]
One of our workers, who was at the hospital, told me that her first
impulse was to run for an _abris_ as we would do at the canteen, but
when she looked about her and saw everybody composedly going on with
duty, she gathered herself together and did the same--"Although," she
added, "my teeth just rattled at first." Some of the wounded were
terrified and begged not to be left; and that called out the mother
instinct in the women, so that they forgot to be afraid.
The Germans swept the hospital with their machine guns and did their
best to bomb it, but fortunately made no hits. It was finally necessary
to put out all lights and to cease work. It was a most trying ordeal,
because the buildings were of pine, close together, and a direct hit
probably would have started a fire which would have burned the wounded
as they lay.
[Sidenote: The sound of battle draws near.]
About half past one I went up to our mess and crawled into an empty bed.
The next morning when I awakened it was to the sound of distant cannon.
This meant that the battle was drawing nearer.
[Sidenote: A ride on an ambulance.]
An especially hard day kept me on the strain from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and
when I returned to the mess I found no dinner and no servants. Our
directrice, anticipating evacuation, had dismissed them. Only a little
Belgian refugee, a sort of "slavey," hung on, because she had no other
place to go. Tired out, I managed to make an omelet and a cup of tea,
and to fry some griddle cakes to replace the bread which was conspicuous
by its absence.
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