11th a number of the boys at the hospital
at Tours received orders to prepare for a trip to the coast. This was
the most welcome news that we could have heard and we hastily got our
personal belongings together. It was about 10 o'clock when we were
placed in ambulances and taken from the hospital. We were driven to
the railroad station about a mile distant, and there assigned to
quarters in an American hospital train.

This was the first American train I had been on since I arrived in
France, and it certainly was a great relief to me to know that we were
not to be crowded into one of those uncomfortable, stuffy and tiresome
French trains. The American hospital train furnished an excellent
example of American efficiency, and when contrasted with the French
trains. I could not but think how much more progressive our people are
than Europeans. We had everything that we needed, and plenty of it. We
enjoyed good beds, good food, and sufficient room to move around
without encroaching upon the rights and the good natures of others. We
pulled out of Tours with no regrets on what was our most enjoyable
train trip while in France. It was enjoyable for two reasons--first,
we were traveling in comfort and as an American is used to traveling,
and secondly, we were traveling toward home.

The trip down the Loire Valley followed practically the same route
that we took on our way from Brest to Tours. The scenes, of course,
were very much the same, except that the country now wore its winter
coat, while it was mid-summer on my previous trip.

We arrived in Brest on December 13th, and to our surprise, we learned
that President Wilson had just previously landed there, and the city
had gone wild with enthusiasm over him. A tremendous crowd gathered
at the station to greet him. Bands were playing and the occasion was a
gala one. Our train stopped about a quarter of a mile away from the
station, where the President greeted a mass of French people and
American soldiers. I regret very much that I was unable to get a view
of the President while he was at Brest; that was not my fortune. We
did, however, see his train pull out on its journey to Paris.

Soon after we arrived at Brest we were told that we would be taken
back on the "George Washington," the liner upon which President Wilson
crossed the Atlantic, and great was our joy. However, we were soon
doomed to disappointment, for orders were changed, and we were taken
to the Carry On Hospi