UNSELFISH LABOR REWARDED
though I was not enjoying good health, so conditions soon seemed to become unbearable. However, I continued to read at any spare time I had and the thought came to me to do the work in hand the best I could and to know that faithful work would surely bring its own reward. And it did, for one day a chaplain came aboard and as Christian Science teaches us to be helpful in any way we can, I offered my services to do his typewriting or anything which might be helpful to him. About two days afterward he sent for me and in a short time I was made his assistant, helping to provide entertainment and amusement for the soldiers we were carrying across, as well as the crew. This proved to be a most congenial employment.
“About a year ago, while returning from one of our voyages abroad, we were torpedoed by a German submarine, about nine o'clock in the morning, nearly six hundred miles from the French coast. As was my custom in the morning, I had been reading some of the literature, when a short time before the first torpedo struck, something prompted me to go to the other end of the ship, which leading I obeyed. A few minutes later a torpedo struck the vessel only a short distance from where I formerly had been, killing several men.
“By this time our general alarm signal had been given, which meant for us to go to our lifeboat station, and only a few seconds after I obeyed this order, another torpedo exploded not far from the spot where I had just been, accomplishing its errand of destruction.
“The ship by this time was listing considerably and becoming rapidly filled with water, the order was given to abandon ship, which we did, and in the short space of twenty-seven minutes, one of the largest of the American transports was swallowed up by the waves.
“We floated around in the water for about three-quarters of an hour, when an object, which looked like a sail, made its appearance upon the horizon and as it drew nearer we perceived it to be the submarine which had fired on us, returning
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