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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of the Red Cross as told to The
+Little Colonel, by Annie Fellows-Johnston
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Story of the Red Cross as told to The Little Colonel
+
+Author: Annie Fellows-Johnston
+
+Illustrator: John Goss
+
+Release Date: November 18, 2005 [EBook #17094]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Kentuckiana Digital Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+       AS TOLD TO
+   THE LITTLE COLONEL
+
+          =Works of=
+   =ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON=
+
+  =The Little Colonel Series=
+
+(_Trade Mark, Reg. U.S. Pat. Of._)
+
+Each one vol., large 12mo, cloth, illustrated
+
+          The Little Colonel Stories                    $1.50
+            (Containing in one volume the three stories,
+            "The Little Colonel," "The Giant Scissors,"
+            and "Two Little Knights of Kentucky.")
+          The Little Colonel's House Party               1.50
+          The Little Colonel's Holidays                  1.50
+          The Little Colonel's Hero                      1.50
+          The Little Colonel at Boarding School          1.50
+          The Little Colonel in Arizona                  1.50
+          The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation        1.50
+          The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor              1.50
+          The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding       1.50
+          The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware           1.50
+          Mary Ware in Texas                             1.50
+          Mary Ware's Promised Land                      1.50
+          The above 12 vols., _boxed_, as a set    18.00
+
+          The Little Colonel Good Times Book             1.50
+          The Little Colonel Doll Book--First Series     1.50
+          The Little Colonel Doll Book--Second Series    1.50
+
+=Illustrated Holiday Editions=
+
+Each one vol., small quarto, cloth, illustrated, and printed
+in color
+
+          The Little Colonel                            $1.35
+          The Giant Scissors                             1.35
+          Two Little Knights of Kentucky                 1.35
+          Big Brother                                    1.35
+
+=Cosy Corner Series=
+
+Each one vol., thin 12mo, cloth, illustrated
+
+          The Little Colonel                             $.60
+          The Giant Scissors                              .60
+          Two Little Knights of Kentucky                  .60
+          Big Brother                                     .60
+          Ole Mammy's Torment                             .60
+          The Story of Dago                               .60
+          Cicely                                          .60
+          Aunt 'Liza's Hero                               .60
+          The Quilt that Jack Built                       .60
+          Flip's "Islands of Providence"                  .60
+          Mildred's Inheritance                           .60
+          The Little Man in Motley                        .60
+
+=Other Books=
+
+          Joel: A Boy of Galilee                        $1.50
+          In the Desert of Waiting                        .60
+          The Three Weavers                               .60
+          Keeping Tryst                                   .60
+          The Legend of the Bleeding Heart                .60
+          The Rescue of the Princess Winsome              .60
+          The Jester's Sword                              .60
+          Asa Holmes                                     1.25
+          Travelers Five Along Life's Highway            1.25
+
+=THE PAGE COMPANY=
+=53 Beacon Street= =Boston, Mass.=
+
+[Illustration: "'Do you suppose that I could train my dogs to do that?'"
+(_See page 39_)]
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+     _AS TOLD TO_
+  THE LITTLE COLONEL
+
+_By Annie Fellows Johnston_
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE LITTLE COLONEL SERIES,"
+"ASA HOLMES," "THE JEWEL SERIES," ETC.
+
+_Illustrated by John Goss_
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE PAGE COMPANY
+BOSTON MDCCCCXVIII
+
+_Copyright, 1902_,
+BY THE PAGE COMPANY
+
+_Copyright, 1918_,
+BY THE PAGE COMPANY
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+First Impression, October, 1918
+
+
+THE COLONIAL PRESS
+C.H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+Publisher's Note
+
+This story in its original form appeared in
+      =The Little Colonel's Hero=,
+    the fourth volume in the famous
+        =Little Colonel Series=.
+
+The publishers would have appropriately used on the cover of this book
+the Red Cross on a white field, adopted as its emblem by the Red Cross
+Society, but any use of that emblem for purposes other than those of
+this society has been prohibited by law.
+
+The Red Cross Society adopted its emblem in honor of Switzerland, where
+the society originated, but reversed the colors of the Swiss flag, which
+are a White Cross on a red field. It is consequently, under the
+circumstances, appropriate that the cover design should show the White
+Cross of Switzerland, where the Red Cross Society originated, and where
+its story was told to =The Little Colonel=.
+
+[Illustration: The LITTLE COLONEL]
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: CONTENTS]
+
+          CHAPTER                         PAGE
+            I Lloyd Meets Hero              1
+           II Hero's Story                 24
+          III The Red Cross of Geneva      44
+           IV Homeward Bound               69
+            V In After Years               82
+
+[Illustration: The MAJOR]
+
+[Illustration: LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS]
+
+                                                                   PAGE
+
+          "'Do you suppose that I could train my dogs to do that?'"
+            (_See page 39_)
+                                                          _Frontispiece_
+
+          "He stepped aside to let the great creature past him"      8
+
+          "But it did not stop their mad flight"                    16
+
+          "He plunged out alone into the deep snow"                 30
+
+          "The two were wandering along beside the water together"  62
+
+          "He fastened the medal to Hero's collar"                  67
+
+[Illustration: HERO]
+
+
+
+
+The Story of the Red Cross
+     _as Told to_
+  The Little Colonel
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+LLOYD MEETS HERO
+
+
+It was in Switzerland in the old town of Geneva. The windows of the big
+hotel dining-room looked out on the lake, and the Little Colonel,
+sitting at breakfast the morning after their arrival, could scarcely eat
+for watching the scene outside.
+
+Gay little pleasure boats flashed back and forth on the sparkling water.
+The quay and bridge were thronged with people. From open windows down
+the street came the tinkle of pianos, and out on the pier, where a
+party of tourists were crowding on to one of the excursion steamers, a
+band was playing its merriest holiday music.
+
+Far away in the distance she could see the shining snow crown of Mont
+Blanc, and it gave her an odd feeling, as if she were living in a
+geography lesson, to know that she was bounded on one side by the famous
+Alpine mountain, and on the other by the River Rhône, whose source she
+had often traced on the map. The sunshine, the music, and the gay crowds
+made it seem to Lloyd as if the whole world were out for a holiday, and
+she ate her melon and listened to the plans for the day with the
+sensation that something very delightful was about to happen.
+
+"We'll go shopping this morning," said Mrs. Sherman. "I want Lloyd to
+see some of those wonderful music boxes they make here; the dancing
+bears, and the musical hand-mirrors; the chairs that play when you sit
+down in them, and the beer-mugs that begin a tune when you lift them
+up."
+
+Lloyd's face dimpled with pleasure, and she began to ask eager
+questions. "Could we take one to Mom Beck, mothah? A lookin'-glass that
+would play 'Kingdom Comin',' when she picked it up? It would surprise
+her so she would think it was bewitched, and she'd shriek the way she
+does when a cattapillah gets on her."
+
+Lloyd laughed so heartily at the recollection, that an old gentleman
+sitting at an opposite table smiled in sympathy. He had been watching
+the child ever since she came into the dining-room, interested in every
+look and gesture. He was a dignified old soldier, tall and
+broad-shouldered, with gray hair and a fierce-looking gray moustache
+drooping heavily over his mouth. But the eyes under his shaggy brows
+were so kind and gentle that the shyest child or the sorriest waif of a
+stray dog would claim him for a friend at first glance.
+
+The Little Colonel was so busy watching the scene from the window that
+she did not see him until he had finished his breakfast and rose from
+the table. As he came toward them on his way to the door, she whispered,
+"Look, mothah! He has only one arm, like grandfathah. I wondah if he
+was a soldiah, too. Why is he bowing to Papa Jack?"
+
+"I met him last night in the office," explained her father, when the old
+gentleman had passed out of hearing. "We got into conversation over the
+dog he had with him--a magnificent St. Bernard, that had been trained as
+a war dog, to go out with the ambulances to hunt for dead and wounded
+soldiers. Major Pierre de Vaux is the old man's name. The clerk told me
+that when the Major lost his arm, he was decorated for some act of
+bravery. He is well known here in Geneva, where he comes every summer
+for a few weeks."
+
+"Oh, I hope I'll see the war dog!" cried the Little Colonel. "What do
+you suppose his name is?"
+
+The waiter, who was changing their plates, could not resist this
+temptation to show off the little English he knew. "Hes name is _Hero_,
+mademoiselle," he answered. "He vair smart dog. He know _evair_ sing
+somebody say to him, same as a person."
+
+"You'll probably see him as we go out to the carriage," said Mr.
+Sherman. "He follows the Major constantly."
+
+As soon as breakfast was over, Mrs. Sherman went up to her room for her
+hat. Lloyd, who had worn hers down to breakfast, wandered out into the
+hall to wait for her. There was a tall, carved chair standing near the
+elevator, and Lloyd climbed into it. To her great confusion, something
+inside of it gave a loud click as she seated herself, and began to
+play. It played so loudly that Lloyd was both startled and embarrassed.
+It seemed to her that every one in the hotel must hear the noise, and
+know that she had started it.
+
+"Silly old thing!" she muttered, as with a very red face she slipped
+down and walked hurriedly away. She intended to go into the
+reading-room, but in her confusion turned to the left instead of the
+right, and ran against some one coming out of the hotel office. It was
+the Major.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pahdon!" she cried, blushing still more. From the
+twinkle in his eye she was sure that he had witnessed her mortifying
+encounter with the musical chair. But his first words made her forget
+her embarrassment. He spoke in the best of English, but with a slight
+accent that Lloyd thought very odd and charming.
+
+"Ah, it is Mr. Sherman's little daughter. He told me last night that you
+had come to Switzerland because it was a land of heroes, and he was sure
+that you would be especially interested in mine. So come, Hero, my brave
+fellow, and be presented to the little American lady. Give her your paw,
+sir!"
+
+He stepped aside to let the great creature past him, and Lloyd uttered
+an exclamation of delight, he was so unusually large and beautiful. His
+curly coat of tawny yellow was as soft as silk, and a great ruff of
+white circled his neck like a collar. His breast was white, too, and his
+paws, and his eyes had a wistful, human look that went straight to
+Lloyd's heart. She shook the offered paw, and then impulsively threw her
+arms around his neck, exclaiming, "Oh, you deah old fellow! I can't help
+lovin' you. You're the beautifulest dog I evah saw!"
+
+[Illustration: "HE STEPPED ASIDE TO LET THE GREAT CREATURE PAST HIM"]
+
+He understood the caress, if not the words, for he reached up to touch
+her cheek with his tongue, and wagged his tail as if he were welcoming a
+long-lost friend. Just then Mrs. Sherman stepped out of the elevator.
+"Good-bye, Hero," said the Little Colonel. "I must go now, but I hope
+I'll see you when I come back." Nodding good-bye to the Major, she
+followed her mother out to the street, where her father stood waiting
+beside an open carriage.
+
+Lloyd enjoyed the drive that morning as they spun along beside the
+river, up and down the strange streets with the queer foreign signs over
+the shop doors. Once, as they drove along the quay, they met the Major
+and the dog, and in response to a courtly bow, the Little Colonel waved
+her hand and smiled. The empty sleeve recalled her grandfather, and gave
+her a friendly feeling for the old soldier. She looked back at Hero as
+long as she could see a glimpse of his white and yellow curls.
+
+It was nearly noon when they stopped at a place where Mrs. Sherman
+wanted to leave an enamelled belt-buckle to be repaired. Lloyd was not
+interested in the show-cases, and could not understand the conversation
+her father and mother were having with the shopkeeper about enamelling.
+So, saying that she would go out and sit in the carriage until they were
+ready to come, she slipped away.
+
+She liked to watch the stir of the streets. It was interesting to guess
+what the foreign signs meant, and to listen to the strange speech around
+her. Besides, there was a band playing somewhere down the street, and
+children were tugging at their nurses' hands to hurry them along. Some
+carried dolls dressed in the quaint costumes of Swiss peasants, and some
+had balloons. A man with a bunch of them like a cluster of great red
+bubbles had just sold out on the corner.
+
+So she sat in the sunshine, looking around her with eager, interested
+eyes. The coachman, high up on his box, seemed as interested as
+herself; at least, he sat up very straight and stiff. But it was only
+his back that Lloyd saw. He had been at a fête the night before. There
+seems to be always a holiday in Geneva. He had stayed long at the
+merrymaking and had taken many mugs of beer. They made him drowsy and
+stupid. The American gentleman and his wife stayed long in the
+enameller's shop. He could scarcely keep his eyes open. Presently,
+although he never moved a muscle of his back and sat up stiff and
+straight as a poker, he was sound asleep, and the reins in his grasp
+slipped lower and lower and lower.
+
+The horse was an old one, stiffened and jaded by much hard travel, but
+it had been a mettlesome one in its younger days, with the recollection
+of many exciting adventures. Now, although it seemed half asleep,
+dreaming, maybe, of the many jaunts it had taken with other American
+tourists, or wondering if it were not time for it to have its noonday
+nosebag, it was really keeping one eye open, nervously watching some
+painters on the sidewalk. They were putting up a scaffold against a
+building, in order that they might paint the cornice.
+
+Presently the very thing happened that the old horse had been expecting.
+A heavy board fell from the scaffold with a crash, knocking over a
+ladder, which fell into the street in front of the frightened animal.
+Now the old horse had been in several runaways. Once it had been hurt
+by a falling ladder, and it had never recovered from its fear of one. As
+this one fell just under its nose, all the old fright and pain that
+caused its first runaway seemed to come back to its memory. In a frenzy
+of terror it reared, plunged forward, then suddenly turned and dashed
+down the street.
+
+The plunge and sudden turn threw the sleeping coachman from the box to
+the street. With the lines dragging at its heels, the frightened horse
+sped on. The Little Colonel, clutching frantically at the seat in front
+of her, screamed at the horse to stop. She had been used to driving ever
+since she was big enough to grasp the reins, and she felt that if she
+could only reach the dragging lines, she could control the horse. But
+that was impossible. All she could do was to cling to the seat as the
+carriage whirled dizzily around corners, and wonder how many more
+frightful turns it would make before she should be thrown out.
+
+The white houses on either side seemed racing-past them. Nurses ran,
+screaming, to the pavements, dragging the baby-carriages out of the way.
+Dogs barked and teams were jerked hastily aside. Some one dashed out of
+a shop and threw his arms up in front of the horse to stop it, but,
+veering to one side, it only plunged on the faster.
+
+Lloyd's hat blew off. Her face turned white with a sickening dread, and
+her breath began to come in frightened sobs. On and on they went, and,
+as the scenes of a lifetime will be crowded into a moment in the memory
+of a drowning man, so a thousand things came flashing into Lloyd's mind.
+She saw the locust avenue all white and sweet in blossom time, and
+thought, with a strange thrill of self-pity, that she would never ride
+under its white arch again. Then came her mother's face, and Papa
+Jack's. In a few moments, she told herself, they would be picking up her
+poor, broken, lifeless little body from the street. How horribly they
+would feel. And then--she screamed and shut her eyes. The carriage had
+dashed into something that tore off a wheel. There was a crash--a sound
+as of splintering wood. But it did not stop their mad flight. With a
+horrible bumping motion that nearly threw her from the carriage at
+every jolt, they still kept on.
+
+[Illustration: "BUT IT DID NOT STOP THEIR MAD FLIGHT"]
+
+They were on the quay now. The noon sun on the water flashed into her
+eyes like the blinding light thrown back from a looking-glass. Then
+something white and yellow darted from the crowd on the pavement, and
+catching the horse by the bit, swung on heavily. The horse dragged along
+for a few paces, and came to a halt, trembling like a leaf.
+
+A wild hurrah went up from both sides of the street, and the Little
+Colonel, as she was lifted out white and trembling, saw that it was a
+huge St. Bernard that the crowd was cheering.
+
+"Oh, it's H-Hero!" she cried, with chattering teeth. "How did he get
+here?" But no one understood her question. The faces she looked into,
+while beaming with friendly interest, were all foreign. The eager
+exclamations on all sides were uttered in a foreign tongue. There was no
+one to take her home, and in her fright she could not remember the name
+of their hotel. But in the midst of her confusion a hearty sentence in
+English sounded in her ear, and a strong arm caught her up in a fatherly
+embrace. It was the Major who came pushing through the crowd to reach
+her. Her grandfather himself could not have been more welcome just at
+that time, and her tears came fast when she found herself in his
+friendly shelter. The shock had been a terrible one.
+
+"Come, dear child!" he exclaimed, gently, patting her shoulder.
+"Courage! We are almost at the hotel. See, it is on the corner, there.
+Your father and mother will soon be here."
+
+Wiping her eyes, he led her across the street, explaining as he went how
+it happened that he and the dog were on the street when she passed. They
+had been in the gardens all morning and were going home to lunch, when
+they heard the clatter of the runaway far down the street. The Major
+could not see who was in the carriage, only that it appeared to be a
+child. He was too old a man, and with his one arm too helpless to
+attempt to stop it, but he remembered that Hero had once shared the
+training of some collies for police service, before it had been decided
+to use him as an ambulance dog. They were taught to spring at the
+bridles of escaping horses.
+
+"I was doubtful if Hero remembered those early lessons," said the Major,
+"but I called out to him sharply, for the love of heaven to stop it if
+he could, and that instant he was at the horse's head, hanging on with
+all his might. Bravo, old fellow!" he continued, turning to the dog as
+he spoke. "We are proud of you this day!"
+
+They were in the corridor of the hotel now, and the Little Colonel,
+kneeling beside Hero and putting her arms around his neck, finished her
+sobbing with her fair little face laid fondly against his silky coat.
+
+"Oh, you deah, deah old Hero," she said. "You saved me, and I'll love
+you fo' evah and evah!"
+
+The crowd was still in front of the hotel, and the corridor full of
+excited servants and guests, when Mr. and Mrs. Sherman hurried in. They
+had taken the first carriage they could hail and driven as fast as
+possible in the wake of the runaway. Mrs. Sherman was trembling so
+violently that she could scarcely stand, when they reached the hotel.
+The clerk who ran out to assure them of the Little Colonel's safety was
+loud in his praises of the faithful St. Bernard.
+
+Hero had known many masters. He had been taught to obey many voices.
+Many hands had fed and fondled him, but no hand had ever lain quite so
+tenderly on his head, as the Little Colonel's. No one had ever looked
+into his eyes so gratefully as she, and no voice had ever thrilled him
+with as loving tones as hers, as she knelt there beside him, calling him
+all the fond endearing names she knew. He understood far better than if
+he had been human, that she loved him. Eagerly licking her hands and
+wagging his tail, he told her as plainly as a dog can talk that
+henceforth he would be one of her best and most faithful of friends.
+
+If petting and praise and devoted attention could spoil a dog, Hero's
+head would certainly have been turned that day, for friends and
+strangers alike made much of him. A photographer came to take his
+picture for the leading daily paper. Before nightfall his story was
+repeated in every home in Geneva. No servant in the hotel but took a
+personal pride in him or watched his chance to give him a sly sweetmeat
+or a caress. But being a dog instead of a human, the attention only made
+him the more lovable, for it made him feel that it was a kind world he
+lived in and everybody was his friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HERO'S STORY
+
+
+Late that afternoon the Major sat out in the shady courtyard of the
+hotel, where vines, potted plants, and a fountain made a cool green
+garden spot. He was thinking of his little daughter, who had been dead
+many long years. The American child, whom his dog had rescued from the
+runaway in the morning, was wonderfully like her. She had the same fair
+hair, he thought, that had been his little Christine's great beauty; the
+same delicate, wild-rose pink in her cheeks, the same mischievous smile
+dimpling her laughing face. But Christine's eyes had not been a starry
+hazel like the Little Colonel's. They were blue as the flax-flowers she
+used to gather--thirty, was it? No, forty years ago.
+
+As he counted the years, the thought came to him like a pain that he was
+an old, old man now, all alone in the world, save for a dog, and a niece
+whom he scarcely knew and seldom saw.
+
+As he sat there with his head bowed down, dreaming over his past, the
+Little Colonel came out into the courtyard. She had dressed early and
+gone down to the reading-room to wait until her mother was ready for
+dinner, but catching sight of the Major through the long glass doors,
+she laid down her book. The lonely expression of his furrowed face, the
+bowed head, and the empty sleeve appealed to her strongly.
+
+"I believe I'll go out and talk to him," she thought. "If grandfathah
+were away off in a strange land by himself like that, I'd want somebody
+to cheer him up."
+
+It is always good to feel that one is welcome, and Lloyd was glad that
+she had ventured into the courtyard, when she saw the smile that lighted
+the Major's face at sight of her, and when the dog, rising at her
+approach, came forward joyfully wagging his tail.
+
+The conversation was easy to begin, with Hero for a subject. There were
+many things she wanted to know about him: how he happened to belong to
+the Major; what country he came from; why he was called a St. Bernard,
+and if the Major had ever owned any other dogs.
+
+After a few questions it all came about as she had hoped it would. The
+old man settled himself back in his chair, thought a moment, and then
+began at the first of his acquaintance with St. Bernard dogs, as if he
+were reading a story from a book.
+
+"Away up in the Alpine Mountains, too high for trees to grow, where
+there is only bare rock and snow and cutting winds, climbs the road that
+is known as the Great St. Bernard Pass. It is an old, old road. The
+Celts crossed it when they invaded Italy. The Roman legions crossed it
+when they marched out to subdue Gaul and Germany. Ten hundred years ago
+the Saracen robbers hid among its rocks to waylay unfortunate
+travellers. You will read about all that in your history sometime, and
+about the famous march Napoleon made across it on his way to Marengo.
+But the most interesting fact about the road to me, is that for over
+seven hundred years there has been a monastery high up on the bleak
+mountain-top, called the monastery of St. Bernard.
+
+"Once, when I was travelling through the Alps, I stopped there one cold
+night, almost frozen. The good monks welcomed me to their hospice, as
+they do all strangers who stop for food and shelter, and treated me as
+kindly as if I had been a brother. In the morning one of them took me
+out to the kennels, and showed me the dogs that are trained to look for
+travellers in the snow. You may imagine with what pleasure I followed
+him, and listened to the tales he told me.
+
+"He said there is not as much work for the dogs now as there used to be
+years ago. Since the hospice has been connected with the valley towns by
+telephone, travellers can inquire about the state of the weather and the
+paths, before venturing up the dangerous mountain passes. Still, the
+storms begin with little warning sometimes, and wayfarers are overtaken
+by them and lost in the blinding snowfall. The paths fill suddenly, and
+but for the dogs many would perish."
+
+"Oh, I know," interrupted Lloyd, eagerly. "There is a story about them
+in my old third readah, and a pictuah of a big St. Bernard dog with a
+flask tied around his neck, and a child on his back."
+
+"Yes," answered the Major, "it is quite probable that that was a picture
+of the dog they call Barry. He was with the good monks for twelve years,
+and in that time saved the lives of forty travellers. There is a
+monument erected to him in Paris in the cemetery for dogs. The sculptor
+carved that picture into the stone, the noble animal with a child on his
+back, as if he were in the act of carrying it to the hospice. Twelve
+years is a long time for a dog to suffer such hardship and exposure.
+Night after night he plunged out alone into the deep snow and the
+darkness, barking at the top of his voice to attract the attention of
+lost travellers. Many a time he dropped into the drifts exhausted;
+with scarcely enough strength left to drag himself back to the hospice.
+
+[Illustration: "HE PLUNGED OUT ALONE INTO THE DEEP SNOW"]
+
+"Forty lives saved is a good record. You may be sure that in his old age
+Barry was tenderly cared for. The monks gave him a pension and sent him
+to Berne, where the climate is much warmer. When he died, a taxidermist
+preserved his skin, and he was placed in the museum at Berne, where he
+stands to this day, I am told, with the little flask around his neck. I
+saw him there one time, and although Barry was only a dog, I stood with
+uncovered head before him. For he was as truly a hero and served human
+kind as nobly as if he had fallen on the field of battle.
+
+"He had been trained like a soldier to his duty, and no matter how the
+storms raged on the mountains, how dark the night, or how dangerous the
+paths that led along the slippery precipices, at the word of command he
+sprang to obey. Only a dumb beast, some people would call him, guided
+only by brute instinct, but in his shaggy old body beat a loving heart,
+loyal to his master's command, and faithful to his duty.
+
+"As I stood there gazing into the kind old face, I thought of the time
+when I lay wounded on the field of battle. How glad I would have been to
+have seen some dog like Barry come bounding to my aid! I had fallen in a
+thicket, where the ambulance corps did not discover me until next day. I
+lay there all that black night, wild with pain, groaning for water. I
+could see the lanterns of the ambulances as they moved about searching
+for the wounded among the many dead, but was too faint from loss of
+blood to raise my head and shout for help. They told me afterward that,
+if my wound could have received immediate attention, perhaps my arm
+might have been saved.
+
+"But only a keen sense of smell could have traced me in the dense
+thicket where I lay. No one had thought of training dogs for ambulance
+service then. The men did their best, but they were only men, and I was
+overlooked until it was too late to save my arm.
+
+"Well, as I said, I stood and looked at Barry, wondering if it were not
+possible to train dogs for rescue work on battle-fields as well as in
+mountain passes. The more I thought of it, the more my longing grew to
+make such an attempt. I read everything I could find about trained dogs,
+visited kennels where collies and other intelligent sheep-dogs were
+kept, and corresponded with many people about it. Finally I went to
+Coblenz, and there found a man who was as much interested in the subject
+as I. Herr Bungartz is his name. He is now at the head of a society to
+which I belong, called the German Society for Ambulance Dogs. It has
+over a thousand members, including many princes and generals.
+
+"We furnish the money that supports the kennels, and the dogs are bred
+and trained free for the army. Now for the last eight years it has been
+my greatest pleasure to visit the kennels, where as many as fifty dogs
+are kept constantly in training. It was on my last visit that I got
+Hero. His leg had been hurt in some accident on the training field. It
+was thought that he was too much disabled to ever do good service again,
+so they allowed me to take him. Two old cripples, I suppose they thought
+we were, comrades in misfortune.
+
+"That was nearly a year ago. I took him to an eminent surgeon, told him
+his history, and interested him in his case. He treated him so
+successfully, that now, as you see, the leg is entirely well. Sometimes
+I feel that it is my duty to give him back to the service, although I
+paid for the rearing of a fine Scotch collie in his stead. He is so
+unusually intelligent and well trained. But it would be hard to part
+with such a good friend. Although I have had him less than a year, he
+seems very much attached to me, and I have grown more fond of him than I
+would have believed possible. I am an old man now, and I think he
+understands that he is all I have. Good Hero! He knows he is a comfort
+to his old master!"
+
+At the sound of his name, uttered in a sad voice, the great dog got up
+and laid his head on the Major's knee, looking wistfully into his face.
+
+"Of co'se you oughtn't to give him back!" cried the Little Colonel. "If
+he were mine, I wouldn't give him up for the president, or the emperor,
+or the czar, or _anybody_!"
+
+"But for the soldiers, the poor wounded soldiers!" suggested the Major.
+
+Lloyd hesitated, looking from the dog to the empty sleeve above it.
+"Well," she declared, at last, "I wouldn't give him up while the country
+is at peace. I'd wait till the last minute, until there was goin' to be
+an awful battle, and then I'd make them promise to let me have him again
+when the wah was ovah. Just the minute it was ovah. It would be like
+givin' away part of your family to give away Hero."
+
+Suddenly the Major spoke to the dog--a quick, sharp sentence that Lloyd
+could not understand. But Hero, without an instant's hesitation,
+bounded from the courtyard, where they sat, into the hall of the hotel.
+Through the glass doors she could see him leaping up the stairs, and,
+almost before the Major could explain that he had sent him for the
+shoulder-bags he wore in service, the dog was back with them grasped
+firmly in his mouth.
+
+"Now the flask," said the Major. While the dog obeyed the second order,
+he opened the bags for Lloyd to examine them. They were marked with a
+red cross in a square of white, and contained rolls of bandages, from
+which any man, able to use his arms, could help himself until his
+rescuer brought further aid.
+
+The flask which Hero brought was marked in the same way, and the Major
+buckled it to his collar, saying, as he fastened first that and then
+the shoulder-bags in place, "When a dog is in training, soldiers,
+pretending to be dead or wounded, are hidden in the woods or ravines and
+he is taught to find a fallen body, and to bark loudly. If the soldier
+is in some place too remote for his voice to bring aid, the dog seizes a
+cap, a handkerchief, or a belt,--any article of the man's clothing which
+he can pick up,--and dashes back to the nearest ambulance."
+
+"What a lovely game that would make!" exclaimed Lloyd. "Do you suppose
+that I could train my dogs to do that? We often play soldiah at Locust.
+Now, what is it you say to Hero when you want him to hunt the men? Let
+me see if he'll mind me."
+
+The Major repeated the command.
+
+"But I can't speak French," she said, in dismay. "What is it in
+English?"
+
+"Hero can't understand English," said the Major, laughing at the
+perplexed expression that crept into the Little Colonel's face.
+
+"How funny!" she exclaimed. "I nevah thought of that befo'. I supposed
+of co'se that all animals were English. Anyway, Hero comes when I call
+him, and wags his tail when I speak, just as if he undahstands every
+word."
+
+"It is the kindness in your voice he understands, and the smile in your
+eyes, the affection in your caress. That language is the same the world
+over, to men and animals alike. But he never would start out to hunt the
+wounded soldiers unless you gave this command. Let me hear if you can
+say it after me."
+
+Lloyd tripped over some of the syllables as she repeated the sentence,
+but tried it again and again until the Major cried "Bravo! You shall
+have more lessons, until you can give the command so well that Hero
+shall obey you as he does me."
+
+Then he began talking of Christine, her fair hair, her blue eyes, her
+playful ways; and Lloyd, listening, drew him on with many questions.
+
+Suddenly the Major arose, bowing courteously, for Mrs. Sherman, seeing
+them from the doorway, had smiled and started toward them. Springing up,
+Lloyd ran to meet her.
+
+"Mothah," she whispered, "please ask the Majah to sit at ou' table
+tonight at dinnah. He's such a deah old man, and tells such interestin'
+things, and he's lonesome. The tears came into his eyes when he talked
+about his little daughtah. She was just my age when she died, mothah,
+and he thinks she looked like me."
+
+The Major's courtly manner and kind face had already aroused Mrs.
+Sherman's interest. His empty sleeve reminded her of her father. His
+loneliness appealed to her sympathy, and his kindness to her little
+daughter had won her deepest appreciation. She turned with a cordial
+smile to repeat Lloyd's invitation, which was gladly accepted.
+
+That was the beginning of a warm friendship. From that time he was
+included in their plans. Now, in nearly all their excursions and drives,
+there were four in the party instead of three, and five, very often.
+Whenever it was possible, Hero was with them. He and the Little Colonel
+often went out together alone. It grew to be a familiar sight in the
+town, the graceful fair-haired child and the big tawny St. Bernard,
+walking side by side along the quay. She was not afraid to venture
+anywhere with such a guard. As for Hero, he followed her as gladly as he
+did his master.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE RED CROSS OF GENEVA
+
+
+A week after the runaway, the handsomest collar that could be bought in
+town was fastened around Hero's neck. It had taken a long time to get
+it, for Mr. Sherman went to many shops before he found material that he
+considered good enough for the rescuer of his little daughter. Then the
+jeweller had to keep it several days while he engraved an inscription on
+the gold name-plate--an inscription that all who read might know what
+happened on a certain July day in the old Swiss town of Geneva. On the
+under side of the collar was a stout link like the one on his old one,
+to which the flask could be fastened when he was harnessed for service,
+and on the upper side, finely wrought in enamel, was a red cross on a
+white square.
+
+"Papa Jack!" exclaimed Lloyd, examining it with interest, "that is the
+same design that is on his blanket and shouldah-bags. Why, it's just
+like the Swiss flag!" she cried, looking out at the banner floating from
+the pier. "Only the colors are turned around. The flag has a white cross
+on a red ground, and this is a red cross on a white ground. Why did you
+have it put on the collah, Papa Jack?"
+
+"Because he is a Red Cross dog," answered her father.
+
+"No, Papa Jack. Excuse me for contradictin', but the Majah said he was a
+St. Bernard dog."
+
+Mr. Sherman laughed, but before he could explain he was called to the
+office to answer a telegram. When he returned Lloyd had disappeared to
+find the Major, and ask about the symbol on the collar. She found him in
+his favorite seat near the fountain, in the shady courtyard. Perching on
+a bench near by with Hero for a foot-stool, she asked, "Majah, is Hero a
+St. Bernard or a Red Cross dog?"
+
+"He is both," answered the Major, smiling at her puzzled expression. "He
+is the first because he belongs to that family of dogs, and he is the
+second because he was adopted by the Red Cross Association, and trained
+for its service. You know what that is, of course."
+
+Still Lloyd looked puzzled. She shook her head. "No, I nevah heard of
+it. Is it something Swiss or French?"
+
+"Never heard of it!" repeated the Major. He spoke in such a surprised
+tone that his voice sounded gruff and loud, and Lloyd almost jumped. The
+harshness was so unexpected.
+
+"Think again, child," he said, sternly. "Surely you have been told, at
+least, of your brave countrywoman who is at the head of the organization
+in America, who nursed not only the wounded of your own land, but
+followed the Red Cross of mercy on many foreign battle-fields!"
+
+"Oh, a hospital nurse!" said Lloyd, wrinkling her forehead and trying
+to think. "Miss Alcott was one. Everybody knows about her, and her
+'Hospital Sketches' are lovely."
+
+"No! no!" exclaimed the Major, impatiently. Lloyd, feeling from his tone
+that ignorance on this subject was something he could not excuse, tried
+again.
+
+"I've heard of Florence Nightingale. In one of my books at home, a
+_Chatterbox_, I think, there is a picture of her going through a
+hospital ward. Mothah told me how good she was to the soldiahs, and how
+they loved her. They even kissed her shadow on the wall as she passed.
+They were so grateful."
+
+"Ah, yes," murmured the old man. "Florence Nightingale will live long in
+song and story. An angel of mercy she was, through all the horrors of
+the Crimean War; but she was an English woman, my dear. The one I mean
+is an American, and her name ought to go down in history with the
+bravest of its patriots and the most honored of its benefactors. I
+learned to know her first in that long siege at Strasburg. She nursed me
+there, and I have followed her career with grateful interest ever since,
+noting with admiration all that she has done for her country and
+humanity the world over.
+
+"If America ever writes a woman's name in her temple of fame (I say it
+with uncovered head), that one should be the name of _Clara Barton_."
+
+The old soldier lifted his hat as he spoke, and replaced it so solemnly
+that Lloyd felt very uncomfortable, as if she were in some way to blame
+for not knowing and admiring this Red Cross nurse of whom she had never
+heard. Her face flushed, and much embarrassed, she drew the toe of her
+slipper along Hero's back, answering, in an abused tone:
+
+"But, Majah, how could I be expected to know anything about her? There
+is nothing in ou' school-books, and nobody told me, and Papa Jack won't
+let me read the newspapahs, they're so full of horrible murdahs and
+things. So how could I evah find out? I couldn't learn _everything_ in
+twelve yeahs, and that's all the longah I've lived."
+
+The Major laughed. "Forgive me, little one!" he cried, seeing the
+distress and embarrassment in her face. "A thousand pardons! The fault
+is not yours, but your country's, that it has not taught its children to
+honor its benefactor as she deserves. I am glad that it has been given
+to me to tell you the story of one of the most beautiful things that
+ever happened in Switzerland--the founding of the Red Cross. You will
+remember it with greater interest, I am sure, because, while I talk, the
+cross of the Swiss flag floats over us, and it was here in this old town
+of Geneva the merciful work had its beginning."
+
+Lloyd settled herself to listen, still stroking Hero's back with her
+slipper toe.
+
+"He was my friend, Henri Durant, and in the old days of chivalry they
+would have made him knight for the noble thought that sprang to flower
+in his heart and to fruitage in so worthy a deed. He was travelling in
+Italy years ago, and happening to be near the place where the battle of
+Solferino was fought, he was so touched by the sufferings of the wounded
+that he stopped to help care for them in the hospitals. The sights he
+saw there were horrible. The wounded men could not be cared for
+properly. They died by the hundreds, because there were not enough
+nurses and surgeons and food.
+
+"It moved him to write a book which was translated into several
+languages. People of many countries became interested and were aroused
+to a desire to do something to relieve the deadly consequences of war.
+Then he called a meeting of all the nations of Europe. That was over
+thirty years ago. Sixteen of the great powers sent men to represent
+them. They met here in Geneva and signed a treaty. One by one other
+countries followed their example, until now forty governments are
+pledged to keep the promises of the Red Cross.
+
+"They chose that as their flag in compliment to Switzerland, where the
+movement was started. You see they are the same except that the colors
+are reversed.
+
+"Now, according to that treaty, wherever the Red Cross goes, on sea or
+on land, it means peace and safety for the wounded soldiers. In the
+midst of the bloodiest battle, no matter who is hurt, Turk or Russian,
+Japanese or Spaniard, Armenian or Arab, he is bound to be protected and
+cared for. No nurse, surgeon, or ambulance bearing that Red Cross can be
+fired upon. They are allowed to pass wherever they are needed.
+
+"Before the nations joined in that treaty, the worst horror of war was
+the fate of a wounded soldier, falling into the hands of the enemy.
+Better a thousand times to be killed in battle, than to be taken
+prisoner. Think of being left, bleeding and faint, on an enemy's field
+till your clothes _froze to the ground_, and no one merciful enough to
+give you a crust of bread or a drop of water. Think of the dying piled
+with the dead and left to the pitiless rays of a scorching, tropic sun.
+That can never happen again, thank Heaven!
+
+"In time of peace, money and supplies are gathered and stored by each
+country, ready for use at the first signal of war. The empress became
+the head of the branch in Germany. Soon after, the Franco-Prussian war
+began, and then her only daughter, the Grand Duchess Louise of Baden,
+turned all her beautiful castles into military hospitals, and went
+herself to superintend the work of relief.
+
+"Your country did not join with us at first. You were having your
+terrible Civil War at home; the one in which your grandfather fought.
+All this time Clara Barton was with the soldiers on their bloodiest
+battle-fields. When you go home, ask your grandfather about the battles
+of Bull Run and Antietam, Fredericksburg, and the Wilderness. She was
+there. She stood the strain of nursing in sixteen such awful places,
+going from cot to cot among the thousands of wounded, comforting the
+dying, and dragging many a man back from the very grave by her untiring,
+unselfish devotion.
+
+"When the war was over, she spent four years searching for the soldiers
+reported missing. Hundreds and hundreds of pitiful letters came to her,
+giving name, regiment, and company of some son or husband or brother,
+who had marched away to the wars and never returned. These names could
+not be found among the lists of the killed. They were simply reported as
+'missing'; whether dead or a deserter, no one could tell. She had spent
+weeks at Andersonville the summer after the war, identifying and marking
+the graves there. She marked over twelve thousand. So when these
+letters came imploring her aid, she began the search, visiting the old
+prisons, and trenches and hospitals, until she removed from twenty
+thousand names the possible suspicion that the men who bore them had
+been deserters.
+
+"No wonder that she came to Europe completely broken down in health, so
+exhausted by her long, severe labors that her physician told her she
+must rest several years. But hardly was she settled here in Switzerland
+when the Franco-Prussian war broke out, and the Red Cross sought her
+aid, knowing how valuable her long experience in nursing would be to
+them. She could not refuse their appeals, and once more started in the
+wake of powder smoke, and cannon's roar.
+
+"But I'll not start on that chapter of her life. I would not know where
+to stop. It was there I met her, there she nursed me back to life; then
+I learned to appreciate her devotion to the cause of humankind. This
+second long siege against suffering made her an invalid for many years.
+
+"The other nations wondered why America refused to join them in their
+humane work. All other civilized countries were willing to lend a hand.
+But Clara Barton knew that it was because the people were ignorant of
+its real purpose that they did not join the alliance, and she promised
+that she would devote the remainder of her life, if need be, to showing
+America that as long as she refused to sign that treaty, she was
+standing on a level with barbarous and heathen countries.
+
+"For years she was too ill to push the work she had set for herself.
+When her strength at last returned, she had to learn to walk. At last,
+however, she succeeded. America signed the treaty. Then, through her
+efforts, the American National Red Cross was organized. She was made
+president of it. While no war, until lately, has called for its
+services, the Red Cross has found plenty to do in times of great
+national calamities. You have had terrible fires and floods, cyclones,
+and scourges of yellow fever. Then too, it has taken relief to Turkey
+and lately has found work in Cuba.
+
+"I know that you would like to look into Miss Barton's jewel-box. Old
+Emperor William himself gave her the Iron Cross of Prussia. The Grand
+Duke and Duchess of Baden sent her the Gold Cross of Remembrance. Medals
+and decorations from many sovereigns are there--the Queen of Servia, the
+Sultan of Turkey, the Prince of Armenia. Never has any American woman
+been so loved and honored abroad, and never has an American woman been
+more worthy of respect at home. It must be a great joy to her now, as
+she sits in the evening of life, to count her jewels of remembrance, and
+feel that she has done so much to win the gratitude of her fellow
+creatures.
+
+"You came to visit Switzerland because it is the home of many heroes;
+but let me tell you, my child, this little republic has more to show
+the world than its William Tell chapels and its Lion of Lucerne. As long
+as the old town of Geneva stands, the world will not forget that here
+was given a universal banner of peace, and here was signed its greatest
+treaty--the treaty of the Red Cross."
+
+As the Major stopped, the Little Colonel looked up at the white cross
+floating above the pier, and then down at the red one on Hero's collar,
+and drew a long breath.
+
+"I wish I could do something like that!" she exclaimed, earnestly. "I
+used to wish that I could go out like Joan of Arc to do some great thing
+that would make people write books about me, and carve me on statues,
+and paint pictures and sing songs in my honah, but I believe that now
+I'd rathah do something bettah than ride off to battle on a prancin'
+white chargah. Thank you, Majah, for tellin' me the story. I'm goin' for
+a walk now. May I take Hero?"
+
+A few minutes later the two were wandering along beside the water
+together, the Little Colonel dreaming day-dreams of valiant deeds that
+she might do some day, so that kings would send _her_ a Gold Cross of
+Remembrance, and men would say with uncovered heads, as the old Major
+had done, "If America ever writes a woman's name in her temple of fame,
+that one should be the name of Lloyd Sherman--_The Little Colonel_!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: "THE TWO WERE WANDERING ALONG BESIDE THE WATER
+TOGETHER"]
+
+When the time came for the Shermans to move on, the Major was their
+travelling companion. But at Zug, several weeks later, it was necessary
+for him to stop and send for his niece to accompany him to a hospital at
+Zürich. He had been caught in a sudden storm on the mountainside and
+struck by a limb of a falling tree. If Hero had not led a party of
+rescuers to him from the hotel he would have died before morning, but
+they were in time to save him.
+
+Several lonely days followed for the Little Colonel. Either her father
+or mother was constantly with the Major, sometimes both.
+
+It greatly worried the old man that he should be the cause of
+disarranging their plans and delaying their journey. He urged them to
+go on and leave him, but they would not consent. Sometimes the Little
+Colonel slipped into the room with a bunch of Alpine roses or a cluster
+of edelweiss that she had bought from some peasant. Sometimes she sat
+beside him for a few minutes, but most of her time was spent with Hero,
+wandering up and down beside the lake, feeding the swans or watching the
+little steamboats come and go.
+
+One evening, just at sunset, the Major sent for her. "I go to Zürich in
+the morning," he said, holding out his hand as she came into the room.
+"I wanted to say good-bye while I have the time and strength. We expect
+to leave very early to-morrow, probably before you are awake."
+
+His couch was drawn up by the window through which the shimmering lake
+shone in the sunset like rosy mother-of-pearl. Far up the mountain
+sounded the faint tinkling of goat-bells, and the clear, sweet yodelling
+of a peasant, on his homeward way. At intervals, the deep tolling of the
+bell of St. Oswald floated out across the water.
+
+"When the snow falls," he said, after a long pause, "I shall be far away
+from here. They tell me that at the hospital where I am going, I shall
+find a cure. But I know." He pointed to an hour-glass on the table
+beside him. "See! the sand has nearly run its course. The hour will soon
+be done. It is so with me. I have felt it for a long time."
+
+Lloyd looked up, startled. He went on slowly.
+
+"I cannot take Hero with me to the hospital, so I shall leave him behind
+with some one who will care for him and love him, perhaps even better
+than I have done." He held out his hand to the dog.
+
+"Come, Hero, my dear old comrade, come bid thy master farewell."
+Fumbling under his pillow as he spoke, he took out a small leather case,
+and, opening it, held up a medal. It was the medal that had been given
+him for bravery on the field of battle.
+
+[Illustration: "HE FASTENED THE MEDAL TO HERO'S COLLAR"]
+
+"It is my one treasure!" murmured the old soldier, turning it fondly, as
+it lay in his palm. "I have no family to whom I can leave it as an
+heirloom, but thou hast twice earned the right to wear it. I have no
+fear but that thou wilt always be true to the Red Cross and thy name of
+Hero, so thou shalt wear thy country's medal to thy grave."
+
+He fastened the medal to Hero's collar, then, with the dog's great head
+pressed fondly against him, he began talking to him in the speech Lloyd
+could not understand, but the sight of the gray-haired old soldier
+taking his last leave of his faithful friend brought the tears to her
+eyes.
+
+Then he called her to him and said that because she was like his little
+Christine, he knew that she would be good to Hero, and he asked her to
+take him back to America with her. She promised that she would. Then he
+put Hero's paw in her hand, and said, "Hero, I give thee to thy little
+mistress. Protect and guard her always, as she will love and care for
+thee."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND
+
+
+On that long journey back to Kentucky it was well for Hero that he wore
+the Red Cross on his collar. The little symbol was the open sesame to
+many a privilege that ordinary dogs are not allowed on shipboard.
+Instead of being confined to the hold, he was given the liberty of the
+ship, and when his story was known he received as much flattering
+attention as if he had been some titled nobleman.
+
+The captain shook the big white paw, gravely put into his hand at the
+Little Colonel's bidding, and then stooped to stroke the dog's head. As
+he looked into the wistful, intelligent eyes his own grew tender.
+
+"I have a son in the service," he said, "sent back from South Africa,
+covered with scars. I know what that Red Cross meant to him for a good
+many long weeks. Go where you like, old fellow! The ship is yours, so
+long as you make no trouble."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" cried the Little Colonel, looking up at the big British
+captain with a beaming face. "I'd rathah be tied up myself than to have
+Hero kept down there in the hold. I'm suah he'll not bothah anybody."
+
+Nor did he. No one from stoker to deck steward could make the slightest
+complaint against him, so dignified and well behaved was he. Lloyd was
+proud of him and his devotion. Wherever she went he followed her, lying
+at her feet when she sat in her steamer-chair, walking close beside her
+when she promenaded the deck.
+
+Everybody stopped to speak to him, and to question Lloyd about him, so
+that it was not many days before she and the great St. Bernard had made
+friends of all the passengers who were able to be on deck.
+
+The hours are long at sea, and people gladly welcome anything that
+provides entertainment, so Lloyd was often called aside as she walked,
+and invited to join some group, and tell to a knot of interested
+listeners all she knew of Hero and the Major, and the training of the
+ambulance dogs.
+
+In return Lloyd's stories nearly always called forth some anecdote from
+her listeners about the Red Cross work in America, and to her great
+surprise she found five persons among them who had met Clara Barton in
+some great national calamity of fire, flood, or pestilence.
+
+One was a portly man with a gruff voice, who had passed through the
+experiences of the forest fires that swept through Michigan, over twenty
+years ago. As he told his story, he made the scenes so real that Lloyd
+forgot where she was. She could almost smell the thick, stifling smoke
+of the burning forest, hear the terrible crackling of the flames, feel
+the scorching heat in her face, and see the frightened cattle driven
+into the lakes and streams by the pursuing fire.
+
+She listened with startled eyes as he described the wall of flame,
+hemming in the peaceful home where his little son played around the
+doorstep. She held her breath while he told of their mad flight from it,
+when, lashing his horses into a gallop, he looked back to see it licking
+up everything in the world he held dear except the frightened little
+family huddled at his feet. He had worked hard to build the cottage. It
+was furnished with family heirlooms brought West with them from the old
+homestead in Vermont. It was hard to see those great red tongues
+devouring it in a mouthful.
+
+In the morning, although they had reached a place of safety, they were
+out in a charred, blackened wilderness, without a roof to shelter them,
+a chair to sit on, or a crust to eat. "The hardest thing to bear," he
+said, "was to hear my little three-year-old Bertie begging for his
+breakfast, and to know that there was nothing within miles of us to
+satisfy his hunger, and that the next day it would be the same, and the
+next, and the next.
+
+"We were powerless to help ourselves. But while we sat there in utter
+despair, a neighbor rode by and hailed us. He told us that Red Cross
+committees had started out from Milwaukee and Chicago at first tidings
+of the fire, with car-loads of supplies, and that if we could go to the
+place where they were distributing we could get whatever we needed.
+
+"I wish you could have seen what they were handing out when we got
+there: tools and lumber to put up cabins, food and beds and clothes and
+coal-oil. They'd thought of everything and provided everything, and they
+went about the distributing in a systematic, business-like way that
+somehow put heart and cheer into us all.
+
+"They didn't make us feel as if they were handing out alms to paupers,
+but as if they were helping some of their own family on to their feet
+again, and putting them in shape to help themselves. Even my little
+Bertie felt it. Young as he was, he never forgot that awful night when
+we fled from the fire, nor the hungry day that followed, nor the fact
+that the arm that carried him food, when he got it at last, wore a
+brassard marked like that." He touched the Red Cross on Hero's collar.
+
+"And when the chance came to show the same brotherly spirit to some one
+else in trouble and pass the help along, he was as ready as the rest of
+us to do his share.
+
+"Three years afterward I read in the papers of the floods that had swept
+through the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and of the thousands that were
+homeless. Bertie,--he was six then,--he listened to the account of the
+children walking the streets, crying because they hadn't a roof over
+them or anything to eat. He didn't say a word, but he climbed up to the
+mantel and took down his little red savings-bank.
+
+"We were pretty near on our feet again by that time, although we were
+still living in a cabin. The crops had been good, and we had been able
+to save a little. He poured out all the pennies and nickels in his
+bank,--ninety-three cents they came to,--and then he got his only store
+toy, a box of tin soldiers that had been sent to him Christmas, and put
+that on the table beside the money. We didn't appear to notice what he
+was doing. Presently he brought the mittens his grandmother up in
+Vermont had knit for him. Then he waited a bit, and seemed to be
+weighing something in his mind. By and by he slipped away to the chest
+where his Sunday clothes were kept and took them out, new suit, shoes,
+cap and all, and laid them on the table with the money and the tin
+soldiers.
+
+"'There, daddy,' he said, 'tell the Red Cross people to send them to
+some little boy like me, that's been washed out of his home and hasn't
+any of his toys left, or his clothes.'
+
+"I tell you it made a lump come up in my throat to see that the little
+fellow had taken his very best to pay his debt of gratitude. Nothing was
+too great for him to sacrifice. Even his tin soldiers went when he
+remembered what the Red Cross had done for him."
+
+"My experience with the Red Cross was in the Mississippi floods of '82,"
+said a gentleman who had joined the party. "One winter day we were
+attracted by screams out in the river, and found that they came from
+some people who were floating down on a house that had been washed away.
+There they were, that freezing weather, out in the middle of the river,
+their clothes frozen on them, ill from fright and exposure. I went out
+in one of the boats that were sent to their rescue, and helped bring
+them to shore. I was so impressed by the tales of suffering they told
+that I went up the river to investigate.
+
+"At every town, and nearly every steamboat landing, I found men from the
+relief committees already at work, distributing supplies. They didn't
+stop when they had provided food and clothing. They furnished seed by
+the car-load to the farmers, just as in the Galveston disaster, a few
+years ago, they furnished thousands of strawberry plants to the people
+who were wholly dependent on their crops for their next year's food."
+
+"Where did they get all those stores?" asked Lloyd. "And the seeds and
+the strawberry plants?"
+
+"Most of it was donated," answered the gentleman. "Many contributions
+come pouring in after such a disaster, just as little Bertie's did. But
+the society is busy all the time, collecting and storing away the things
+that may be needed at a moment's notice. People would contribute, of
+course, even if there were no society to take charge of their donations,
+but without its wise hands to distribute, much would be lost."
+
+It was from a sad-faced lady in black, who had had two sons drowned in
+the Johnstown flood, that Lloyd heard the description of Clara Barton's
+five months' labor there. A doctor's wife who had been in the Mt. Vernon
+cyclone, and a newspaper man who had visited the South Carolina islands
+after the tidal wave, and Charleston after the earthquake, piled up
+their accounts of those scenes of suffering, some of them even greater
+than the horrors of war, so that Lloyd dreamed of fires and floods that
+night. But the horror of the scenes was less, because a baby voice
+called cheerfully through them, "Here, daddy, give these to the poor
+little boys that are cold and homesick;" and a great St. Bernard, with a
+Red Cross on his back, ran around distributing mittens and tin
+soldiers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IN AFTER YEARS
+
+
+Time flies fast under the Locusts. The sixteen years which have passed
+since Hero followed his little mistress home have brought many changes.
+He is only a tender memory now. A square, white stone stands on the lawn
+where "taps" were sounded over him one September day, long ago. But the
+sight of it no longer brings pain to the Little Colonel. With the sweet
+ambition in her heart to make life happier for every one she touches,
+she has grown up into a veritable Princess Winsome.
+
+In a home of her own now, to her own little son, she sometimes tells
+the story that is set down here. He is too young yet, to be told the
+chapters which have been added since to that amazing history of
+sacrifice and service. And she cannot say now as the old Major said
+then--"Wherever the Red Cross goes is safety for the wounded soldiers.
+No nurse, surgeon or ambulance bearing that sign can be fired upon."
+That part is no longer true, although the day is coming soon when we
+shall make it true for all time.
+
+She cannot tell him that the very nation which was first and foremost in
+training such dogs as Hero in service for mankind has violated its
+treaties and filled the world with horrors and suffering unspeakable.
+His trusting baby heart could not understand such treachery. But young
+as he is he knows what that red and white symbol means.
+
+Because "daddy" wore one on his arm when he marched away with the other
+soldiers, he must have one on the sleeve of his little blue rompers.
+Because "deah muvva" wears one on the veil which binds her forehead,
+when she comes back from the unit where she has spent long hours away
+from him, he associates it with all that is loveliest to him--her lovely
+face, her arms that are his peace and comfort and safety, her lips that
+kiss away all his hurts and make them well.
+
+Long before he is old enough to hear the terrible war-part of the story,
+War shall be at an end, please God, and the Red Cross shall mean to the
+nations left upon the earth what it means to him--arms that enfold a
+suffering humanity, lips that press a great mother-love to all its hurts
+and make them well.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: On page 81, the word "acounts" was changed to
+"accounts."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of the Red Cross as told to
+The Little Colonel, by Annie Fellows-Johnston
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