FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>   >|  
to make up one hundred dollars would help her to get up her house? It was _her_ turn to be speechless. At length with a struggling, choking voice she managed to say--"God knows how much it would be to me. Yes, with my good boys I can do it, and do it well." We put in her hands a check for this sum, and directed from the boat clean boxes of clothing and bedding, to help restore the household, when the house should have been completed. Before we left her, we asked if she would name her house when it should be done? She thought a second, and caught the idea. "Yes," she replied quickly, with a really winsome smile on that worn and weary face, "yes, I shall name it 'The Little Six.'" We came to Pittsburg, discharged our empty boat, bade a heart-breaking good-by to our veteran volunteers from Evansville, who had shared our toil and pain and who would return on the boat, we taking train once more for Washington. We had been four months on the rivers, among fogs, rain, damp, and malaria--run all manner of risks and dangers, but had lost no life nor property, sunk no boat, and only that I was by this time too weak to walk without help--all were well. Through the thoughtfulness of our new societies--St. Louis and Chicago--we had been able to meet our share of the expenses, and to keep good the little personal provision we started with, and were thus ready to commence another field when it should come. On arriving home I found that I was notified by the International Committee of Geneva, that the Fourth International Conference would be held in that city in September, and I was requested to inform the United States Government, and ask it to send delegates. With the aid of a borrowed arm, I made my way up the steps of the Department of State (that was before the luxury of elevators) and made my errand known to Secretary Frelinghuysen, who had heard of it and was ready with his reply: "Yes, Miss Barton, we will make the needful appointment of delegates to the International Conference, and I appoint you as our delegate." "No, Mr. Frelinghuysen," I said, "I can not go. I have just returned from field work. I am tired and ill. Furthermore, I have not had time to make a report of our work." "There is no one else who sufficiently understands the Red Cross, and the provisions of the treaty, that our Government can send, and we can not afford to make a mistake in the matter of delegates to this first conference in which
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

International

 

delegates

 

Conference

 
Frelinghuysen
 

Government

 
notified
 

afford

 
Committee
 

Geneva

 

Fourth


arriving

 

provisions

 

requested

 

inform

 
September
 
United
 
mistake
 

treaty

 

Chicago

 

societies


expenses
 

States

 

matter

 
commence
 

started

 

provision

 

conference

 

personal

 
sufficiently
 
thoughtfulness

needful
 

appointment

 
Barton
 

appoint

 
returned
 

delegate

 

Secretary

 

borrowed

 

luxury

 

elevators


errand

 

Furthermore

 

report

 

Department

 

understands

 

Before

 

completed

 
household
 

restore

 

clothing