There was the night before in the hotel in San Francisco, when “Betty,” six-year-old, said, “Don’t cry, mother.  Be brave like Betty,” and who even admonished her daddy in the same way, “Don’t cry, daddy!  Be brave like Betty!” for it was just as hard for the daddy to keep the tears back, as he thought of the separation, as it was for the mother.

Then the daddy would say to the mother:  “I feel ashamed of myself to cry when I think of the thousands of daddies and husbands who are leaving their homes, not for six months’ or a year’s service, but ’for the period of the war,’ and leaving with so much more of a cloud hanging over them than I. I have every hope that I will be back with you in six or eight months, but they——­”

“Yes, but your own grief will make you understand all the better what it means to the daddies in the army who leave their babies and their wives, and oh, dear, be good to them!”

Then there was the next morning at the Oakland pier as the great transcontinental train pulled out, when the little six-year-old lady for the first time suddenly saw what losing her daddy meant.  She hadn’t visualized it before.  Consequently, she had been brave, and had even boasted of her bravery.  But now she had nothing to be brave about, for as the train started to move she suddenly burst into sobs and started down the platform after the train as fast as her sturdy little legs could carry her, crying between sobs, “Come back, daddy!  Come back to Betty!  Don’t go away!” with her mother after her.

The daddy had no easy time as he watched this tragedy of childhood from the observation-car.  It was a half-hour before he dared turn around and face the rest of the sympathetic passengers.

Going back on the ferry to San Francisco the weeping did not cease.  In fact it became contagious, for a kindly old gentleman, thinking that the little lady was afraid of the boat, said:  “What’s the matter, dear?  Are you afraid?”

“No, sir, I’m not afraid; but my daddy’s gone to France, and I want him back!  I want my daddy!  I want my daddy!” and the storm burst again.  Then here and there all over the boat the women wept.  Here and there a man pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and pretended to blow his nose.

And so we understand what it meant to this young secretary when, upon landing in France, he got the cable telling of the death of his baby girl.

At first he was stunned by the blow.

Then came a brave second cable from his wife telling him that there was nothing that he could do at home; to stay at his contemplated task of being a friend to the boys.

The brave note in the second cable gave him new spirit and new courage, and in spite of a heavy heart he went into a canteen, and will any wonder who read this story that he has won the undying devotion of his entire regiment by his tireless self-sacrificing service to the American boys?