d: 'Yes,
this is one of the rich gifts made to us by the Sanitary
Commission.' An invalid took up the words and remarked: 'I think
it's likely that all about me is from the Sanitary, for I see my
flannel shirt, this wrapper, and pretty much all I've got on, has
the stamp of the United States Sanitary Commission on it.'

"The diet kitchen is under the care of Miss Rich, who, with her
assistants, was busy preparing delicacies of various kinds, for two
hundred patients who were not able to go to the convalescent's
table. The whole atmosphere was filled with the odor of savory
viands. On the stove I counted mutton-chops, beef-steaks, oysters,
chicken, milk, tea, and other very palatable articles cooking. A
man stood by a table, buttering nicely toasted bread; before him
were eight to ten rows of the staff of life, rising up like pillars
of strength to support the inner man. The chief cook in this
department, informed me that he buttered twelve hundred slices of
bread, or toast daily, for the diet patients, and prepared
eighty-six different dishes at each meal. While in conversation
with this good-natured person, the butcher brought in a supply of
meat, amounting, he informed me, to one hundred pounds per day for
the so-called diet kitchen, though this did not sound much like it.
Before we left this attractively clean place the oysterman was met
emptying his cans. Upon inquiring how many oysters he had, he
replied, 'Six gallons is my every day deposit here;' and oh! they
were so inexpressibly fine-looking, I could not resist robbing some
poor fellow of one large bivalve to ascertain their quality. Next
we were shown the store-room, where there was a good supply of
Sanitary stores, pads, pillows, shirts, drawers, arm-slings, stock
of crutches, fans, and other comforts, which, the doctor said, had
been deposited by the United States Sanitary Commission Agent.
These were useful articles that were not furnished by the
Government.

"The executive officer having given us permission to find our way
among the patients, we passed several hours most profitably and
interestingly, conversing with those who had none to cheer them for
many months, and writing letters for those who were too feeble to
use the pen. When the day closed our labors we felt like the