CHAPTER XXIX

MOPPING UP

AFTER the terrible sacrifice at Sanctuary Wood
my Patricias were idle for a time, not having
' forces of sufficient experience to " carry on."

But the recruits who joined the regiment showed
the same .eagerness to learn and get into the actuals
fighting that their predecessors had displayed. They
felt that the burden rested solely on seryice, and
forthwith they took up the cudgels to render the
subsequent history of the organization, that all the
world now knew, as glorious as had been its be-
ginnings.
For this determined spirit, which has been main-
tained from the first, the magnificent prestige of the
battalion has been responsible, of course. Those
who reinforced it from time to time have seen the
need of maintaining its high standards, and they
have done it. They are doing it now, while I
approach the end of my story.
I wish to speak briefly of a matter which is vital
to every reader, of any free nation, who peruses
these pages.
You have often heard, from the written word or
perhaps from speakers, that the Allies are in this
war to protect or to avenge other nations.
Right here I wish to draw a distinction; to put
the matter in a little clearer light, as I see it.
287



288 MOPPING UPl

To put it concretely, we will take the United
States, the last great world's power to join the
other free nations in the struggle against German
ruthlessness. The United States of America is not
fighting for France ; she is not fighting for Belgium ;
she is not fighting for Rumania.
She is fighting for one nation, and that — ^her-
self. Just as Britain, France, Belgium; each for
herself.
