action, the imaginary likeness of a certain faithful
pastor, who took all outcasts by the hand, smote the devil in whatever
guise he came, and comforted the indigent in spirit with the best
wisdom of a great and tender heart, which still speaks to us from its
Italian grave. With that addition, my picture was complete; and I often
longed to take a veritable sketch of a Hospital Sunday, for, despite
its drawbacks, consisting of continued labor, the want of proper books,
the barren preaching that bore no fruit, this day was never like the
other six.

True to their home training, our New England boys did their best to
make it what it should be. With many, there was much reading of
Testaments, humming over of favorite hymns, and looking at such books
as I could cull from a miscellaneous library. Some lay idle, slept, or
gossiped; yet, when I came to them for a quiet evening chat, they often
talked freely and well of themselves; would blunder out some timid hope
that their troubles might "do 'em good, and keep 'em stiddy;" would
choke a little, as they said good night, and turned their faces to the
wall to think of mother, wife, or home, these human ties seeming to be
the most vital religion which they yet knew. I observed that some of
them did not wear their caps on this day, though at other times they
clung to them like Quakers; wearing them in bed, putting them on to
read the paper, eat an apple, or write a letter, as if, like a new sort
of Samson, their strength lay, not in their hair, but in their hats.
Many read no novels, swore less, were more silent, orderly, and
cheerful, as if the Lord were an invisible Wardmaster, who went his
rounds but once a week, and must find all things at their best. I liked
all this in the poor, rough boys, and could have found it in my heart
to put down sponge and tea-pot, and preach a little sermon then and
there, while homesickness and pain had made these natures soft, that
some good seed might be cast therein, to blossom and bear fruit here or
hereafter.

Regarding the admission of friends to nurse their sick, I can only say,
it was not allowed at Hurly-burly House; though one indomitable parent
took my ward by storm, and held her position, in spite of doctors,
matron, and Nurse Periwinkle. Though it was against the rules, though
the culprit was an acid, frost-bitten female, though the young man
would have done quite as well without her anxious fussiness, and the
whole room-full been m