CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE WAR
given by the French to two hundred American officers, and the Workers were put at the table with the colonel in command of the American troops in that district, and other especially distinguished guests.
Thanksgiving and Christmas gave our Committee an opportunity to give a little special pleasure to some of the soldiers who would otherwise have had only the dull round of duty and the cheerlessness of barracks and hospitals on those days when home seems particularly dear. On Thanksgiving Day a big turkey dinner was spread in the reading room, and all who came were made happy by the sight and taste of the familiar bird, surrounded by many kinds of vegetables in true American style, and adorned on either side with plates of “wonderful white bread”—a real luxury. The Thanksgiving dinner was such a success that two turkeys were prepared at Christmas time, and more guests invited, and apple pies and strawberry tarts were added to the menu, and there was a Christmas tree with candy bags and tinsel, and there were branches of holly and mistletoe tied with red ribbon! At the testimonial meeting which occurred that night many men expressed gratitude for the Rooms that had been provided by Christian Scientists for the soldiers in France, and for the comfort and protection, as well as for the healing, which those Rooms had brought to them.
The work of the Christian Science War Relief Committee in Nantes, was, of course, largely among those who needed healing. The men in the hospitals who knew something of Christian Science were anxious to have that help, and many others who heard that there were Christian Scientists in the vicinity asked for
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