they
saw; while some who scorned comfort for themselves, would fidget about
for hours before the long trains of mules and ambulances came in,
nervous lest the most trifling thing that could minister to the
sufferers' comfort should be neglected. I have often heard men talk
and preach very learnedly and conclusively about the great wickedness
and selfishness of the human heart; I used to wonder whether they
would have modified those opinions if they had been my companions for
one day of the six weeks I spent upon that wharf, and seen but one
day's experience of the Christian sympathy and brotherly love shown by
the strong to the weak. The task was a trying one, and familiarity,
you might think, would have worn down their keener feelings of pity
and sympathy; but it was not so.

I was in the midst of my sad work one day when the Admiral came up,
and stood looking on. He vouchsafed no word nor look of recognition in
answer to my salute, but stood silently by, his hands behind his back,
watching the sick being lifted into the boats. You might have thought
that he had little feeling, so stern and expressionless was his face;
but once, when they raised a sufferer somewhat awkwardly, and he
groaned deeply, that rough man broke out all at once with an oath,
that was strangely like a prayer, and bade the men, for God's sake,
take more care. And, coming up to me, he clapped me on the shoulder,
saying, "I am glad to see you here, old lady, among these poor
fellows;" while, I am most strangely deceived if I did not see a
tear-drop gathering in his eye. It was on this same day, I think, that
bending down over a poor fellow whose senses had quite gone, and, I
fear me, would never return to him in this world, he took me for his
wife, and calling me "Mary, Mary," many times, asked me how it was he
had got home so quickly, and why he did not see the children; and said
he felt sure he should soon get better now. Poor fellow! I could not
undeceive him. I think the fancy happily caused by the touch of a
woman's hand soothed his dying hour; for I do not fancy he could have
lived to reach Scutari. I never knew it for certain, but I always felt
sure that he would never wake from that dream of home in this world.

And here, lest the reader should consider that I am speaking too
highly of my own actions, I must have recourse to a plan which I shall
frequently adopt in the following pages, and let another voice speak
for me in the kind letter