m with admiring and envious eyes as the four girls
set off together for the hospital.

"I'd just love to be a V.A.D.," she sighed. "Oh, I wish I were old
enough to leave school! It must be a ripping life."

Grace Chalmers laughed.

"One doesn't always think so early in the morning. Sometimes I'd give
everything in the world not to have to get up and turn out."

"So would I," agreed Elaine.

"What exactly has a V.A.D. to do?" asked Marjorie. "Do tell me."

"Well, it depends entirely on the hospital, and what she has undertaken.
If she has signed under Government, then she's a full-time nurse, and is
sent to one of the big hospitals. Elaine and I are only half-timers. We
go in the mornings, from eight till one, and do odd jobs. I took night
duty during the summer while some of the staff had their holidays."

"Wasn't it hard to keep awake?"

"Not in the least. Don't imagine for a moment that night duty consists
in sitting in a ward and trying not to go to sleep. I was busy all the
time. I had to get the trays ready for breakfast, and cut the bread and
butter. Have you ever cut bread and butter for fifty hungry people?"

"I've helped to get ready for a Sunday-school tea-party," said Marjorie.

"Well, this is like a tea-party every day. One night I had to clean
fifty herrings. They were sent as a present in a little barrel, and the
Commandant said the men should have them for breakfast. They hadn't been
cleaned, so Violet Linwood and I set to work upon them. It was a most
horrible job. My hands smelt of fish for days afterwards. I didn't
mind, though, as it was for the Tommies. They enjoyed their fried
herrings immensely. What else did I have to do in the night? When the
breakfast trays were ready, I used to disinfect my hands and sterilize
the scissors, and then make swabs for next day's dressings. Some of the
men don't sleep well, and I often had to look after them, and do things
for them. Then early in the morning we woke our patients and washed
them, and gave them their breakfasts, and made their beds and tidied
their lockers, and by that time the day-shift had arrived, and we went
off duty."

"Tell her how you paddled," chuckled Elaine.

"Shall I? Isn't it rather naughty?"

"Oh, please!" implored Marjorie and Dona, who were both deeply
interested.

"Well, you see, there's generally rather a slack time between four and
half-past, and one morning it was quite light and most deliciously warm,
and Sister wa