World War, 1914-1918 -- United States -- Juvenile fiction; Young women -- Societies and clubs -- Juvenile fiction
Nathalie Page halted, and, swinging about, peered intently at the
brown-uniformed figure of a young girl seated at the steering-wheel of
an automobile, which was speeding quickly towards them.
Yes, it was Grace, who, in her sprightliest manner, her face aglow from
the invigorating breezes of an April afternoon, called out, “Ah there,
girls! How are you? Oh, my lucky star must have guided me, for I have
something thrilling to tell you!” As she spoke the girl guided the car
to the curb, and the next moment, with an airy spring, had landed on the
ground at their side.
With a sudden movement the uniformed figure clicked her heels together
and bent stiffly forward as her arm swung up, while her forefinger
grazed her forehead in a military salute. “I salute you, comrades,” she
said with grave formality, “at your service as a member of the Motor
Corps of America.
“Yes, girls,” she shrilled joyously, forgetting her assumed rôle in her
eagerness to tell her news, “I’m on the job, for I’m to see active
service for the United States government. I’ve just returned from an
infantry drill of the Motor Corps at Central Park, New York.
“No, I’ll be honest,” she added laughingly, in answer to the look of
amazed inquiry on the faces of her companions, “and ’fess’ that I didn’t
have the pleasure of drilling in public, for I’m a raw recruit as yet.
We recruits go through our manual of arms at one of the New York
armories, drilled by a regular army sergeant. Oh, I’ve been in training
some time, for you know I took out my chauffeur’s and mechanician’s
State licenses last winter.
“One has to own her car at this sort of government work,”—Grace’s voice
became inflated with importance,—“and be able to make her own repairs
on the road if necessary. But isn’t my new car a Jim Dandy?” she asked,
glancing with keen pride at the big gray motor, purring contentedly at
the curb. “It was a belated Christmas gift from grandmother.
“But I tell you what, girls,” she rattled on, “I’ve been put through the
paces all right, but I’ve passed my exams with flying colors. Phew!
wasn’t the physical exam stiff!—before a regular high official of the
army medical corps. I was inoculated for typhoid, and for paratyphoid.
I’ll secretly confess that I don’t know what the last word means. Yes,
and I took the oath of allegiance to the United States Government,
administered by another army swell,—and that’s where my Pioneer work
proved O. K. And then we had the First Aid course, too, at St. Luke’s.
The head nurse, who gave us special lessons in bandaging, said I was A
No. 1; and in wigwagging, oh, I did the two-flag business just dandy.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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