The War Romance of the Salvation ArmyHill, Grace Livingston
History
The War Romance of the Salvation Army
Hill, Grace Livingston
World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Salvation Army
Two of the lassies were awakened early one bright morning by the sound
of an axe ringing rhythmically on wood, just back of their canteen. It
was a cheerful sound to wake to, for the girls had been through a long
wearing day and night, and they knew when they went to sleep that the
wood was almost gone. It was always so pleasant to have someone offer
to cut it for them, for they never liked to have to ask help of the
soldiers if they could possibly avoid it. But there was so much else to
be done besides cutting wood. Not that they could not do that, too,
when the need offered. The sisters looked sleepily at one another,
thinking simultaneously of the poor homesick doughboy who had told them
the day before that chopping wood for them made him think of home and
mother and that was why he liked to do it. Of course, it was he hard at
work for them before they were up, and they smiled contentedly, with a
lifted prayer for the poor fellow. They knew he had received no mail
for four months and that only a few days before he had read in a paper
sent to one of his pals of the death of his sister. Of course, his
heart was breaking, for he knew what his widowed mother was suffering.
They knew that his salvation from homesickness just now lay in giving
him something to do, so they lingered a little just to give him the
chance, and planned how they would let him help with the doughnuts, and
fix the benches, later, when the wood was cut.
In a few minutes the girls were ready for the day’s work and went
around to the kitchen, where the sound of the ringing axe was still
heard in steady strokes. But when they rounded the corner of the
kitchen and greeted the wood-chopper cheerily, he looked up, and lo! it
was not the homesick doughboy as they had supposed, but the Colonel of
the regiment himself who smiled half apologetically at them, saying he
liked his new job; and when they invited him to breakfast he accepted
the invitation with alacrity.
After breakfast the girls went to work making pies. There had been no
oven in the little French town in which they were stationed, and so
baking had been impossible, but the boys kept talking and talking about
pies until one day a Lieutenant found an old French stove in some
ruins. They had to half bury it in the earth to make it strong enough
for use, but managed to make it work at last, and though much hampered
by the limitations of the small oven, they baked enough to give all the
boys a taste of pie once a week or so. Pie day was so welcomed that it
almost made a riot, so many boys wanted a slice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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