Lest We Forget: World War StoriesThompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
History
Lest We Forget: World War Stories
Thompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
Readers -- History; Readers -- World War, 1914-1918
By and by the wounded soldier grows well enough to be carried out into
the garden. There he and Bobby sit and watch the men caring for the
flowers. These men are not hired; they are wounded soldiers helping
about the hospital. The garden itself was made by a soldier who was a
gardener before the war. Every man helps with his knowledge of some
trade. The napkin rings and salt cellars used in the hospital were made
by a soldier tinsmith out of old biscuit boxes.
One day our wounded soldier becomes so well that he may walk away with
Bobby, and a nurse brings him his suit, his rifle, and all his
equipment, nicely cleansed and put in order.
So everybody does his bit in the hospitals. Dentists and
eye-specialists, surgeons and nurses, wearing the Red Cross, work
tirelessly from morning till night and sometimes both day and night, to
save the brave wounded men. They do their work as best they can,
sweetly and cheerfully, caring for the German soldiers as well as for
their own Allied soldiers. To know of them, to watch them in their work
of mercy, is to realize that there is something different from the
beast in man--there is the God in man, the spirit of love and tender,
skillful care, which they dare to give in the face of awful danger.
One of the brave nurses wrote home to America something of all she was
doing. Among many things, she said: "The Huns were pouring down in
streams to attack our men. I immediately began to get the hospital
ready to receive the wounded.
"Our surgeon was away on leave, but another equally good arrived. On
Tuesday, the wounded men began to come in. Wednesday and Thursday I
served from early morning until midnight. Bombs were bursting in the
distance, and news came that the Huns were within a few miles of us.
"A Red Cross unit came, and one English nurse arrived to help us. She
had lost the others in her party, and had walked miles to get here. It
seemed as if God had sent them all from heaven!
"All the surgical supplies that I could save from those you sent me
from the Red Cross, I had put away for emergency. I don't know what we
would have done without them!
"I had to see that the surgeons had whatever they needed, and from all
sides every one was calling for help. Through it all, I was up every
morning at four and never went to bed till midnight. The cannon were
roaring, star shells exploding, bombs dropping around us,--but nothing
touching us!
"For eight days our men fought gloriously. They were a wonder and such
a surprise to the Huns. Now perhaps they know what they have to face!
"The little hospital was able to save many, many lives. We have sent
away most of our wounded to-day, and are now waiting in suspense for
what may come next--but we are ready to do our best, whatever comes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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