, cooking breakfast for them as we ran, scrambling
eggs in a wash-basin over a spirit-lamp:--and such eggs! nine in ten
addled! It must be understood that wash-basins in the rear of an army
are made of _tin_."

And here is one more such story: "We were called to go on board 'The
Wissahickon,' from thence to 'The Sea-shore' and run down in the latter
to West Point, to bring off twenty-five men said to be lying there sick
and destitute. Two doctors went with us. After hunting an hour for 'The
Sea-shore' in vain, and having got as low as Cumberland, we decided
(_we_ being Mrs. Howland and I, for the doctors were new and docile, and
glad to leave the responsibility upon us women) to push on in the tug,
rather than leave the men another night on the ground, as a heavy storm
of wind and rain had been going on all the day. The pilot remonstrated,
but the captain approved; and, if the firemen had not suddenly let out
the fires, and detained us two hours, we might have got our men on
board, and returned, comfortably, soon after dark. But the delay lost us
the precious daylight. It was night before the last man was got on
board. There were fifty-six of them, ten _very_ sick ones. The boat had
a little shelter-cabin. As we were laying mattresses on the floor,
whilst the doctors were finding the men, the captain stopped us,
refusing to let us put typhoid fever below the deck, on account of the
crew, he said, and threatening to push off, at once, from the shore.
Mrs. Howland and I looked at him! I did the terrible, and she the
pathetic,--and he abandoned the contest. The return passage was rather
an anxious one. The river is much obstructed with sunken ships and
trees; the night was dark, and we had to feel our way, slackening speed
every ten minutes. If we had been alone it wouldn't have mattered; but
to have fifty men unable to move upon our hands, was too heavy a
responsibility not to make us anxious. The captain and pilot said the
boat was leaking, and remarked awfully that 'the water was six fathoms
deep about there;' but we saw their motive and were not scared. We were
safe alongside 'The Spaulding' by midnight; but Mr. Olmstead's tone of
voice, as he said, 'You don't know how glad I am to see you,' showed how
much he had been worried. And yet it was the best thing we could have
done, for three, perhaps five, of the men would have been dead before
morning. To-day (Sunday) they are living and likely to live. _Is_ this
Sunday? W