to have a little service of her own for the patients, which
mostly consisted in reading aloud a printed sermon of the Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher, which appeared in the Weekly Traveller, and which was
always listened to with eager interest.

The chaplain's quarters were close by the hospital, and at any hour of
the day and till a late hour of the night Mr. and Mrs. Barker could
assure themselves of the condition and wants of any of the patients, and
be instantly ready to minister to them. Mrs. Barker, especially, bore
them continually in her thoughts, and though not with them, her heart
and time were given to the work of consolation, either by adding to the
comforts of the body or the mind.

In January, 1864, it became evident to Mrs. Barker that she could serve
in the hospitals more effectually by living in Washington, than by
remaining at Fort Albany. She therefore offered her services to the
Sanitary Commission without other compensation than the expenses of her
board, and making no stipulation as to the nature of her duties, but
only that she might remain within reach of the regimental hospital, to
which she had so long been devoted.

Just at this time the Commission had determined to secure a more sure
and thorough personal distribution of the articles intended for
soldiers, and she was requested to become a visitor in certain hospitals
in Washington. It was desirable to visit bed-sides, as before, but
henceforth as a representative of the Sanitary Commission, with a wider
range of duties, and a proportionate increase of facilities. Soldiers
were complaining that they saw nothing of the Sanitary Commission, when
the shirts they wore, the fruits they ate, the stationery they used, and
numerous other comforts from the Commission abounded in the hospitals.
Mrs. Barker found that she had only to refuse the thanks which she
constantly received, and refer them to the proper object, to see a
marked change in the feeling of the sick toward the Sanitary Commission.
And she was so fully convinced of the beneficial results of this
remarkable organization, that she found the greatest pleasure in doing
this.

In all other respects her work was unchanged. There was the same need of
cheering influences--the writing of letters and procuring of books, and
obtaining of information. There were the thousand varied calls for
sympathy and care which kept one constantly on the keenest strain of
active life, so that she came to feel that