Into the back of each cross they drove
a staple for a flag, and they swept and garnished the place as best they
could.
One Salvation Army woman writing home told of the plans they had made in
Treveray for Decoration Day; how Commander Booth was sending enough
American flags to decorate every American grave in France, and how they
meant to gather flowers and put with the flags, and have a little service
of prayer over the graves.
In the gray old French cemetery of Treveray five American boys lay buried.
The flowers upon their graves were dry and dead, for their regiments had
moved on and left them. The graves had been neglected and only the
guarding wooden crosses remained above the rough earth to show that
someone had cared and had stopped to put a mark above the places where
they lay. It was these graves the Salvation Army woman now proposed to
decorate on Memorial Day.
The letter went to the Captain for censorship, and soon the Salvation Army
woman had a call from him.
"I understand by one of your letters that you are thinking of decorating
the American graves," he said. "We would like to help in that, if you
don't mind. I would like the company all to be present."
The day before Memorial Day this woman with two of the lassies from the
hut went to the cemetery and prepared for the morrow.
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