_Luxemburg_
IN the afternoon, traveling in the direction of Belgium, there was an
unexpected movement under the broad seat of the Red Cross car which
startled its occupants.
The first exclamation came from Bianca Zoli who happened to be sitting
just over a space where a large box of provisions originally had been
stored. The box had been removed, however, and the food eaten at
luncheon.
"I am absurd!" Bianca exclaimed, clutching at Nora Jamison's hand, as
she was sitting beside her. "But I thought I felt something stir. I
wonder if the excitement of our journey is having a strange influence
upon me?"
"I don't think so," the older girl returned, "I have been conscious of
life, a movement of some kind underneath us ever since we left the
little French farmhouse. I say I have been conscious, no, I have not
been exactly that, only puzzled and uncomfortable."
Leaning over, Nora at this instant lifted the curtain, and Bianca
bending forward at the same time, they both became aware of the figure
of the little French girl who had vanished a few moments before their
departure from her home.
"Sonya!" Bianca called.
This was scarcely necessary, since by this time every occupant of the
car knew equally well what had happened and curiously enough, without
discussion, understood the explanation for the child's action.
The little girl had believed that this group of women and girls, wearing
the Red Cross of service, were her friends and if possible would protect
her from what she feared most in all the world, the grey uniformed
German soldiers. Also they were leaving the neighborhood where she had
lived under a burden of terror.
Her one desire was to escape from the captured town where the Germans
had been in authority so many weary months. As Nora Jamison and Bianca
both struggled to assist the child, they found she could scarcely help
herself, so stiff had she become from her uncomfortable position.
Yet she managed with their aid to climb up and sit crowded close between
Bianca and Nora Jamison.
"What are you going to do with this child, Sonya?" Bianca demanded, more
sympathetic than she cared to reveal, remembering her own childhood,
which had been more lonely and difficult than any one had ever realized.
Not even Sonya, who had come to her rescue in those past days in Italy,
more from a combination of circumstance than from any great affection
for her, had ever understood.
In response Sonya bit her lips and frowned. There was something about
the little French girl which had attracted her strongly at the first
sight of her, an attraction she could not have explained, unless it were
compassion, and yet she had seen many pathetic, forsaken children during
her war work in France.
"I am sure I don't know, Bianca," she replied finally. "I suppose we can
leave the child with some French family along our route. However, most
of them have responsibilities enough of their own, without our adding a
child whose last name we do not even know and who appears unable to tell
us anything about herself."
"We cannot take the child back to her own home, even if we could turn
back, which is of course out of the question. I would not have the
courage to leave the little girl alone there, when she has showed so
plainly her wish to escape. Oh, well, life is full enough of problems
and some one will surely take the child off our hands! people in
adversity are wonderfully kind to one another; our life in France during
the war has taught us that much."
Both Sonya and Bianca were speaking English so that the little
interloper would not be able to understand what they were saying.
"I wonder why we cannot take 'La petite Louisa' along with us, Sonya?
After all one little girl more or less won't matter and we may need her
for our mascot in the new work that lies before us. I don't know why I
feel the Red Cross nursing with the army of occupation will have new
difficulties our former nursing did not have. Perhaps because the
soldiers will probably not be seriously ill and are likely to be a great
deal more bored," Mildred Thornton urged.
Sonya shook her head.
"Mildred, it is a little embarrassing to have to speak of it, but please
remember my husband is something of a martinet in matters of Red Cross
discipline. I am afraid he will not think we have the right to add a
little girl to our responsibilities. However, the child is with us now
not by our choice, and we must make her as comfortable as possible until
we have some inspiration concerning her. Miss Jamison, you will look
after her, won't you, since she seems to prefer you?"
But already Nora Jamison had assumed that the care of the little French
girl had been entrusted to her as a matter of course.
Later, the journey through France and into Belgium and thence into
Luxemburg became, not only for the American army but for the Red Cross
units which accompanied it, a triumphant procession.
In every little village along their route bells were rung, schools
closed while the children and the citizens gathered in the streets to
shout their welcome. Through the country at each crossroads groups of
men, women and young people were found waiting to express their
thankfulness either with smiles or tears.
Thirty-six hours after leaving their hospital near Chateau-Thierry, Mrs.
Clark and her Red Cross workers crossed the frontier of Belgium and
entered the little town of Virton.
In Virton, at the Red Cross headquarters, awaiting them they found
orders from Dr. David Clark. As promptly as possible they were to
proceed to the capital of Luxemburg and there establish a temporary Red
Cross hospital. Dr. Hugh Raymond was to take charge with Miss Blackstone
as superintendent, the Red Cross nurses assuming their usual duties.
Before their arrival arrangements for their reception would have been
made and a house secured for their temporary hospital.
This was necessary since along the route of march numbers of soldiers
were being attacked by influenza and must be cared for. Ordinary
hospitals were already overcrowded with wounded American soldiers who
had been prisoners in Germany.
Therefore, obeying orders, this particular Red Cross unit entered
Luxemburg a few hours before the arrival of General Pershing at the head
of his victorious troops.
It was early morning when the Red Cross girls drove into the little
duchy, which has occasioned Europe trouble out of all proportion to its
size. Actually the duchy of Luxemburg is only nine hundred and
ninety-nine square miles and has a population of three hundred thousand
persons.
Just as surely as Germany tore up her treaty with Belgium as a "scrap of
paper," when at the outbreak of the war it suited her convenience, as
surely had she marched her army across Luxemburg in spite of the
protest of its young Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide.
However, when Germany continued to use Luxemburg as an occupied
province, the Grand Duchess was supposed to have changed her policy and
to have become a German ally.
On the morning when the American Red Cross entered her capital, the grey
swarm of German soldiers was hurrying rapidly homeward, broken and
defeated, while the American army under General Pershing was hourly
expected.
To make way for the more important reception and to give as little
trouble as possible, the American Red Cross drove directly to the house
which had been set apart for their use. The house proved to be a large,
old fashioned place with wide windows and a broad veranda, and on the
principal street of the city not far from the Grand Ducal Palace.
After a few hours of intensive work toward transforming a one-time
private residence into a temporary hospital, the entire staff deserted
their labors to gather on the broad veranda.
The news had reached them that General Pershing had entered the capital
city of Luxemburg and would pass their headquarters on his way to the
Grand Ducal Palace for his formal reception by the Grand Duchess.
Later a portion of the American army itself marched by.
From their balcony the American girls could see the stars and stripes
mingling with the red, white and blue of the small principality.
Never in their past experience had they seen a welcome to equal the
welcome given by the citizens of Luxemburg to the troops which General
Pershing had led to victory. If the Grand Ducal family had been won over
to the German cause, how deeply the people of Luxemburg had sympathized
with the allies was proved by this single day's greeting.
Together with the people in the streets the Red Cross workers found they
were shouting themselves hoarse. Yet the shouts were barely heard amid
the blowing of whistles, the ringing of bells.
In the hearts of the inhabitants of the tiny duchy apparently there was
a great love for the soldiers of the greatest democracy in the world.
From every window along their route of march flowers rained down upon
the soldiers, children crowding close presented each American doughboy
with a bunch of chrysanthemums; one of them carried a banner on which
was inscribed, "The Day of Glory has Arrived."
Turning to speak to Mildred Thornton who stood beside her, Nona Davis
found to her surprise that her cheeks were wet with tears. She had not
been conscious of them until this instant.
"It pays almost, doesn't it, Mildred, for all the suffering we have
witnessed in Europe in the past four years to see the rejoicing of the
little nations of Europe over the victory of democracy? Even if the
little Grand Duchess is pro-German in sentiment, it is plain enough that
her people must have loathed the German occupation of their country. I
would not be surprised if the passing of our soldiers may not mean a
change of government in Luxemburg. Under the circumstances I wonder how
long our Red Cross unit may remain?"
Mildred Thornton shook her head.
"Impossible to guess of course, Nona. And yet I am glad of the
opportunity. We shall have nursed in one more country in Europe and
perhaps even little Luxemburg will offer us new experiences and new
friends."