It took us a week to move everyone across the river then set up our camp. We were all happy to be close to home. Even the mortals.
Rachelle told us while we were putting the hospital tent up. "Being this close to the Council will help keep Rufus in line. He is very nervous being around them."
"I have told him about our two years in a cage. He went very pale." Rachelle whispered.
"It is a good way to teach him." Samantha told him.
"You think so?"
"Yes I think with him knowing we were punished for doing something wrong helps."
"I guess you are right." Samantha smiled.
When we finished the hospital some of the locals came to see if Scott could see them. The Commander gave them permission as long as it did not interfere with Scott taking care of the soldiers.
The locals that came to see Scott had seen us many times in the marketplace.
"I have seen you before." An elderly woman said to Scott.
"Yes Madam I have been to the marketplace many times." Scott whispered to her.
"No Sir. I have seen you some place before." The elderly woman shook her head trying to think.
Annabelle helped Scott examine her. She kept repeating. "I have seen you before but where?"
"Do not trouble yourself, my dear lady." Scott said soothingly. We could hear him but none of the mortals could.
The Army camp was ready for the winter or so we thought. Commander Comerford assembled us in a large clearing.
"Good day Men." He paced in front of us. "Seeing that we are near trees. I would like you to make some log cabin barracks. They will help keep you warm this winter."
"Corporal set up the work details."
"Yes Sir." Corp. Myers said saluting.
Commander Comerford walked back to his tent. He whispered to Rachelle. "That should keep everyone busy for awhile." She nodded slightly.
Corp. Myers made several groups. One group was to cut down trees. Another group was to put down foundation stones.
As the trees fell there were two men to a tree to trim off the branches. He even had a group of men hitch up a team of horses to pull logs to the barracks site.
It worked out that there were a hundred men for each of the barracks to build and he was building ten barracks.
We heard Cory talking to Corp. Myers.
"How big do you want to make the barracks Sir?"
"Big enough to house a hundred men."
"Flat out or in bunks?"
"Bunks."
"How high?"
"What do you mean?" He stared at him.
"Two bunks high. Three bunks high."
"Oh I understand now. I am thinking we should try five high and go from there. Just to see what we need in terms of wood."
"All right Sir." Cory saluted.
Cory and Paddy built a five man bunk ten feet high. They used it to see how high to make the walls.
"Good job Privates." Corp. Myers said as he looked at the bunk. "We are going to need twenty for each bunkhouse."
"Yes Sir." They said together.
They were able to make ten bunks a day. The bunkhouses were twenty feet wide and forty feet long with twelve foot high walls. The men made a thatched roof with the branches from the trees.
As soon as a bunkhouse was finished Commander Comerford would have a wood stove installed to keep the men warm. The men of that bunkhouse were responsible for the woodstove. They must tend it and chop wood for it.
Within two weeks we had two bunkhouses built. We moved the men into their winter home.
There was a squadron leader for each barracks. The men could go to him if they had any problems.
One squadron leader wrote the soldiers' names on their bunks to avoid confusion.
Cory and Paddy had to keep a supply of bed planks on hand. Some of the men were landing too heavily on their beds and breaking the planks which made them fall on the soldier below them.
There were many fights because of this.
The next group of men started making their barracks with the aid of the first group. By the end of the next two weeks all the soldiers were in a log cabin barracks including the officers. Just in time for the heavy snow falls.
Commander Comerford came to see Scott a few days later. "Seeing that all the men are warm for the winter and there are still enough trees around we should make a barrack for your patients."
Scott's face brighten. "That would be wonderful Sir."
We set to work on the hospital barrack Commander Comerford wanted it near the shanties.
The people of the village were very excited about the hospital being built near them. Many came to help.
The ones that were carpenters made wooden bed frames that had wooden sprockets to raise the bed if need be.
Commander Comerford and Scott designed the hospital to be long not tall. It will be fifty feet wide and a hundred feet long. The first twenty feet will be Scott's clinic and surgery with a small waiting room then a short corridor with a small nurse's station to one side. The rest of the building will be for beds.
At the opposite side of the entrance they are going to attach a small building that will have a place for the patients to relieve themselves and a heated room to wash the patients. It will be fashioned like Athos' bathroom: woodstoves with pails for heating the water and a big tub.
It took us longer to build the hospital. It needed roof supports.
Scott walked down the center of his hospital looking at the roof supports. They were thirty feet tall.
"What are you looking at Dr. Baxter?" One of the carpenters from the village asked.
"I am thinking of putting lanterns on these supports and some beams to the walls for privacy curtains. What do you think Mr. Tunney?"
"I think it is a grand idea Doctor. The boys and I will get to work on that right away."
"Thank you Mr. Tunney."
"It is no problem at all." Mr. Tunney smiled nodding his head then left.
Within a few days there were lantern mounts and beams going to the walls.
The Commander commissioned some of the women in the village to make the privacy curtains.
Six weeks later the hospital was finished. Scott's first patient was a woman about to give birth. We heard the sweet sound of a baby's first cry a few hours later.
Commander Comerford knew that there were a lot of his men that lived in the area. He let them go home as long as they agreed to come back in the spring.
