violent storm in partially open cars. Their
lieutenant-colonel lay in a critical state for several days with typhoid
pneumonia. The officers and men of the regiment were continually coming
in to inquire for him, and their words of interest and esteem bore
witness to the beauty of a character of which his noble face was alone
sufficient assurance. The disease of which he was apparently dying
needs, perhaps more than any other, the closest watchfulness and good
judgment. The doctors were indefatigable in their consultations. Ice
held constantly in the mouth was the only nourishment he could take.
When medicine had done its utmost, Dr. Vanderkeift sadly said, he feared
that he must die. During five days and nights sleep had not at all
calmed his delirious ravings, and nature seemed exhausted. "But you are
determined that he shall not die," said one of the doctors to the lady
in charge of the ward. "Not if good care can save his life," she
answered. (And here let me record the uniform courtesy and respect with
which suggestions from the ladies were received by the doctors. Their
wishes were always acceded to, if possible, with a gentlemanly deference
which showed they were not considered intrusive.) Life, however, seemed
almost gone, and hope at an end for our patient, when at nightfall a
group of doctors whispered together that there was no use in doing
anything more,--that he could not live till morning. Then, with a
pertinacity which could not yield, the lady in charge requested that a
blister might be applied to the back of his neck. "It will do no harm,
and, if it will be the slightest gratification to you, it shall be put
on; but," added the doctors, "you had better make up your mind to lose
him, for he must die." With what intense satisfaction, at five o'clock
the next morning, was the doctor welcomed in the ward, and told that
four hours of refreshing sleep had followed the application of the
blister! He was surprised even to find the patient alive, and with joy
pronounced him much better. He ordered the strongest beef essence, with
a fresh egg lightly beaten mixed with it, to be given by the teaspoonful
every twenty minutes, alternating it with brandy and water. There was a
wonderful improvement that day, and before his friends arrived on the
next, the sick man was quite out of danger.

One of the most highly prized of all the various gifts which were
offered in grateful remembrance to the ladies in the hospital wa