It contained beds for fifty men; but on this day there were less than
twenty sick and crippled Tommies convalescing here. They had been
brought out of France, out of wet and cold and filth, with hurried
dressings on their hurts; and now they were in this bright, sweet,
wholesome place, with soft beds under them and clean linen on their
bodies, and flowers and dainties on the tables that stood alongside
them, and the gentlefolk of the neighborhood to mind them as volunteer
nurses.
There were professional nurses, of course; but, under them, the younger
women of the wealthy families of this corner of Surrey were serving; and
mighty pretty they all looked, too, in their crisp blue-and-white
uniforms, with their arm badges and their caps, and their big aprons
buttoned round their slim, athletic young bodies. I judge there were
about three amateur nurses to each patient. Yet you could not rightly
call them amateurs either; each of them had taken a short course in
nursing, it seemed, and was amply competent to perform many of the
duties a regular nurse must know.
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