in Spencer decided to go into camp at a little spring we came to in
the early afternoon, and which was about four miles from here. The tents
were pitched just above the base of a hill--you would call it a mountain
in the East--and in a small grove of trees. The ground was thickly
carpeted with dead leaves, and everything looked most attractive from
the ambulance.

When Miss Hayes and I went to our tent, however, to arrange it, we
found that underneath that thick covering of leaves a sheet of water
was running down the side of the hill, and with every step our feet sank
down almost ankle deep in the wet leaves and water. Each has a little
iron cot, and the two had been set up and the bedding put upon them by
the soldiers, and they looked so inviting we decided to rest a while and
get warm also. But much to our disgust we found that our mattresses were
wet and all of our blankets more or less wet, too. It was impossible to
dry one thing in the awful dampness, so we folded the blankets with the
dry part on top as well as we could, and then "crawled in." We hated to
get up for dinner, but as we were guests, we felt that we must do
so, but for that meal we waited in vain--not one morsel of dinner was
prepared that night, and Miss Hayes and I envied the enlisted men when
we got sniffs of their boiling coffee. Only a soldier could have found
dry wood and a place for making coffee that night.

When it is at all wet Faye always has our tents "ditched," that is, the
sod turned up on the canvas all around the bottom. So just before dark
I asked Captain Spencer if the men could not do that to our tent, and it
was done without delay. It made a great difference in our comfort, for
at once the incoming of the water was stopped. We all retired early that
night, and notwithstanding our hunger, and the wet below and above us,
our sleep was sound. In the morning we found several inches of snow on
the ground and the whole country was white. The snow was so moist and
clinging, that the small branches of trees were bent down with its
weight, and the effect of the pure white on the brilliant greens was
enchanting. Over all was the glorious sunshine that made the whole
grand scene glisten and sparkle like fairyland. And that day was the
twenty-sixth of August!

It was wretchedly cold, and our heaviest wraps seemed thin and light.
Lottie gave us a nice hot breakfast, and after that things looked much
more cheerful. By noon most of the snow ha