the spot to clear away the
debris and take it to the repair-shops, where the usable portions were
quickly sorted out. We followed one of these processions in, and spent
an hour watching the work of this other department of aviation upon
which our own was so entirely dependent. Here machines were being
built as well as repaired. The air vibrated with the hum of machinery,
with the clang of hammers upon anvils and the roar of motors in
process of being tested.

There was a small army of women doing work of many kinds. They were
quite apt at it, particularly in the department where the fine strong
linen cloth which covers the wings was being sewn together and
stretched over the framework. There were great husky peasant-women
doing the hardest kind of manual labor. In these latter days of the
great world-war, women are doing everything, surely, with the one
exception of fighting. It is not a pleasant thing to see them, however
strong they may be, doing the rough, coarse work of men, bearing great
burdens on their backs as though they were oxen. There must be many
now whose muscles are as hard and whose hands as horny as those of a
stevedore. Several months after this time, when we were transferred to
another school of aviation, one of the largest in Europe, we saw women
employed on a much larger scale. They lived in barracks which were no
better than our own,--not so good, in fact,--and roughed it like
common soldiers.

Toward evening the wind freshened and flying was brought to a halt.
Then the Penguins were brought from their hangars, and Drew and I,
properly dressed this time, and accompanied by some of the Americans,
went out to the field for our first sortie. As is usual on such
occasions, there was no dearth of advice. Every graduate of the
Penguin class had a method of his own for keeping that unmanageable
bird traveling in a direct line, and every one was only too willing to
give us the benefit of his experience. Finally, out of the welter of
suggestions, one or two points became clear: it was important that
one should give the machine full gas, and get the tail off the ground.
Then, by skillful handling of the rudder, it might be kept traveling
in the same general direction. But if, as usually happened, it showed
willful tendencies, and started to turn within its own length, it was
necessary to cut the contact, to prevent it from whirling so rapidly
as to overturn.

Never have I seen a stranger sight than that