did not recall
this one till the ward-master came to put up the cards with the
new-comers' names above their beds. My man seemed absorbed in his
food; but I naturally glanced at the card, and there was the name
"Joseph Collins" to give me an additional interest in my new patient.

"Why, Joe! is it really you?" I exclaimed, pouring the last spoonful
of soup down his throat so hastily that I choked him.

"All that's left of me. Wal, ain't this luck, now?" gasped Joe, as
gratefully as if that hospital-cot was a bed of roses.

"What is the matter? A wound in the head and arm?" I asked, feeling
sure that no slight affliction had brought Joe there.

"Right arm gone. Shot off as slick as a whistle. I tell you, it's a
sing'lar kind of a feelin' to see a piece of your own body go flyin'
away, with no prospect of ever coming back again," said Joe, trying to
make light of one of the greatest misfortunes a man can suffer.

"That is bad, but it might have been worse. Keep up your spirits, Joe;
and we will soon have you fitted out with a new arm almost as good as
new."

"I guess it won't do much lumberin', so that trade is done for. I
s'pose there's things left-handed fellers can do, and I must learn 'em
as soon as possible, since my fightin' days are over," and Joe looked
at his one arm with a sigh that was almost a groan, helplessness is
such a trial to a manly man,--and he was eminently so.

"What can I do to comfort you most, Joe? I'll send my good Ben to help
you to bed, and will be here myself when the surgeon goes his rounds.
Is there anything else that would make you more easy?"

"If you could just drop a line to mother to let her know I'm alive, it
would be a sight of comfort to both of us. I guess I'm in for a long
spell of hospital, and I'd lay easier if I knew mother and Lucindy
warn't frettin' about me."

He must have been suffering terribly, but he thought of the women who
loved him before himself, and, busy as I was, I snatched a moment to
send a few words of hope to the old mother. Then I left him "layin'
easy," though the prospect of some months of wearing pain would have
daunted most men. If I had needed anything to increase my regard for
Joe, it would have been the courage with which he bore a very bad
quarter of an hour with the surgeons; for his arm was in a dangerous
state, the wound in the head feverish for want of care; and a heavy
cold on the lungs suggested pneumonia as an added trial to his list o