t of song. The maples' dainty fire illumined
every swamp; the green thorn turned greener; and the live-oaks
sprouted new leaves amid their olive-tinted winter foliage, ever
green.

Magnolia and laurel grew richer and glossier; azaleas were budding;
dog-wood twigs swelled; and somewhere, in some sheltered hollow, a
spray of jasmine must have been in bloom, because the faint and
exquisite scent haunted all the woodlands.

On the 17th the entire army was paraded by regiments to cheer for
the fall of Fort Donnelson.

About mid-February the Allotment Commission began its splendid work
in camp; and it seemed to Ailsa that the mental relief it brought
to her patients was better than any other medicine--that is, better
for the Union patients; for now there were, also, in the wards, a
number of Confederate wounded, taken at various times during the
skirmishing around Fairfax--quiet, silent, dignified Virginians,
and a few fiery Louisianians, who at first, not knowing what to
expect, scarcely responded to the brusque kindness of the hospital
attendants.

The first Confederate prisoner that Ailsa ever saw was brought in
on a stretcher, a quiet, elderly man in bloody gray uniform,
wearing the stripes of a sergeant.

Prisoners came more often after that. Ailsa, in her letters to
Celia Craig, had mentioned the presence of Confederate wounded at
the Farm Hospital; and, to her delight and amazement, one day late
in February a Commission ambulance drove up, and out stepped Celia
Craig; and the next instant they were locked tightly in each
other's arms,

"Darling--darling!" sobbed Ailsa, clinging desperately to Celia,
"it is heavenly of you to come. I was so lonely, so tired and
discouraged. You won't go away soon, will you? I couldn't bear
it--I want you so--I need you----"

"Hush, Honey-bud! I reckon I'll stay a while. I've been a week
with Curt's regiment at Fortress Monroe. I had my husband to
myse'f fo' days, befo' they sent him to Acquia Creek. And I've had
my boy a whole week all to myse'f! Then his regiment went away.
They wouldn't tell me where.' But God is kinder. . . . You are
certainly ve'y pale, Honey-bee!"

"I'm well, dearest--really I am, I'll stay well now. Is Curt all
right? And Stephen? And Paige and Marye?--and Camilla?"

"Everybody is well, dear. Curt is ve'y brown and thin--the dear
fellow! And Steve is right handsome. I'm just afraid some pretty
minx--" She laughed and added: "But I wo