ce body built on. She made the drawings for it herself, and it
contained many improvements over the standard makes. It contained, for
instance, a cigarette lighter--not that Tish smokes, but because wounded
men always do, and we knew that matches were scarce in France. It also
contained an ice-water tank, a reading lamp, with a small portable
library of improving books selected by our clergyman, Mr. Ostermaier,
and a false bottom. This last Tish was rather mysterious about, merely
remarking that it might be a good place for Aggie to retire to if she
took a sneezing spell within earshot of the enemy.

When I look back and recall how foresighted Letitia Carberry was I am
filled with admiration of those sterling qualities which have so many
times brought us safely out of terrible danger.

We were, however, doomed at first to real disappointment. With
everything arranged, with the ambulance ready and our costumes made, we
could not get to France. Tish made a special trip to Washington to see
the Secretary of War, and he remembered very well her recommendations as
to the camps, and so forth, and said that he had referred the matter of
pyjamas, for instance, to the Chief of Staff. He himself felt that the
point was well taken. He believed in pyjamas, and wore them, but that he
had an impression, though he did not care to go on record about it, that
the chief of staff advocated nightshirts. He also said that he had a
letter from General Pershing asking that no relatives of soldiers go to
France, as he was afraid that the gentle and restraining influence of
their loved ones would impair their taste for war.

Aggie and I began to have a little hope at that time, and Aggie tore up
a will she had made leaving her property to the Red Cross, on condition
that it kept up Mr. Wiggins' lot in the cemetery. But just as we were
feeling more cheerful Aggie had a warning. She had been reading
everywhere of the revival in spiritualism, and once before when she was
in doubt she had been most successful with a woman who told the future
with the paste letters that are used in soup. She went to a clairvoyant
and he told her to be very careful of high places, and that the warning
came from some one who had passed over from a high place. He thought it
was an aviator, but we knew better, and Aggie looked at me with agonized
eyes.

Aggie has said since that when she was in her terrible position at V----
she remembered that warning, but of course