The Rotterdam canals were choked with barges, weighted with freight; heavy trucks rattled down the streets, a whistle shrieked, telegraph wires hummed, motors flashed by—men were moving quickly, grouping themselves freely at corners; life—vivid, outspoken, free—crowded upon me, filling my eyes and ears. With a swift tremor of physical fear I huddled back in my seat. After eight months I was afraid of this thing! And “Inside” I had thought I realized the whole of the cruel numbness. Slowly I had felt it closing in about me, closing down upon me, shutting me in with _them_—with terrors and anguish, with human souls that at any moment a hand might reach in to toss—where? XXVI FAREWELL I can think of no more beautiful, final tribute to the women of Belgium than that carried in their own words—words of tragedy, but words of widest vision and understanding and generosity, sent in farewell to us: “Oh, you who are going back in that free country of the United States, tell to all our sufferings, our distress; tell them again and again our cries of alarm, which come from our opprest and agonized hearts! You have lived and felt what we are living and feeling; we have understood that, higher than charity which gives, you brought us charity which understands and consoles! Your souls have bowed down over ours, our eyes with anxiety are looking in your friendly eyes. Over the big ocean our wishes follow you. Oh, might you there remember the little Belgium! The life which palpitates in her grateful heart—she owes it to you! _You are our hope, our anchor! Help us! Do not abandon the work of charity you have undertaken!_ “Our endless gratitude goes to you, and from father to children, in the hovel and in the palace, we shall repeat your great heart, your high idealism, _your touching charity_!” NOTE BY THE AUTHOR The increase in dependency in less than a year, as shown by a comparison of the following figures with those in this book, suggests more poignantly than any written account could, the daily deepening tragedy of Belgium: Present total on “Soupes” in whole of Belgium 3,032,089 Present total on “Soupes” in Greater Brussels 401,600 Present total children in Belgium receiving eleven o’clock meal 985,617 Present total nursing or expectant mothers receiving canteen meal 14,809 Present total debilitated children receiving supplementary meal 53,311 C. K. _December, 1917._ Transcriber’s Note The changes are as follows: