e these scenes took place, I must
respectfully decline to answer; for Hurly-burly House has ceased to
exist as a hospital; so let it rest, with all its sins upon its
head,--perhaps I should say chimney top. When the nurses felt ill, the
doctors departed, and the patients got well, I believe the concern
gently faded from existence, or was merged into some other and better
establishment, where I hope the washing of three hundred sick people is
done out of the house, the food is eatable, and mortal women are not
expected to possess an angelic exemption from all wants, and the
endurance of truck horses.

Since the appearance of these hasty Sketches, I have heard from several
of my comrades at the Hospital; and their approval assures me that I
have not let sympathy and fancy run away with me, as that lively team
is apt to do when harnessed to a pen. As no two persons see the same
thing with the same eyes, my view of hospital life must be taken
through my glass, and held for what it is worth. Certainly, nothing was
set down in malice, and to the serious-minded party who objected to a
tone of levity in some portions of the Sketches, I can only say that it
is a part of my religion to look well after the cheerfulnesses of life,
and let the dismals shift for themselves; believing, with good Sir
Thomas More, that it is wise to "be merrie in God."

The next hospital I enter will, I hope, be one for the colored
regiments, as they seem to be proving their right to the admiration and
kind offices of their white relations, who owe them so large a debt, a
little part of which I shall be so proud to pay.

Yours,
With a firm faith
In the good time coming,
TRIBULATION PERIWINKLE.

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