and she began to fill up last
night. I wish you could hear the men after they are put into bed. Those
who _can_ speak, speak with a will; the others grunt, or murmur their
satisfaction. 'Well, this bed is most _too_ soft; I don't know as I
shall sleep, for thinking of it,' 'What have you got there?' 'That is
bread; wait till I put butter on it.' 'Butter, on _soft_ bread!' he
slowly ejaculates, as if not sure that he isn't Aladdin with a genie at
work upon him. Instances of such high unselfishness happen daily, that,
though I forget them daily, I feel myself strengthened in my trust in
human nature, without making any reflections about it. Last night, a man
comfortably put to bed in a middle berth (there were three tiers, and
the middle one incomparably the best) seeing me point to the upper berth
as the place to put the man on an approaching stretcher, cried out:
'Stop! put me up there. Guess I can stand h'isting better'n _him_.' It
was agony to both.

"I have a long history to tell you, one of these days, of the
gratefulness of the men. I often wish,--as I give a comfort to some poor
fellow, and see the sense of rest it gives him, and hear the favorite
speech: 'O, that's good, it's just as if mother was here,'--that the man
or woman who supplied that comfort were by to see how blessed it is.
Believe me, you may all give and work in the earnest hope that you
alleviate suffering, but none of you realize what you do; perhaps you
can't conceive of it, unless you could see your gifts _in use_. * * * *

"We are now on board 'The Knickerbocker,' unpacking and arranging
stores, and getting pantries and closets in order. I am writing on the
floor, interrupted constantly to join in a laugh. Miss ---- is sorting
socks, and pulling out the funny little balls of yarn, and big
darning-needles stuck in the toes, with which she is making a fringe
across my back. _Do_ spare us the darning-needles! Reflect upon us,
rushing in haste to the linen closet, and plunging our hands into the
bale of stockings! I certainly will make a collection of sanitary
clothing. I solemnly aver that yesterday I found a pair of drawers made
for a case of amputation at the thigh. And the slippers! Only fit for
pontoon bridges!"

This routine of fitting up the ships as they arrived, and of receiving
the men on board as they came from the front, was accompanied by
constant hard work in meeting requisitions from regiments, with
ceaseless battlings for transp