quarantined on all
sides, no food, medicine, nor comforts for sick or well.

"Nurses, shall I leave a part of you there; the train can not stop in,
nor near the town, but if I can manage to get it slowed up somewhere,
will you jump?"

"We will do anything you say, colonel; we are here in God's name and
service to help His people; for Him, for you, and for the Red Cross, we
will do our best and our all."

"Conductor, you had a hot box a few miles back; don't you think it
should be looked to after passing Macclenny?"

"I will slow up and have it seen to, colonel, although it may cost me my
official head." And it did.

One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground soaked,
slippery, and caving, out into pitchy darkness, leaped three men and
seven women from a puffing, unsteady train, no physician with them, and
no instructions save the charge of their leader as the last leap was
made, and the train pushed on: "Nurses, you know what to do; go and do
your best, and God help you." Hand to hand, that none go astray in the
darkness, they hobbled back over a mile of slippery cross-ties to the
stricken town. Shelter was found, the wet clothes dried, and at midnight
the sick had been parceled out, each nurse had his or her quota of
patients, and were in for the issue, be it life or death. Those past
all help must be seen through, and lost, all that could be must be
saved. The next day a dispatch from Southmayd went back to New Orleans
for Dr. Gill to come and take charge of the sick and the nurses at
Macclenny. It was done, and under his wise direction they found again a
leader. Their labors and successes are matters for later and more
extended record.

It is to be borne in mind that these nurses found no general table, no
table at all but such as they could provide, find the food for, and cook
for themselves, for the sick, the children, and the old and helpless who
had escaped the fever and must be cared for. No patient could be left
till the crisis was passed, and many are their records of seventy-two
hours without change or sleep or scarcely sitting down. As the disease
gradually succumbed to their watchful care, experience, and skill, they
reached out to other freshly attacked towns and hamlets. Sanderson and
Glen St. Mary's became their charge, and return their blessings for
lives preserved.

On November 1st it was thought they could safely leave and go into camp
for quarantine; but no regular train w