"And it's a awfully pretty costume," I says; "so snappy."
"The uniform is only the outward sign of what we are doing," says Miss Lieutenant. "You have a car?"
"Outside," I says; "eight-thousand dollars, and all paid for. You can have it if it's any good to you. Ma always prefers the street car anyways."
"Thank you; that is splendid!" says the lady officer, very pleasant, but not exactly excited over my offer--which was some offer at that.
She took out a slip of paper and begun filling in some blanks on it.
First, the make of the car, and then the answers to the questions she shot at me.
"Can we have it at a moment's notice?" she said. "Yes? Good! Is it new? In good condition? Do you loan or give it?"
"Give!" I says, brief. "I am not going to be a piker to Uncle Sam."
At this the lady lieutenant actually came out of her shell enough to give me a smile.
"That's the spirit!" she says. "We sometimes have as many as twenty offers of cars a day. But, as a rule, they are half-time loans. Can you drive?"
"No, no," says the kid, serious again, "a car, of course!"
"Why, no," says I, feeling sort of cheap. "Isn't there anything else I can do?"
"Plenty," she says, cheerfully; "but you will have to learn to drive, first of all. You must have a chauffeur's license, a doctor's certificate of health, two letters of recommendation from prominent citizens as to your loyalty and general character, and a graduate's certificate from a technical automobile school."
"Well, of course, you will have to take the nursing and first-aid course at St. Timothy's Hospital," she says, "and the regular U. S. Infantry drill. But that's about all."
"Do I have to learn all that stuff before I can come in?" I asked, feeling about as small as when I had my first try-out on the big time circuit.
"Oh, no," says Miss Lieutenant; "you can sign your application right away if you like. Then you can come in immediately and start rookie drill and the first-aid work with the service while you are getting your technical training."
Believe you me, my breath was about taken away by all this stuff. I don't really know now just what I did expect when I first come into that shop, but I guess I had a sort of idea they'd give me a big welcome and I'd get a costume of some sort; and, after that--well, I don't really know. I certainly never expected what they handed me. But I was game.