mered out, "I do not know how to tell you what happened to
that bath water." "Nonsense, it can't be very terrible," replied
Doctor X. "What was wrong?" "Well, Fraulein, when I went into the
camp kitchen this morning there were two cauldrons there, one
was your bath water, and the other was the camp soup. To you,
Fraulein, I brought the camp soup."
We who had worked with the Serbians had learned to respect and
admire them for their patriotism, courage and patient endurance.
We felt that their outstanding characteristic was their imagination,
which, turned into the proper channels and given a chance to
develop, should produce for the world not only famous painters
and poets but also great inventors. This vivid imagination is found
in the highest and lowest of the land. To illustrate it, I told my
neighbour at table a tale related to me by my good friend Dr.
Popovic. "Two weary, ragged Serbian soldiers were sitting huddled
together waiting to be ordered forward to fight. One asked the
other, 'Do you know how this War started, Milan? You don't. Well
then I'll tell you. The Sultan of Turkey sent our King Peter a sack of
rice. King Peter looked at the sack, smiled, then took a very small
bag and went into his garden and filled it with red pepper. He sent
the bag of red pepper to the Sultan of Turkey. Now, Milan, you can
see what that meant. The Sultan of Turkey said to our Peter, 'My
army is as numerous as the grains of rice in this sack,' and by
sending a small bag of red pepper to the Sultan our Peter replied,
'My Army is not very numerous, but it is mighty hot stuff.'"
Many members of the Units of the Scottish Women's Hospitals
who had been driven out of Serbia at the time of the great invasion
had asked to be allowed to return to work for the Serbians, and we
were now equipping fresh units, entirely staffed by women, to
serve with the Serbian Army, besides having at the present time
the medical care of six thousand Serbian refugees on the island of
Corsica.
General Petain said smiling that before the war he had sometimes
thought of women "as those who inspired the most beautiful ideas
in men and prevented them from carrying them out," but the war,
he added, had certainly proved conclusively the value of women's
work.
M. Forain expressed the desire to visit the chief French Hospital of
the Scottish Women at the Abbaye de Royaumont. The General
laughingly told him, "You do not realise how stern and devoted to
dut
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