than his hand. I do not know his name, but it does not
matter, it is inscribed above. 'This is all we can spare,' he said.
'Take it. You must keep those wounds cool at all hazards. I have another
case very like these--a man wounded in the head. I want to bring him
over here, where he will be sure of exactly the same nursing. His life
depends on the care he gets in the next twenty-four hours. Have you a
vacant cot?'

"There was not a vacant cot, but we could make room for one on the porch
if he could find the cot. He thought he could, and went back, taking the
precious piece of ice that he really needed more than we did. In the
course of a half hour the surgeon returned to say it was impossible to
get a cot anywhere, and the wounded man must be left where he was in the
tent, at least until morning.

"And so it went on through the long night--the patient suffering of the
sick men, the heroism of the wounded, all fearing to give any trouble,
desiring not to do so, find grateful for the smallest attention.

"The courage that faces death on the battlefield or calmly awaits it in
the hospital is not a courage of race or color. Two of the bravest men I
ever saw were here, almost side by side on the little porch--Captain
Mills and Private Clark--one white, the other black. They were wounded
almost at the same time, and in the same way. The patient suffering and
heroism of the black soldier was fully equal to that of the Anglo-Saxon.
It was quite the same, the gentleness and appreciation. They were a
study, these men so widely apart in life, but here strangely close and
alike on the common ground of duty and sacrifice. They received
precisely the same care; each fed like a child, for with their bandaged
eyes they were as helpless as blind men. When the ice pads were renewed
on Captain Mills's eyes the same change was made on Private Clark's
eyes. There was no difference in their beds or food. Neither uttered a
word of complaint. The nearest to a regret expressed by Captain Mills
was a heavy sigh, followed by the words: 'Oh, we were not ready. Our
army was not prepared.'

"Of himself he talked cheerfully, strong, and hopeful. 'I think I shall
go home with the sight of one eye,' he said. That was all.

"In the early part of the night he was restless, his brain was active,
cool, and brave as he might be. The moonlight was very bright, a flood
of silver, seen only in the tropics. Hoping to divert him I said: 'The
moonlight is