Fanny Goes to War

formed the one and only topic of conversation), from nurses and sisters in the Typhoid Wards, but had never actually been there myself. As previously explained the three Typhoid Wa

d the square, and in the evenings it was very restful to hear the

ls; and in fact ours was the only hospital in the place that would take them in, the others having refused. Our beds were therefore always full, and th

ry ill. The sister told me he had come down with a splendid fighting record, and was one of the worst cases of pneumonic typhoid in the ward. My heart ached for him, and instinctively I shivered, for somehow he did not seem to belong to this world any longer. We passed on to Ward III, where I was presented to "Le Petit Sergent," a little bit of a man, so cheery and bright, who had made a marvellous recovery, but was not yet well enough to be moved. Everywhere was that peculiar smell which seems inseparable from typhoid wards in spite, or perhaps because of, the many disinfectants. We left by the door at the end of Salle

aw me in the typhoid wards which soon I learnt to love, and which I found so inte

for him to get better, but one morning when I passed, the bed was empty and a nurse was disinfecting the iron bedstead. For one moment I thought he had been moved. "Where-What?" I asked, disjointedly of the nurse. "Died in the night," she said briefly. "Don't look like that," and she went on with her work. No. 16 had somehow got on my mind, I suppose because it was the first bad typhoid case I had seen, and from the first I had taken such an interest in him. One

oculated, we were obliged to gargle several times during the da

sently heard one of the famous fish wives calling out in the street. I ran out and bargained with her, for of course she would have been vastly disappointed if I had given her the original price she asked. At last I returned triumphant with two nice looking little "Merlans," too small to cut their heads off, I decided. I had never coped with fish before, so after holding them for some time

plained at length and said, "No, take them away; you've made me feel ever so much better, but I'll have eggs inste

y went all ove

rward to tremendously, but as they were practically-with slight variations in the matter of shellin

ould have a beard or not-was very amusing, without of course meaning to be. He liked to write the reports of the

"If the man slee

have red win (wine

e him with the sponges." And he was once heard to remark with refe

his widowed mother. He was in constant fear as to her safety, for she had been left in their little house and had no time to escape. He was well-educated and most interesting,

lied on the pros. to cook the midnight supper!), and further there were no remarks or reflections about the defects of the "untrained unit" who "imagined they knew e

me. "Miske," he asked, "think you that I shall see my wife and five children again?" Before I could reply, he continued, "They were there là bas in the little house so happy when I left them in 1914-My God," and he became agitated. "If it were not permitted that I return? Do you think I am going

the sinister coffin cart flapped into the yard and bore him off to his las

how often in the latter case I prayed that it might be over quickly; but no, the fell dise