Young Hilda at the Wars

and energetic old lady in London, who had been charmed with the daring of the American gir

be sent for service in Pervyse, to save wounded Belgian soldiers from suffering? It will be run by a nurse named Hilda. 'Lady Hildas' subs

ront page of the London Times, w

eek of the wearing, perilous service, hard by the Belgian trenches. Gradually there had drifted out of the marsh-land hints and broken bits of the life-saving work of these Pervyse girls

either side with a crimson splash that ought to be visible on a dark night. The thirty horse-power engine purred and obeyed with the sympathy of a high-strung horse. Seats and stretchers inside were clean and fresh for stricken

rushes of feeling about it, too. It must do worthy work, she said to herself. There could be no retreating fr

men, save her and her two friends, who were doing just this sort of dangerous touch-and-go work. With her own eyes she had read the letters of more than two hundred persons, begging permission to join the Cor

he fame of them spread through the Belgian Army, the Doctor was as happy as if a grandchild had won the Derby. He was glad when Mrs. Bracher and "Scotch" received the purple ribbon and the starry silver medal for faithful service in a parlous place. He

his car will. This is as good as an endowed hospital bed. It's like the Kin

ng so dead-looking as a wrecked ambulance. I saw one the other day on

one of the Fortunate Seven. You know there are Seven Fortunate born in each generation

see," resp

back to Furnes, when he rem

led to Hilda, "what

d I want but Smith? He is quite the bravest

ffeur," remarked

uns the car and picks up the wounded, and straps in t

doesn't he?" said the s

laughed Hilda, "an

for duty earl

in some real way," she sai

t in replies of one word. He was a city l

ways work at Dixm

d on the si

against white, miss?" asked Smith, afte

hing. But, just the same, I don't like to see them using black men. They don't

fault, is it, mi

"they deserve all the more he

his constitutional silence. He had a quiet way with him, wh

uined place was still treated from time to time with shell fire, lest any troops should make the charred wreckage

rouble fell out of the sky. They had been left there to hold the furthest outpost. A dozen of them were hale and cheery. Two of them sat patiently in the straw, nursing each a damaged arm. Out in the gutter, fifty feet away, one sat picking at his left leg. Smith turned the car, half around, then

ut close over the hood of the ambulance and exploded in the low wall of th

tery of four

morning light. Hilda motioned the two wounded men in the inn to come to the car. They slowly rose to their feet, and patiently trudged out into the road. Smith gave them a hand, and they climbed upon the footboard of th

t he walk?"

away," re

here was the moan of travelling metal, then the heavy thud of its impact, the roar as it released its explosive, and t

r range all rig

, and acted cruelly. She had brought suffering to other lives with her charm. And, suddenly in this flash of clear seeing, she knew that by this single act of standing there, waiting, she had wiped out the wrong-doing, and found forgiveness. She knew she could face the dark as blithely as if she were going to her bridal. Strange how

g with him in this hour, connected her with the past of her own life, for, after her fashion, she had tried to be true to her idea of equality. She had always felt that such as he were worthy of the highest things in life. And there he stood, proving it. That there was nobody beside herself to see him, struck her as just a part of the general injustice. If he had been a great cap

g along, had reached the car. Smith and Hilda lifted him in, and waved good-bye to the black men

nd gallant friend, Commandant Jost, friend of the King's. He w

Hilda to her old fri

't know it was you. I have been watching your car with my glasses. The

lda, "but all's we

you rescue?" ask

l; "the last fellow came

d came round to the back of

or black men?"

"If they're good enough to fight f

s," he said; "it means a de

an instant. Then the glow

she said simply, "it goes to

ping them rare. Now it really will not do to add two more decorations to your little group. Two of your women have already received them. This was a bra

da. "I know that. One decoration is quite enough.

was plain already that he was going down into history as one of the fabulous good rulers, with Alfred and Saint Louis, who had been as noble in their secret heart as in their pride of place. It was fitting that the brief ceremony should be held

at had lived through three bombardments and sought her meat in wrecked homes. He was blotted out by the "Hilda" car, as he tinkered with its intimacies. No man ever looked less like a Chevalier, than Smith, when discovered and conducted to the King. Any of the

ful moment, when the King's

over, isn't i

a sm

ury the medal in an old tr

bonnet. The group of distinguished people had

ar as I am," she said; "it's so

had already succeeded in smearing his fingers with

a way. You see, my mother's name is Hilda, same a

HE AMB

g a dead man am

our officer; "it is bad for the wounde

wide eyes in the night, as if frozen in his pain. Soldiers, stumbling to their supper, brushed against his stiff body and then swerved when they saw the thing which they had touched. A group of doctors and officers moved away. Mud from the sloughing t

nd the land that awakened his courage will receive him at last. There is more comp