Margaret Vandercook

The Red Cross Girls in Belgium Margaret Vandercook

After six months of nursing in the British trenches the four American Red Cross girls were inspired to offer their services to the French soldiers. An autumn and a winter they spent together in southern France, keeping house in the little French "Farmhouse with the Blue Front Door." Here the girls were so interested and so happy that for a little time they almost forgot the tragedies near at hand. During the first months there had come a lull in the fighting along the borders of Alsace-Lorraine, where the American girls were now stationed. So they had opportunity for enjoying the fragrant woods, "the pool of Melisande" and the romantic atmosphere of the French country. Their farmhouse was close upon the borders of an old chateau and belonged to its owner, the Countess Castaigne. After a slight misunderstanding a friendship develops between the old Countess and three out of the four American girls. And here in the dignified old Louis XIV drawing room they meet for the second time young Captain Henri Castaigne, whom in Paris they had seen decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honor.