for as surely as fate the sweeping W.A.A.C. caught her
brush firmly in one of the legs. "Sorry, miss, did it ketch you?" she
would exclaim, "there, I done it agin; drat this broom!"

There were two other patients in the room who relished the quiet in the
afternoons when most of the W.A.A.C.s went out on pass. One of them was
a sister from the hospital, and the other a girl suffering from cancer,
both curtained off in distant corners. "Now for a sleep, sister," I
would call, as the last one departed, but as often as not just as we
were dropping off a voice would rouse us, saying: "Good afternoon, I've
just come in to play the piano to you for a little," and without waiting
for a reply a cheerful lady would sit down forthwith and bang away
virtuously for an hour!

We had had a good many air raids before Christmas and I hoped Fritz
would reserve his efforts in that direction till I could go about on
crutches again. No such luck, however, for at 10 o'clock one night the
warnings rang out. I trusted, as I had had my operations so recently, I
should be allowed to remain; but some shrapnel had pierced the roof of
the ward in a former raid and everyone had to be taken down willy-nilly.
I hid under the sheets, making myself as flat as possible in the hopes
of escaping. I was discovered of course and lifted into a wheel chair
and taken down in the lift to the Padre's room, where all the W.A.A.C.s
were already assembled. Our guns were blazing away quite heartily, the
"London front" having recently been strengthened. Just as I got down,
the back wheel of my chair collapsed, which was cheering!

We sat there for some time listening to the din. Everyone was feeling
distinctly peevish, and not a few slightly "breezy," as it was quite a
bad raid. I wondered what could be done to liven up the proceedings, and
presently espied a pile of hymn-books which I solemnly handed out,
choosing "Onward Christian Soldiers" as the liveliest selection! I could
not help wondering what the distant F.A.N.Y.s would have thought of the
effort. In the middle of "Greenland's spicy mountains," one W.A.A.C.
varied the proceedings by throwing a fit, and later on another fainted;
beyond that nothing of any moment happened till the firing, punctuated
by the dropping bombs, became so loud that every other sound was
drowned. Some of the W.A.A.C.s were convinced we were all "for it" and
would be burnt to death, but I assured them as my chair had broken, and
I had