weak state to be constantly fed. At half-past five the nurses
left the wards and went to their tea, but that did not take long, and
soon they were back again making everything comfortable for the night,
which began with the entrance of the night nurses at half-past nine.

It was a hard life, and when one remembers how bad their own food was,
it is a marvel that any of them were able to bear it for so long. But,
as Shakespeare says, 'Nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so,'
and it is wonderful how far a brave spirit will carry one. Still, heavy
though the nurses' work was, that of Miss Nightingale was far more of a
strain. It was she on whom everything depended, who had to think and
plan and look forward, and write accounts of it all to Mr. Sidney
Herbert in London, and lord Raglan, the Commander-in-Chief, at the
Crimea. The orderlies of the regiment gave her willing aid, but they
needed to be taught what to do, and no doubt the Lady-in-Chief often
found that it is far quicker and easier to do things oneself than to
spend time in training another person. Luckily she was prompt to see the
different uses to which men and women could be put, so that there were
no wasted days or weeks, caused by setting them tasks for which they
were unfitted, and in a very short while the hospital, which had been a
scene of horror on her arrival from England, was a well-arranged and
most comfortable place.

But not only were there soldiers to be cared for, there were also their
wives and children, who were almost forgotten and huddled together in a
corner of the barracks, with few clothes and hardly any food. Miss
Nightingale took them under her charge, and placed them in a clean house
close by, giving some of the women work in her laundry and finding
employment for the rest, with the help of the wife of one of the
chaplains. The children were taught for several hours in the day, and
thus their mothers were left free to earn money to support them, while
the widows were given clothes and money, and as soon as possible sent
home.

One morning, as the Lady-in-Chief went her rounds, the men noticed that
her face was brighter than usual and looked as if something had pleased
her very much. So it had, and in the afternoon, when they were all
resting comfortably, they knew what it was. One of the chaplains went
from ward to ward reading a letter which Queen Victoria had written to
Mr. Sidney Herbert, and this was how it ran:--