nts you to come there right off."

"It's only the castor oil," muttered the Doctor savagely, as he rose to
follow the nurse.

This was the letter that the Orderly handed Rachel some days later:

Dear Ratie: Your letter came at last, for which I was SO thankful,
because I had waited SO long for it that I was SO tired and SO anxious
that I was almost at my wits' end. I am SO glad that you are well, that
you have got your room at last fixed up real nice and comfortable, as a
young lady should have, and that you find your duties more agreeable.
It is SO nice in that Dr. Denslow to help you along as he does. But then
that is what every real gentleman should do for a young lady--or old one
for that matter. Still, I would like to thank him SO much.

I am not at all well: my heart gives me SO much trouble--more than ever
before--and as you say nothing about coming home I have about concluded
to try what a change of climate and scene will do for me, and so have
concluded to accept your Aunt Tabitha's invitation to spend a few
months with her. Unless you hear from me to the contrary--which you will
probably not, as the mails are so uncertain in Kentucky, you had better
address your next letter to me at Eau Claire.

But I am so sorry to see by your letter that you show no signs of
weariness with your quixotic idea of serving the country in the
hospital. I had hoped so much that you would by this time have decided
that you had done enough, and come home and content yourself with doing
what you could for the Sanitary Fair, and the lint-scraping bees.

YOUR AFFECTIONATE MOTHER.

P.S.--Your father is well. He will go with me to Wisconsin, and then go
down to Nebraska to look after his land there.

P.S.--I am SO sorry to tell you that Harry Glen has acted badly again.
The last letters from the regiment say that he did not go into the fight
at Wildcat, and afterward was missing. They believe he was captured, and
some say he was taken prisoner on purpose. Everybody's saying, "I told
you so," and Mrs. Glen has not been on the street or to church since the
news came. I am so sorry for her, but then you know that she used to put
on quite as many airs as her position justified.

P.S.--Hoop-skirts are getting smaller every month, and some are
confident that they will go entirely out of fashion by next year. I do
so hope not. I so dread having to cOme back to the old way of wearing a
whole clothes-basketful of white skirts. The new