which the white-clad surgeons wield with such
magical effect.

Should you feel like giving up the theatre this evening, or taking a
street-car instead of a taxi, or not opening that bottle of champagne,
the money would be very welcome to Dr. du Page and his wounded. Should
you feel that that is too much to give, it might be well for you to
remember that he has given something, too. He gave his wife. She was
returning from America, where she had gone to collect funds to carry
on the work of the hospital. She sailed on the _Lusitania_....

* * * * *

To reach the Belgian firing-line is not easy because, the country
being as flat as a ballroom floor, the Germans see and shoot at you.
So one needs to be cautious. So dangerous is the terrain in this
respect that the ambulances and motor-lorries and ammunition-trains
could not get up to the trenches at all had not the Belgians, with
great foresight, done wholesale tree-planting. Most people do not
number nursery work among the duties of an army, but nowadays it is.
From France and England the Belgians imported many saplings, thousands
if not tens of thousands of them, and set them out along the roads
exposed to German fire, and now their foliage forms a screen behind
which troops and transport can move with comparative safety. In places
where trees would not grow the roads have been masked for miles with
screens made from branches. To have one of these screens between you
and the Germans is very comforting.

On our way up to the front we made a detour in order that I might call
on a friend, Mrs. A. D. Winterbottom, who, before her marriage to a
British officer, was Miss Appleton of Boston. In "Fighting in
Flanders" I told about a very brave deed which I saw performed by Mrs.
Winterbottom. She was quite angry with me for mentioning it, but
because she is an American of whom her countrypeople have every reason
to be proud, I am going to tell about it again. It was during the last
days of the siege of Antwerp. The Germans had methodically pounded to
pieces with their great guns the chain of barrier forts encircling the
city. Waelhem was one of the last to fall. When at length the remnant
of the garrison evacuated the fort they brought back word that a score
of their comrades, too badly wounded to walk, remained within the
battered walls. So Mrs. Winterbottom, who had brought over from
England her big touring-car and was driving it herself, sai