ttle of her history except that her credentials
must have been satisfactory to the Red Cross. I confess I agreed to have
her form a part of our Red Cross unit rather on an impulse, when I
learned Barbara Thornton was forced to return home. Besides, Miss
Jamison herself attracted me. She has some unusual characteristic which
I cannot exactly explain, but which nevertheless--"

"Ah, well, you need not try to explain it, David, because the thing is
'charm,' which I believe no one has successfully explained so far,"
Sonya answered. "I presume this same charm is what endears her to the
German children; it has kept the little French Louisa close beside her
since we left France. The little girl is getting all right too, talking
and behaving like a normal person. But of course I'll ask Miss Jamison
to be careful that her friendship with the German children does not lead
to any intimacy in their homes. She told me that she was a kind of Pied
Piper of Hamlin. Do you remember how the Pied Piper led the German
children away into some undiscovered country when their parents refused
to pay him his just dues? But I think the girl is Peter Pan instead and
has some childish quality which we cannot understand but which children
recognize and love in her. You see the young soldier to whom she was
engaged was killed in the fighting near Chateau-Thierry and apparently
children are her one consolation. She is friendly with all our Red Cross
unit, but not intimate with one of us."

When Sonya and her husband finally reached the Red Cross headquarters,
already the large building was lighted, as the darkness fell early in
the winter afternoons.

Going unannounced into the big reception room they found it fairly
crowded. The room must have been fifty feet in length and nearly equally
wide and extended from the front of the building to the rear.

In one end was a giant Christmas tree, left over from the Christmas
celebration for the soldiers which in honor of New Year's eve was again
lighted with a hundred white candles according to a German custom.

There were few other lights in the room.

Up against the walls were double rows of chairs in which a number of
persons were seated. Others were dancing in the centre of the floor.

Immediately Mrs. Arthur Adams, who was in charge of the Red Cross
headquarters, came forward to speak to Dr. and Mrs. Clark. She was
accompanied by Major James Hersey, who had entirely recovered from his
attack of i