ouds and gilded the iron sky, and made us cheerful again. During the
end of March, the whole of April, and a considerable portion of May,
however, the army was but a little better off for the advent of
spring. The military road to the camp was only in progress--the
railway only carried ammunition. A few hours' rain rendered the old
road all but impassable, and scarcity often existed in the front
before Sebastopol, although the frightened and anxious Commissariat
toiled hard to avert such a mishap; so that very often to the British
Hotel came officers starved out on the heights above us. The dandies
of Rotten Row would come down riding on sorry nags, ready to carry
back--their servants were on duty in the trenches--anything that would
be available for dinner. A single glance at their personal appearance
would suffice to show the hardships of the life they were called upon
to lead. Before I left London for the seat of war I had been more than
once to the United Service Club, seeking to gain the interest of
officers whom I had known in Jamaica; and I often thought afterwards
of the difference between those I saw there trimly shaven, handsomely
dressed, with spotless linen and dandy air, and these their
companions, who in England would resemble them. Roughly, warmly
dressed, with great fur caps, which met their beards and left nothing
exposed but lips and nose, and not much of those; you would easily
believe that soap and water were luxuries not readily obtainable, that
shirts and socks were often comforts to dream about rather than
possess, and that they were familiar with horrors you would shudder to
hear named. Tell me, reader, can you fancy what the want of so simple
a thing as a pocket-handkerchief is? To put a case--have you ever gone
out for the day without one; sat in a draught and caught a sneezing
cold in the head? You say the question is an unnecessarily unpleasant
one, and yet what I am about to tell you is true, and the sufferer is,
I believe, still alive.

An officer had ridden down one day to obtain refreshments (this was very
early in the spring); some nice fowls had just been taken from the spit,
and I offered one to him. Paper was one of the most hardly obtainable
luxuries of the Crimea, and I rarely had any to waste upon my customers;
so I called out, "Give me your pocket-handkerchief, my son, that I may
wrap it up." You see we could not be very particular out there; but he
smiled very bitterly as he answ