d very coolly
remark that he had had a very nice dinner; there was only one trouble
about it, there was not enough. On being told that we would gladly give
him more, were it considered safe, he would persist in saying that he
felt "right peart," and begged me to remember that it was twenty-one
months since he had had any dinners. As he gained strength enough to
walk about, he became acquainted with the system of the hospital and
made a discovery one day; namely, that he was on low diet, and that
there was such a thing as full diet for the well men. "If my present
fare is low, what may not the full be?" he reasoned, as visions of
illimitable bounty floated through his insatiable mind. So he asked the
doctor one morning to transfer his name to the full-diet list; and when
the bugle sounded, he joined the procession as it moved to the
dining-hall. Salt-fish, bread, and molasses chanced to be all that
presented themselves to the famished, disappointed old man; his
countenance was forlorn indeed, as he came to the window of the low-diet
serving-room to ask for something to eat. "I shall get the doctor to put
my name back on to this list, for I like this cook-shop the best, if it
_is_ called low diet."

Father Darling, as he used to be called, soon became a favorite all over
the hospital. He delighted to perform any act of kindness for his
fellow-sufferers. On Sunday mornings he might be seen wandering through
the grounds, carrying books and newspapers into the wards, with a
bright smile and cheery word for each man. His eloquence reached its
highest pitch, when, talking of the Southern Confederacy, he declared
that he did not believe in showing mercy to traitors, but that God
intended them to be "clean exterminated" from the face of the earth,
like the heathen nations the Israelites were commanded to destroy ages
ago. He had but too good reason for wishing justice to be done. After he
returned to his home in Tennessee, he wrote: "There is but one tale in
the whole country: every comfort of life is purloined, clothes all in
rags, a great many men and boys murdered, and, worst of all,
Christianity seems to have gone up from the earth, and plunder and
rapine to have filled its place. Surely war was instituted by Beelzebub.
The guerillas are yet prowling about, seeking what they may devour. In
these troublous times, all who can lift a hoe or cut a weed are trying
to make support, but unless we get help from the North many must s