se came round again. The
meat from that kitchen was tenderer than any other, the beef tea was
more savory. One thing that came out of it was the lesson on the saving
of good cookery. The mere circumstance of the boiling water being really
boiling there, made a difference of two ounces of rice in every four
puddings, and of more than half the arrowroot used. The same quantity of
arrowroot which made a pint thin and poor in the general kitchen, made
two pints thick and good in Miss Nightingale's.

"Again, in contrasting the general kitchen with the light or special
diet prepared for the sicker men, there was all the difference between
having placed before them 'the cold mutton chop with its opaque fat, the
beef with its caked gravy, the arrowroot stiff and glazed, all
untouched, as might be seen by the bed-sides in the afternoons, while
the patients were lying back, sinking for want of support,' and seeing
'the quick and quiet nurses enter as the clock struck, with their hot
water tins, hot morsels ready cut, bright knife, and fork, and
spoon,--and all ready for instant eating!'

"The nurses looked for Miss Gilson's word of praise, and labored for it;
and she had only to suggest a variety in the decoration of the tents to
stimulate a most honorable rivalry among them, which soon opened a wide
field for displaying ingenuity and taste, so that not only was its
standard the highest, but it was the most cheerfully picturesque
hospital at City Point.

"This colored hospital service was one of those extraordinary tasks, out
of the ordinary course of army hospital discipline, that none but a
woman could execute. It required more than a man's power of endurance,
for men fainted and fell under the burden. It required a woman's
discernment, a woman's tenderness, a woman's delicacy and tact; it
required such nerve and moral force, and such executive power, as are
rarely united in any woman's character. The simple grace with which she
moved about the hospital camps, the gentle dignity with which she
ministered to the suffering about her, won all hearts. As she passed
through the wards, the men would follow her with their eyes, attracted
by the grave sweetness of her manner; and when she stopped by some
bed-side, and laid her hand upon the forehead and smoothed the hair of a
soldier, speaking some cheering, pleasant word, I have seen the tears
gather in his eyes, and his lips quiver, as he tried to speak or to
touch the fold of her