The girls were able to watch a number of them learning to throw hand grenades, small bombs not much larger than oranges. The practice bombs were not explosive, nevertheless Barbara and Nona and Mollie Drew found themselves intensely interested. They had almost the sensations of enthusiastic baseball fans, for the American boys showed such skill with the grenades, that their boyhood playing of the national game must have been of value. Other soldiers were working at trench[69] digging and farther along on the artillery practice range big guns were being moved, trained on their target and made ready for firing with amazing swiftness. Beyond was also an aviation camp, scarcely discernible because of the distance. Here other American boys were completing their final lessons in air fighting, preparing themselves to rival the gallant Lafayette corps of American airmen in the service of France, who had become world famous for their amazing feats of valor and skill. [69] But most extraordinary of all the spectacles to the Red Cross nurses was the encampment of “tanks.” These giant monsters were rolling about on their parade ground, looking like prehistoric monsters. The soldiers were like midgets beside them. They lumbered along like huge turtles carrying houses on their backs and climbing great objects, set in their paths, as if they did not exist. However, there are scenes to which one is now and then a witness which may be too overwhelming. Actually one sees and feels so much that the eyes and mind and even the emotions become exhausted. [70]Mollie Drew was the first of the six girls to feel she could endure no more. She had seen such tremendous things and, moreover, had gone through with such a conflict of sensations, joy that the American soldiers were now to play a great part in the world struggle and sorrow over the inevitable tragedies which must befall them, and a strong urge that they learn these final lessons in making war soon as possible, that they might get into the fight and have it all over with, perhaps, before another year. [70] So that by and by, Mollie began to feel not only tired but almost exhausted. Yet she did not wish to interrupt the others nor to ask any one of them to return to the hospital with her. She could overhear Eugenia talking to Agatha Burton and had seldom seen Agatha so animated or in earnest.
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