The Seed of Empire by Fred M. White

Dorothy rose to her feet, and walked up and down the lawn restlessly. Her eyes were shining with resolution.

"I am glad you mentioned it," she said, "because this idleness has been on my mind for some time. I am not one of those who believe that this war will soon be finished. I have been studying the papers, and it seems to me that we have not begun yet. What about the time when we have a couple of million men in the field? Who is going to look after the wounded? We are a most extraordinary nation; we never seem to anticipate anything. We muddle on, and muddle on, and when the big trouble comes we hold up our hands and say, 'Who would have thought it!' For the time being, at any rate, we have done quite enough in the way of extra comforts for the boys at the front. It's a job that wants to be properly organised and placed in the hands of women whose husbands are at the front, and of their children who are suffering from want of work. Don't tell me that hundreds of thousands of educated girls like ourselves have got to sit quietly down with their hands folded, whilst their brothers and sweethearts are dying for their country. Take my case, for instance. I have attended hundreds of ambulance classes, and I have all sorts of certificates, and yet so far I have apparently wasted my time. I am quite competent to undertake nursing work, and so are you. Before long, when the big fight begins in earnest, the wounded will be coming over here in streams, and so far there is little accommodation for them. Now, what I propose to do is this. I have thought the matter out carefully, and I believe we could accommodate about a hundred wounded here. Of course we cannot undertake very serious cases, but we could cope with those who want careful looking after. I believe we could manage with a dozen nurses, and I can easily raise those amongst my own friends. In fact, I have the volunteers already. Then there are two friends of ours, doctors who have retired from practice, but are both active and willing, and they would form our medical staff. Of course I should have to engage a matron, but that is merely a matter of money. Then in the big room down by the lake, which used to be a studio, I mean to establish a creche for children whose mothers are at work all day. This would find us plenty to do, and we should feel that we were really of some service to the state."