Page:Ambulance 464 by Julien Bryan.djvu/29



January 19th, 1917. Six weeks ago this morning, my alarm clock got me out of bed at five o'clock, in my little two by four room in the Erie Y. M. C. A. and off I rushed to my daily work, driving stakes and chaining track with the Engineering gang of the New York Central. It had all been very interesting for a few weeks after I left high-school last June. But after six long months it was becoming monotonous and I was aching to get away, to try my hand at something else. Since I was staying out of school for a whole year, waiting until I was eighteen before I entered college, it didn't take much to urge me on when I read a poster saying, "Volunteers Wanted for the American Ambulance Field Service in France." My father was enthusiastic about it. So immediately after the holidays, I left my home in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and sailed on the French liner "Espagne" on the eighth of January, along with twenty other fellows in the same service. We had a wonderful trip, no submarines and very little unpleasant weather. Six of the men, including my cabinmate, joined the Paris