FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185  
186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   >>   >|  
ou." "Doctor, will not Mrs. Snooks do for a name, for all the time I shall be here?" "No, madam, it will not do." I was very unwilling to give my name, which was prominently before the public, on account of my Indian lecture and _Tribune_ letters, but I seemed to have at least a month's work to do in Campbell. Hospital stores were pouring in to my city address, and being sent to me at a rate which created much wonder, and the men who had given me their confidence had a right to know who I was. So I gave my name, and must repeat it before the Doctor could realize the astounding fact; even then he took off his cap and said: "It is not possible you are _the_ Mrs. ----, the lady who lectured in Doctor Sunderland's church!" So I was proclaimed, with a great flourish of trumpets. For two hours my patients seemed afraid of me, and it did seem too bad to merge that giantess of the bean-pole and the press and the tall woman of the platform both in poor little insignificant me! It was like blotting out the big bear and the middle-sized bear from the old bear story, and leaving only the one poor little bear to growl over his pot of porridge. In Ward Five was one man who had been laid on his left side, and never could be moved while he lived. His right arm suffered for lack of support, and when I knelt to give him nourishment from a spoon, and pray with him that the deliverer would soon come, he always laid that arm over my shoulders. The first time I knelt there after I was known, he said: "Ah, you are such a great lady, and do not mind a poor soldier laying his arm over you!" "Christ, the great Captain of our Salvation," I replied, "gathers you in his arms and pillows your head upon his bosom. Am I greater than he? Your good right arm has fought for liberty, and it is an honor to support it, when you are no longer able." But nothing else I could ever say to him, was so much comfort as the old cry of the sufferer by the wayside, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me." Over and over again we said that prayer in concert, while he waited in agony for the only relief possible--that of death; and from our last interview I returned to the bad ward, so sad that I felt the shadow of my face fall upon every man in it. I could not drive away death's gloom; but I could work and talk, and both work and talk were needed. I sat down between two young Irishmen, both with wounded heads, and began to bathe them, a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185  
186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Doctor

 

support

 

Salvation

 

Christ

 

Captain

 

Irishmen

 

replied

 

wounded

 

gathers

 

needed


waited

 

concert

 

pillows

 
laying
 

shoulders

 

deliverer

 
relief
 
interview
 

soldier

 

shadow


sufferer

 

comfort

 
wayside
 

liberty

 

returned

 

fought

 

prayer

 

longer

 

greater

 

confidence


created

 

repeat

 

realize

 

Snooks

 

lectured

 

Sunderland

 

astounding

 

Indian

 

lecture

 

Tribune


account

 

public

 

unwilling

 
prominently
 

letters

 

pouring

 

address

 

stores

 
Hospital
 
Campbell