help the wife of the sailor who in his absence was finding difficult the management of three unruly boys.
The woman who after her son's departure learned that she had cancer (See Chapter I), was too far advanced both in years and in her disease to hope for a cure. Her need was for that kind of care which during her remaining days would spare her as much pain and inconvenience as possible. The young woman with tuberculosis might expect to recover if she could go away toasanatorium. But what sanatorium, and how could she get there, and how should she prepare herself to go, and what about the household arrangements while she was gone? Surely these two women needed friends not only with medical training, but also with ability to suggest ways of adjusting things at home. These friends the Home Service of the Red Cross provided.
Money or credit was the immediate need of the household before whose door the moving van arrived to claim the furniture upon which several installments were overdue. The Red Cross supplied both. It also gave friendly advice which helped the family so to arrange its affairs that it could meet future demands for payment.
The chief financial responsibility for the families of the men in the service rests upon the government. It pays monthly allowances to them, insures the soldiers and sailors against death, and compensates them on their return to civil life if they are disabled by sickness, wounds, or other injury incurred in the service. In doing this, however, the government is necessarily guided by certain definite rules and regulations. It
