fill him with hope for
the future. And not many days after her arrival, her coming was eagerly
watched for by the multitudes of sick and half-starved soldiers who were
lying along the walls of the passages because the beds were all full.

It is really hardly possible for us to understand all that the nurses
had to do. First the wards must be kept clean, or the invalids would
grow worse instead of better. Then proper food must be cooked for them,
or they would never grow strong. Those who were most ill needed special
care, lest a change for the worse might come unnoticed; and besides all
this a laundry was set up, so that a constant supply of fresh linen
might be at hand. In a little while, when some of the wounds were
healing and the broken heads had ceased to ache, there would come shy
petitions from the beds that the nurse would write them a letter home,
to say that they had been more fortunate than their comrades and were
still alive, and hoped to be back in England some day.

'Well, tell me what you want to say, and I will say it,' the nurse would
answer, but it is not very easy to dictate a letter if you have never
tried, so it soon ended with the remark,

'Oh! nurse, _you_ write it for me! You will say it much better than I
can.'

[Illustration: 'Tell me what you want to say, and I will say it.']

Would you like to know how the nurses passed their days? Well, first
they got up very early, made their beds, put their rooms tidy, and went
down to the kitchen, where they had some bread, which was mostly sour,
and some tea without milk. Then arrowroot and beef tea had to be made
for the men, and when the night nurses took their turn to rest, those
who were on duty by day went into the wards and stayed there from
half-past nine till two, washing and dressing and feeding the men and
talking over their illnesses with the doctors, who by this time were
thankful for their aid. At two the men were left to rest or sleep while
their tired nurses had their dinner, and little as they might like it,
they thought it their duty to swallow a plateful of very bad meat and
some porter. At three some of them often took a short walk, but that
November the rains were constant and very heavy at Scutari as well as in
the Crimea, and as Miss Nightingale would allow no risk of catching
cold, on these days the nurses all stayed in the hospital, where there
was always something to be done or cooked for the patients, who required
in their