care which brought him back to life and hope, to a companion
whom he met. "If you do, just come to our hospital and see Miss Ross."

This was the only reward she craved--a word of thoughtful gratitude from
those she sought to serve; and in this was lost all remembrance of days
of toil and nights of weariness. So from week to week and from month to
month the self-consecration grew more complete--the self-forgetfulness
more perfect. But the life spent in the service of others was drawing
near its end. The busy hands were soon to be folded, the heavy eyelids
forever closed, the weary feet were hastening to their rest.

The spring of 1863 found Miss Ross still occupied in the weary round of
her labors at the hospital. She had most remarkable strength and vigor
of constitution, and that, with every other gift and talent she
possessed was unsparingly used for the promotion of any good cause to
which she was devoted. During this spring, in addition to all her other
and engrossing labors, she was very busy in promoting the interests of a
large fair for the purpose of aiding in the establishment of a permanent
Home for discharged soldiers, who were incapacitated for active labor.
She canvassed the city of Philadelphia, and also traveled in different
parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey in order to obtain assistance in
this important undertaking. "Is it not wrong," a friend once asked,
"that you should do so much, while so many are doing nothing?" "Oh,
there are hundreds who would gladly work as I do," was her reply, "but
they have not my powers of endurance."

The fair in which she was so actively interested took place in June, and
a large sum was added to the fund previously obtained for the benefit of
the "Soldiers' Home." The work now progressed rapidly, and the personal
aid and influence of Miss Ross were exerted to forward it in every
possible way. Yet while deeply absorbed in the promotion of this object,
which was very near to her heart, she found time to brighten, with
characteristic tenderness and devotion, the last hours of the Rev. Dr.
Clay, the aged and revered minister of the ancient church, in which the
marriage of her parents had taken place so many years before. With his
own family she watched beside his bed, and with them received his
parting blessing.

The waning year found the noble undertaking, the object of so many
prayers and the goal of such ardent desire, near a prosperous
completion. A suitable build