Page 32 - 1920 February - To Dragma

TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 115

offered her services where she thought they m i g h t be most valuable.
O f course she realized she had no t r a i n i n g f o r the work, but such
units always need someone to do odd jobs and Tuney was ready
to do anything, just to help. I n the two years spent "over there"
were crowded the many storms and rainbows of the lives, which
were now lingering in her memory.

" O h , I do wish you'd tell us, Tuney," interrupted Margey, "and
you've never told us anything, really big. D o tell us of something
real. Go on, Tuney, please."

"But, Margey, you'd never understand in a thousand years, unless
you had been through i t yourself. I t a l l seems like a dream, even
to me. Sometimes I wonder i f I really went through the events
which seem so improbable to me now." T h e n , as i f a great impulse
had been awakened i n her, she asked i n a sudden inspired voice,
"Would you girls really like to hear of my most improbable expe-
rience?"

Four voices assented in unison, f o u r chairs drew closer to the
speaker and a l l eyes were filled w i t h eager anticipation.

" W e l l , " said Tuney, as she, too, sat on the edge of her chair, "you
know how I happened to go and what some o f my duties were. I t
did not take me long, before I realized that I could serve equally as
well as head nurse or floor-washer. I gave a hypodermic here, a
basin of water there, took temperatures, bandaged an arm, scrubbed
instruments, made out diet-lists, and laundered nurses uniforms.
The event I am going to tell you about probably would never have
happened, i f I hadn't been p l a y i n g minister, f o r an American chap
rather 'hors de combat.' They brought h i m i n , a J i m m y Cline,
horribly mangled, one hand gone and a leg that the surgeons said
could be saved only by the most favorable circumstances. T h i s was
while we were at the church hospital i n Montiers. The nurses were
so busy that a f t e r first aid, the men d i d not have any extra treat-
ment. J i m m y had lain there so long w i t h o u t regaining conscious-
ness—two days—I guess, and he looked so young and w o r t h w h i l e
that I decided that I would take a little care of him myself.

" I had passed his cot twenty times before he even opened his
eyes, and when he d i d , of course, the first t h i n g he wanted was
water. Then he asked me where he was, who I was, how he came
there, and a million other things that are born of morphia-delirium.
Like the healthy American he was, he wanted something to eat r i g h t
off quick, and without consulting a doctor or nurse I prepared an
eggnogg, which had a wonderful effect—spasma-delirium. M y
heart, you can imagine, nearly left me, f o r I thought I had killed
the boy w i t h my carelessness. H e tossed on the pillow u n t i l I was