“But, Majah, how could I be expected to know anything about her?  There is nothing in ou’ school-books, and nobody told me, and Papa Jack won’t let me read the newspapahs, they’re so full of horrible murdahs and things.  So how could I evah find out?  I couldn’t learn everything in twelve yeahs, and that’s all the longah I’ve lived.”

The Major laughed.  “Forgive me, little one!” he cried, seeing the distress and embarrassment in her face.  “A thousand pardons!  The fault is not yours, but your country’s, that it has not taught its children to honor its benefactor as she deserves.  I am glad that it has been given to me to tell you the story of one of the most beautiful things that ever happened in Switzerland—­the founding of the Red Cross.  You will remember it with greater interest, I am sure, because, while I talk, the cross of the Swiss flag floats over us, and it was here in this old town of Geneva the merciful work had its beginning.”

Lloyd settled herself to listen, still stroking Hero’s back with her slipper toe.

“He was my friend, Henri Durant, and in the old days of chivalry they would have made him knight for the noble thought that sprang to flower in his heart and to fruitage in so worthy a deed.  He was travelling in Italy years ago, and happening to be near the place where the battle of Solferino was fought, he was so touched by the sufferings of the wounded that he stopped to help care for them in the hospitals.  The sights he saw there were horrible.  The wounded men could not be cared for properly.  They died by the hundreds, because there were not enough nurses and surgeons and food.

“It moved him to write a book which was translated into several languages.  People of many countries became interested and were aroused to a desire to do something to relieve the deadly consequences of war.  Then he called a meeting of all the nations of Europe.  That was over thirty years ago.  Sixteen of the great powers sent men to represent them.  They met here in Geneva and signed a treaty.  One by one other countries followed their example, until now forty governments are pledged to keep the promises of the Red Cross.

“They chose that as their flag in compliment to Switzerland, where the movement was started.  You see they are the same except that the colors are reversed.

“Now, according to that treaty, wherever the Red Cross goes, on sea or on land, it means peace and safety for the wounded soldiers.  In the midst of the bloodiest battle, no matter who is hurt, Turk or Russian, Japanese or Spaniard, Armenian or Arab, he is bound to be protected and cared for.  No nurse, surgeon, or ambulance bearing that Red Cross can be fired upon.  They are allowed to pass wherever they are needed.

“Before the nations joined in that treaty, the worst horror of war was the fate of a wounded soldier, falling into the hands of the enemy.  Better a thousand times to be killed in battle, than to be taken prisoner.  Think of being left, bleeding and faint, on an enemy’s field till your clothes froze to the ground, and no one merciful enough to give you a crust of bread or a drop of water.  Think of the dying piled with the dead and left to the pitiless rays of a scorching, tropic sun.  That can never happen again, thank Heaven!