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
On the last pay-day before he was sent to another location he took a
paint-brush and some paint and made a little sign which he set up in a
prominent place in the hut, his silent testimony to what they had done
for him: “For the first time on pay-day Scoop is sober!”
One morning a lassie was frying some doughnuts in the Gondrecourt hut,
another was rolling and cutting, and both were very busy when a soldier
came in with the mail. The girls went on with their work, though one
could easily see that they were eager for letters. One was handed to
the lassie who was frying the doughnuts. When she opened it she found
it was an official dispatch. The others saw the change of her
expression and asked what was the matter, but she made no reply while
tears started down her cheeks. She, however, went on frying doughnuts.
The others asked again what was the trouble and for answer the girl
handed them the open dispatch, which stated briefly that one of her
three brothers, who were all in the service, had been killed in action
on the previous day. The others sympathetically tried to draw her away
from her work, but she said: “No, nothing will help me to bear my
sorrow like doing something for others.” This is the spirit of the
Salvation Army workers. Personal sorrows, personal feelings, personal
difficulties, hardships, dangers, are not allowed to interrupt their
labors of love. Fortunately, it was later discovered that this message
about her brother was unfounded.
A boy told this lassie one day that the next day was his birthday, and
she saw the homesickness and yearning in his eyes as he spoke.
Immediately she told him she would have a birthday party for him and
bake a cake for it.
She found some tiny candles in the village and placed nineteen upon the
pretty frosted cake. They had to use a white bed-quilt for a
tablecloth, and none of the cups and saucers matched, but the table
looked very pretty when it was set, with little white paper baskets of
almonds which the girls had made at each place, and all the candles lit
on the white cake in the middle. The boy brought three of his comrades,
and there were the Salvation Army Major in charge and the lassies. They
had a beautiful time. Of course it was quite a little extra work for
the lassie, but when someone asked her why she took so much trouble she
had a faraway look in her eyes, and said she guessed it was for the
sake of the boy’s mother, and those who heard remembered that her own
three brothers were in United States uniform somewhere facing the
enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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