So Florence Nightingale grew and grew up, and there grew with her, strong, her insistent desire to care for the sick and the suffering.

And then she felt that the life of ease she was living would never give her the chance to do the work she believed herself fit for — helping those who cannot help themselves.

At that time, nursing was not the honorable profession it is today. The prevailing notion was that it did not become an hon-orable, well-born lady. Florence therefore had to arm herself with great courage in order to leave her home and give her life to this service.

And so her family consented to the matter only after long and careful thought. She traveled to Germany, where she studied the art of nursing, then returned to England to teach others.

But her chief work began with the Crimean War in 1854, when the war correspondent of the London Times made known the frightful conditions in the hospi-tals. The British nation rose up as one, demanding better treat-ment for its wounded soldiers. The correspondent had painted the scenes of death and suffering among them, and asked: Are there not among us women who will devote themselves? Is there not one daughter of England able to go far away to help the sick and the suffering in the hospitals of Scutari?

Florence Nightingale answered this call, with forty companions who went out to the East, and she herself shouldered the bur-dens of all the military hospitals. Her wise administration and her efforts to improve sanitary meth-ods spread her name over the whole earth. By skillful nursing and unceasing vigil she saved a

number of men of whose wounds the doctors had said there was no hope of recovery. The rate of death among them fell from 42% to 2% within a few months.

The patients called her "the Lady of the Light." They would watch for her as she passed, serene and quiet, at midnight, carrying a small lamp which she shaded carefully so as not to wake the sleepers. But before those who lay awake she would pause, with a gentle smile and a heartening word. Some saw the soldiers kissing her shadow when it fell upon the wall, in acknowledg-ment of her goodness and in thanks for her devotion to them.

Among her great projects was the organizing of the Red Cross, begun in 1863 at Geneva, Switzerland. Today it is present in every battle and in every country, pointing to her devotion, keeping order far from all confusion.

Florence did not work for fame. She wished to return to England when the war was over, and word reached her that the British government had ordered a warship placed at her disposal for the journey home, and that the British people were preparing a great reception for her. So she sailed on a French steamer, landed in France, and went on from there to England; and the news of her return was not made public until some time afterward. She then set to work to realize the wish of her life — higher training for nurses — and resolved to raise a fund of 250,000, to which all classes of the English subscribed. Every soldier gave a day's pay, until the sum was gathered at once. Thus was founded the first higher school of modern nursing, known as the Florence Nightingale Home, attached to St. Thomas' Hospital in London. She continued to