E-text prepared by Jeannie Howse and Friend and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/ygirlinfrance00shor +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | | been preserved. | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ A "Y" GIRL IN FRANCE Letters of Katherine Shortall [Illustration] Boston Richard G. Badger The Gorham Press Copyright, 1919, by Richard G. Badger All Rights Reserved Made in the United States of America The Gorham Press, Boston, U.S.A. At the solicitation of many friends I am publishing, unknown to my daughter, these letters written by her while in the service of the Y.M.C.A. The letters have come to me scribbled in lead pencil and in every color of ink upon an assortment of stationery that in itself revealed the snatching of whatever opportunity to write occurred in a busy life. I make here public apology to the author if I have caused to be printed anything she would prefer not to have said outside the family circle. The spirit manifest in these letters has been that of hundreds of girls wearing the same colors, doing faithfully and perseveringly the work that was given them to do, whether it chanced to be dramatic and exhilarating or plain drudgery. To each one of them as she doffs her uniform I would say, in the recent happy phrasing of a statesman: "Let us not demobilize the Spirit of Helpfulness!" and with sincere homage I dedicate this little book TO OUR "Y" GIRLS. M.C.S. September, 1919. A "Y" GIRL IN FRANCE A "Y" Girl in France Monday, Dec. 23, 1918.