and when the doctor told him there
was no chance of his being sent there, he lost heart, and wrote to his
wife to come and carry him away. It seemed almost hopeless for two lone
women, who had never been out of their own little town, to succeed in
finding a soldier among so many, sent in so many different directions;
but we helped them as we could, and started them on their journey the
next morning, back on their track, to use their common sense and Yankee
privilege of questioning.

"A week after, Mrs. ---- had a letter full of gratitude, and saying that
the husband was found and secured for _home_. That same night we had had
in our tents two fathers, with their wounded sons, and a nice old German
mother with her boy. She had come in from Wisconsin, and brought with
her a patchwork bed-quilt for her son, thinking he might have lost his
blanket; and there he laid all covered up in his quilt, looking so
homelike, and feeling so, too, no doubt, with his good old mother close
at his side. She seemed bright and happy,--had three sons in the
Army,--one had been killed,--this one wounded; yet she was so pleased
with the tents, and the care she saw taken there of the soldiers, that,
while taking her tea from a barrel-head as table, she said, 'Indeed, if
_she_ was a man, she'd be a soldier too, right off.'

"For this temporary sheltering and feeding of all these wounded men,
Government could make no provision. There was nothing for them, if too
late for the cars, except the open field and hunger, in preparation for
their fatiguing journey. It is expected when the cars are ready that the
men will be promptly sent to meet them, and Government cannot provide
for mistakes and delays; so that, but for the Sanitary Commission's
Lodge and comfortable supplies, for which the wounded are indebted to
the hard workers at home, men badly hurt must have suffered night and
day, while waiting for the 'next train.' We had on an average sixty of
such men each night for three weeks under our care,--sometimes one
hundred, sometimes only thirty; and with the 'delegation,' and the help
of other gentlemen volunteers, who all worked devotedly for the men, the
whole thing was a great success, and you and all of us can't help being
thankful that we had a share, however small, in making it so. Sixteen
thousand good meals were given; hundreds of men kept through the day,
and twelve hundred sheltered at night, their wounds dressed, their
supper and break