n here six months. and never
so much as touched the little toad with a poker."

"More shame for you, ma'am," responded Miss P.; and, with the natural
perversity of a Yankee, followed up the blow by kissing "the toad,"
with ardor. His face was providentially as clean and shiny as if his
mamma had just polished it up with a corner of her apron and a drop
from the tea-kettle spout, like old Aunt Chloe, This rash act, and the
anti-slavery lecture that followed, while one hand stirred gruel for
sick America, and the other hugged baby Africa, did not produce the
cheering result which I fondly expected; for my comrade henceforth
regarded me as a dangerous fanatic, and my protege nearly came to his
death by insisting on swarming up stairs to my room, on all occasions,
and being walked on like a little black spider.

I waited for New Year's day with more eagerness than I had ever known
before; and, though it brought me no gift, I felt rich in the act of
justice so tardily performed toward some of those about me. As the
bells rung midnight, I electrified my room-mate by dancing out of bed,
throwing up the window, and flapping my handkerchief, with a feeble
cheer, in answer to the shout of a group of colored men in the street
below. All night they tooted and tramped, fired crackers, sung "Glory,
Hallelujah," and took comfort, poor souls! in their own way. The sky
was clear, the moon shone benignly, a mild wind blew across the river,
and all good omens seemed to usher in the dawn of the day whose
noontide cannot now be long in coming. If the colored people had taken
hands and danced around the White House, with a few cheers for the much
abused gentleman who has immortalized himself by one just act, no
President could have had a finer levee, or one to be prouder of.

While these sights and sounds were going on without, curious scenes
were passing within, and I was learning that one of the best methods of
fitting oneself to be a nurse in a hospital, is to be a patient there;
for then only can one wholly realize what the men suffer and sigh for;
how acts of kindness touch and win; how much or little we are to those
about us; and for the first time really see that in coming there we
have taken our lives in our hands, and may have to pay dearly for a
brief experience. Every one was very kind; the attendants of my ward
often came up to report progress, to fill my wood box, or bring
messages and presents from my boys. The nurses took ma