From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:

I should be thinking of the word rare and why a day in June is that but I really want to write some more about Florence Nightingale in case I forget and if someone doesn’t return the book because I really love this story.

Well, she lived in this beautiful, big house and had everything she wanted but she didn’t want all the things she had. She wanted only to be a nurse. In those days, it wasn’t polite for a lady to be a nurse and her parents didn’t want her to be one but one day something very nice happened. There was a big war between England and Russia. All the English soldiers had to go to Russia to fight and they needed lots of doctors and nurses so Florence said that she was going even if it was impolite for ladies to be nurses. She went to visit hospitals so she could learn how to take the best care of patients and she also taught other young ladies how to do it because they too thought that the job of nursing was not just a man’s job and she and all the young ladies went to Russia to take care of sick soldiers. Everyone loved Florence very much. The soldiers used to kiss her shadow on the wall as she went from one to another during the night.