A small band of nurses, men and women, were steaming onwards in the train to Jacksonville, Florida, where yellow fever had broken out. To them came their leader, Colonel Southmayd. "Some way ahead," said he, "is the little town of McClenny where the plague is also in full force. The town is quarantined on all sides; it is without nurses, medicines, comforts for the sick, even without food. Shall I leave some of you there? This train is not allowed to stop at the town, but if I can manage to get it to slow up... will you jump?" "We will do what you say, Colonel. We are here in God's name and service to help His people; for Him, for you and for the Red Cross we will do our best." "Conductor, don't you think you might slow up after passing McClenny?" "I will slow up, Colonel, though I may lose my place for it." One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground soaked, slippery and caving, out into pitiless darkness leaped three men and seven women from a puffing, unsteady train. No physician was with them, and no leader. They only knew that they were needed and must do their best. Taking each others' hands, so that they might not lose one another in the darkness, they scrambled back over the slippery railroad bed to the fever-stricken village. That very night, after drying their clothes, they planned what to do and each took his or her share of patients. Dr. Gill, a Norwegian by birth, tall, honest, and true as the pines of his native land, was sent from New Orleans, and under his wise direction they again found a 1 Adapted from The Red Cross. American Historical Press. leader. During the few days Colonel Southmayd was in Jacksonville, he sent them comforts for the sick and nourishing food for themselves, but after that, they got on as best they could, finding and cooking their own meals. The nurses often gave to the sick, the children, the old and the helpless, what they needed for their own strength. Many were the records of seventytwo hours without change or sleep, almost without sitting down, and many were the unselfish deeds which we shall never know. Mr. Wilson, a big, colored man, took charge of a small hospital with six patients, cared for them all without an hour's relief from any person, and saved every case. Edward Holyland, a young man of twenty-nine, who was chief nurse, found a neglected Italian family a mile or more outside the town. He nursed them there alone, and when the young son, a lad of thirteen or fourteen, died, there being no one to bury him there, Mr. Holyland wrapped him in a blanket and brought him into town on his back. As the fever was gradually conquered by their experience and skill, the nurses reached out to other freshly attacked hamlets. The town of Enterprise, one hundred miles below, called to them for aid; they all turned back from the hope of home and, after a bare two days of the rest they so needed, they added another month of toil to their already weary record. On November 4th they went into camp for their ten days of quarantine before they could go home to New Orleans for Thanksgiving. To them here the Red Cross organization sent a number of its members to give thanks to the unselfish, faithful band. A meeting was held in the headquarters tent. There were officers of the camp, well-wishers from all the countryside, and in the center the ten nurses themselves whose names deserve never to be forgotten - Eliza Savier, Lena Seymour, Elizabeth Eastman, Harriet Schmidt, Lizzie Louis, Rebecca Vidal, Annie Evans, Arthur Duteil, Frederick Wilson, and Edward Holyland; four Americans, one German, one French, one Irish, and three Africans. They wore no uniform; their only distinguishing feature was the umbia or turban and a pitiful little misshapen tattered Red Cross made by their own hands and pinned on their breasts. Telegrams had arrived from all parts of the country giving thanks for the help received. The Mayor of McClenny spoke with trembling voice the gratitude which his town felt: "I fear the nurses often worked in hunger, but they brought us to our feet, and the blessing of every man, woman and child is on them." The nurses told of the work of their comrades, and Dr. Gill placed before the meeting his matchless record of cases attended and lives preserved. He testified to the wonderful work of the nurses, standing firm through everything, with never a word of complaint through all those trying months. A few days later, the north-bound train halted and took on board the tall doctor and happy nurses. Their last words, as they departed were, "When you want us, we are ready." The love of those they had befriended and the approval of a whole people, north and south, went with them. APRIL: PATRIOTISM For the Teacher: LOVE THOU THY LAND ALFRED TENNYSON Love thou thy land, with love far-brought Within the Present, but transfused Make Knowledge circle with the winds; Bear seed of men and growth of minds. Suggestions for morning talks Read: "The Army of Peace," "The Flag," "Who Patriots Are," in The Young Citizen, Charles F. Dole. D. C. Heath & Co. "Our Debt to the Nation's Heroes," from American Ideals, Theodore Roosevelt. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Tell stories of men who loved their country: "The Last Lesson in French," Alphonse Daudet, in Stories to Tell to Children, Sara Cone Bryant. Houghton Mifflin Co. Read: "Breathes there the man," Sir Walter Scott. "William Tell," and "Arnold V. Winkelreid," in Fifty Famous Stories Retold, James Baldwin. American Book Co. Compare Tell and Winkelried. Which seems to you the more courageous? Write compositions on some of the topics suggested in American Hero Stories, Eva March Tappan. Houghton Mifflin Co. Read: "An American in Europe," Henry van Dyke, in The White Bees and Other Poems. Charles Scribner's Sons. Two Noble Lives, Laura E. Richards. Dana A Message to Garcia, Elbert Hubbard. Roycroft Learn: "The Flag goes by," H. H. Bennett. R.L.S. For questions on patriotism, see Cabot's Ethics for Children, p. 184. NATHAN HALE On the 6th of June, 1755, was born Nathan Hale; his father was a farmer and deacon of his church, who brought up his boys in true New England habits, hardy, self-reliant, honest and loyal. When Nathan was fifteen, he went to Yale College and after graduating there he became a school-teacher. Two years later, on April 19, 1775, a messenger galloping from Boston brought the news of the battle of Lexington and the call to arms. Nathan Hale offered himself eagerly among the first. "Let us march immediately," he cried, “and never lay down our arms till we obtain our independence." He wrote to the managers of his school that he went to war because he could serve his country in its time of danger. As the war went on, Hale began to show what a man he was. The army was short of clothes, food, ammunition, and pay. The soldiers grew discouraged, and wanted to go home. Hale, who was now a Captain, tried, as did the other officers, to persuade the soldiers not to go. Finally, he went to them, and dividing his own pay among them, managed thus to make them stay. After the disastrous battle of Long Island, the Americans were in a worse state than ever. They had to guard long stretches of shore and could not tell at what point the British might land from Long Island and attack |