he angel asked me how I
felt, and I told her I was all right, but she said I was all wrong. I
thanked her for the trouble she had taken to come so far, and she said
not to mention it. She said she had a brother who was a prisoner at
the-North, and if somebody would only be kind to him if he was sick,
she would be well repaid. She said the last she heard of him he was a
prisoner of war at Madison, Wis., and she wondered what kind of people
lived there, away off on the frontier, and if they could be kind to
their enemies. That touched me where I lived, and I raised up on my
elbow, and said:

"Why bless your heart, Miss, if your brother is a prisoner in old Camp
Randlll, in Madison, he has got a pic nic. That town was my home before
I came down here on this fool job. The people there are the finest in
the world. All of them, from old Grovernor Lewis, to the poorest man in
town, would set up nights with a sick person, whether he was a rebel or
not. Your brother couldn't be better fixed if he was at home. The idea
of a man suffering for food, clothing, or human sympathy in Madison,
would be ridiculous. There is not a family in that town," I said,
becoming excited from the feeling that any one doubted the humanity of
the people of Wisconsin, "but would divide their breakfast, and their
clothes, and their money, with your brother, egad, I wish I was there
myself. I will be responsible for your brother, Miss."

She told me to lay down and be quiet, and not talk any more, as I was
becoming wild. She said she was glad to know what kind of people lived
there, as she had supposed it was a wilderness. In a few minutes
Jim came back and said the doctor was playing poker with some other
officers, in a captain's tent, and he didn't dare go in and break up the
game, but he spoke to the doctor's orderly, and he said I ought to take
castor oil. That didn't please the little woman at all, and she told
Jim to go to the poker tent and tell the doctor to come at once, or she
would come after him. It was not long before the doctor came stooping in
to my pup tent. His idea was to have all sick men attend surgeon's call
in the morning, and not go around visiting the sick in tents. He asked
me what was the matter, and I told him nothing much. Then he asked me
why I wasn't at surgeon's call in the morning. I told him the reason was
that I was wading in a swamp, after the rebels that ambushed some of
our boys the day before. "Then you've got malar