Here is a touching letter from one of the King's Own Royal Lancasters.
"In one hospital, which was a church," he writes, "there was a young
French girl helping to bandage us up. How she stood it I don't know.
There were some awful sights, but she never quailed--just a sad sweet
smile for every one. If ever any one deserved a front seat in Heaven
this young angel did. God bless her! She has the prayers and all the
love the remnants of the Fourth Division can give her."
And another pretty little tribute is paid to the kindness of a French
lady to four English soldiers billeted at her house. "She was wondrous
kind," writes one of the grateful soldiers, "and when we left for the
front Madame and her mother sobbed and wept as if we had been their own
sons."
XI
ATKINS AND THE ENEMY
In one of his fine messages from the front, Sir John French, whom the
_New York World_ has described as the "best of war correspondents,"
referred to the British soldier as "a difficult person to impress or
depress." He meant, of course, that it was no use trying to terrify
Tommy Atkins. Nothing will do that. His stupendous sense of humor
carries him, smiling, through every emergency.
But Atkins is a keen observer, and he takes on very clear and vivid
impressions of men and affairs.
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