in hand back to the street corner to wait more long hours.

Going one way the trains carry the soldiers to the front, boys for the
most part wild with enthusiasm, high spirits, and courage, and coming
the other way in vastly greater numbers are the silent trains bearing
the sick and wounded and dead.

We meet five trains during the day and one at two in the night. I have
gotten so that I can sleep sitting upright on a hard bench between
trains. Think of the plucky little Japanese women who have done this
ever since the beginning of the war!

Out of my experience at the station came another very charming one
yesterday. It seems that the president of the Red Cross Society is a
royal princess, first cousin indeed to the Emperor. She had heard of
me through her secretary and of the small services I had rendered here
and at Hiroshima, so she requested an interview that she might thank
me in person.

It seemed very ridiculous that I should receive formal recognition for
pouring tea and handing out posies, but I was crazy to see the
Princess, so early yesterday morning, I donned my best raiment and
sallied forth with an interpreter.

The house was a regular Chinese puzzle and I was passed on from one
person to another until I got positively dizzy. At last we came to a
long beautiful room, at the end of which, in a robe of purple and
gold, all covered with white chrysanthemums, sat the royal lady. I was
preparing to make my lowest bow, when, to my astonishment, she came
forward with extended hand and spoke to me in English! Then she