by anything and who greeted me as if
we had parted only yesterday. The word "leg" was not included in her
dictionary at all. One is apt to be a bit touchy at first about these
little things, and though I had seen the most terrible wounds in our
hospital, amputations had always rattled me thoroughly.

The little Aunt subsequently entertained the austere A.P.M., while her
papers were being put in order, with most interesting details of my
childhood and how she had brought me up from a baby! The whole interview
was described to me as "utterly priceless," by the F.A.N.Y. who had
taken her there.

The French Battery sent daily to enquire and presently I was allowed
visitors. I began to realize after a while that in losing a leg you find
out exactly who your real friends are. There are those whom I shall
never forget who came day after day to read or talk to me--friends who
paid no attention when the leg gave one of its violent jerks, but went
on talking as if nothing had happened, a fact that helped me to bear it
more than all the expressed sympathy in the world. The type who says
"Whatever was that? How dreadful!" fortunately never came. It was only
due to those real friends that I was saved from slipping into a slough
of despond from which I might never have hoped to rise. Eva gave up
rides and tennis in order to come down every day, and considering the
little time there was to devote to these pastimes I appreciated it all
the more.

To say I was the best posted person in the place is no exaggeration. I
positively heard both sides of every question (top and bottom as well
sometimes) and did my best to make as little scandal as possible!

I was in a room off the "Grand Circle" of the one-time Casino, an
officers' ward. One night the Sister had left me for a moment and I
could have sworn I saw three Germans enter. I thought they said to me
that they had come to hide and if I gave them away they would hit my
leg. The mere suggestion left me dumb and I distinctly seemed to see
them getting under the two other empty beds in the room.

After a few minutes it dawned on me what a traitor I was, and bit by bit
I eased myself up on my elbows. "I must go and tell someone these
Germans are here," I thought, and turned back the clothes. After
throwing the small sand bags on the floor that kept my bad leg in
position, I next seized the cradle and pitched that overboard. I then
carefully lifted first one leg round and then the othe