There once was a Sister called Baker, Of beds she's an excellent maker, She knows temperatures too, And between "me and you" Is of medicines an excellent shaker.
She shows each man's vice--how to treat it, And warns Sister H. how to meet it: "No. 2 you can trust But show T-- a crust, Well, it's a thousand to one he'll eat it."
She dilates on the treatment we need, All our habits, our drinks, our feed; "I repeat, Mr. T-- Doesn't realise all, but He cannot be trusted for greed."
"Mr. N--, however, is wise, At the sight of eggs hard boiled he sighs, D-- eschew them I must And that beautiful crust, For on me Sister Baker relies."
You may ask how we know what was said The culprit there lying in bed, Overheard in the dark, The whispered remark, And tears of hot anger he shed.
The moral is not far to seek: A crust perforates you when weak, While eavesdropping at night Is really not right For it's apt to raise anger and pique.
Since my last letter we have had a good many changes of patients, some being sent back to the front, and others going home by various hospital ships. It is so nice to see some who were carried in desperately ill, able to march down to the train so cheery and bright, and tremendously grateful.
We sent thirty home by the H.S. _Dunera_ last month, and were just hoping to have time to breathe, and to get the sheets and blankets washed, when we had a wire to tell us to expect seventy-five more; so we had a scramble to get the beds and bedding ready for them, and they nearly filled us up; but they were not quite such a _bad_ lot as our previous batches had been, and there were a good many wounded by way of a change.
We were still short-handed, so had to do a good deal of sorting of patients; turning some wards into convalescent wards, that needed only occasional visits from a sister, and no night orderlies--a sergeant patient being made responsible for good order in the ward.
Several of the orderlies are still ill: the mess-room man has had a relapse, and will not be fit for work for some time; the second compounder has also been very bad with typhoid--delirious for more than a week--but I think he will do all right now; it has been awkward, as the first compounder can only just crawl about after his spell of illness.