroad
could handle them, and Ann was de-
tailed as a nurse in transit, in charge
of a car.
She was so busy getting her pa
tients on board, hobbling about on
aching feet, in an endeavor to make
them comfortable, that she left Get
tysburg without so much as a final
glance down the street on which she
had marched to adventure. Her pa
tients were all convalescent, and by
the time the train started they were
quite happily established on their cots,
in high anticipation of getting home.
AS the train swung around the
curve, with a great Stating and jolt
ing of loose link couplings, Ann
glanced idly back at the village, and,
for the first time in days, remembered
the romantic Italian VINO had taken
charge of her in the midst of the bat
tle In the absorption of her work in
the hospital, she had entirely forgot
she had not seen him again. She
felt very grateful to him, now she
came to think about it, and as she re-
called his gallantries she smiled con-
doningly.
They had gone perhaps fifteen miles
on their way, when the door at the
forward end of the car opened, and a
group of officers, headed by a colonel,
came in. She could hear the colonel's
voice above the rattle of the train, as
he explained the governments system
in transporting its wounded, and she
looked up. curiousiy, to see to whom
he was giving this information. There
were half a dozen officers In baggy
Federal uniforms, surrounding slight
young man in a braided coat. Some
thing about his back made AIMS
breath catch in her throat; she had
already flushed when he turned and,
over the cots of the wounded men,
met her beaming eyes. 1t was Avez-
zana.