and behaving generally as if to
respond to the "Follow thou me" of the New Testament was an entirely
unheroic proceeding for a woman.

And what are these women doing at Grecourt? To condense their purpose
into a phrase, I should say that by their example they are bringing
sanity back into the lives of the French peasants. That is what the
American Fund for French Wounded is doing at Blerancourt, what all
these reconstruction units are doing in the devastated areas, and what
the American Red Cross is doing on a much larger scale for the whole
of France. At Grecourt they have a dispensary and render medical aid.
If the cases are grave, they are sent to the American Hospital at
Nesle. They hunt out the former tradespeople among the refugees and
encourage them to re-start their shops, lending them the money for
the purpose. If the men are captives in Germany, then their wives are
helped to carry on the business in their absence and for their sakes.
Groups of mothers are brought together and set to work on making
clothes for themselves and their children. Schools are opened so
that the children may be more carefully supervised. Two of the girls
at Grecourt have learnt to plough, and are instructing the peasant
women. Cows are kept and a dairy has been started to provide the
under-nourished babies of the district. An automobile-dispensary is
sent out from the hospital at Nesle to visit the remoter districts. It
has a seat along one side for the patient and the nurse. Over the seat
is a rack for medicine and instruments. On the opposite side is a
rack for splints and surgical dressings. On the floor of the car a
shower-bath is arranged, which is so compact that it can be carried
into the house where the water is to be heated. The water is put into
a tub on a wooden base; while the doctor manipulates the pump for the
shower, the nurse does the scrubbing. Most of the diseases among the
children are due to dirt; the importance of keeping clean, which such
colonies as that at Grecourt are impressing on all the people whom
they serve, is doing much to improve the general state of health. In
this direction, as in so many others, the most valuable contribution
that they are making to their districts is not material and financial,
but mental--the contribution of example and suggestion. Seventeen
women cannot re-build in a day an external civilisation which has been
blotted out by the savagery of a nation; but they can and they are
r