ve been around
to the stores to buy some little things that he would eat,--for he can't
eat this strong food,--but the prices are so high that I can't buy them,
and I am afraid, that, if I go away, and if he doesn't get something
different to eat, that maybe,' and the tears trickled down her cheeks,
'he won't--be so well.'

"Her listener thought that difficulty might be overcome, and, if she
would put on her bonnet, they would go to a store where articles were
cheap. Accordingly they arrived in front of the large three-story
building which Government has assigned to the Commission, and the old
lady was soon running her eyes over the long rows of boxes, bales, and
barrels that stretched for a hundred feet down the room, but was most
fascinated by the bottles and cans on the shelves. He ordered a supply
of sugar, tea, soft crackers, and canned fruit, then chicken and
oysters, then jelly and wine, brandy, milk, and under-clothing, till the
basket was full. As the earlier articles nestled under its lids, her
face was glowing with satisfaction; but as the later lots arrived, she
would draw him aside to whisper that 'it was too much,'--'really she
hadn't enough money'; and when the more expensive items came from the
shelves, the shadow of earnestness which gloomed her countenance grew
into one of perplexity, her soul vibrating between motherly yearning for
the lad on his bed and the scant purse in her pocket, till, slowly, and
with great reluctance, she began to return the costliest.

"'Hadn't you better ask the price?' said her guide.

"'How much is it?'

"'Nothing,' replied the store-keeper.

"'Sir!' queried she, in the utmost amazement, '_nothing_ for all this?'

"'My good woman,' asked the guide, 'have you a Soldiers' Aid Society in
your neighborhood?'

"Yes, they had; she belonged to it herself.

"'Well, what do you suppose becomes of the garments you make, and the
fruit have you put up?'

"She hadn't thought,--she supposed they went to the army,--but was
evidently bothered to know what connection there could be between their
Aid Society and that basket.

"'These garments that you see came from your society, or other societies
just like yours; so did these boxes and barrels; that milk came from New
York; those fruits from Boston; that wine was likely purchased with gold
from California; and it is all for sick soldiers, your son as much as
for any one else. This is the United States Sanitary Commission
storeh