"Can
you bear to go without food a week?"

Gratefully the man signed "yes," and with the tough unyielding patience
of a hero, he bore the pains of wound and hunger. In the meantime the
chief appliance was the basin of pure cold water from which he was
directed to keep his wound continually wet, that horrid wound which it
seemed no human skill could heal.

In a few days the inflammation began to subside, even the surgeons
decided the symptoms good, and began to watch the case with interest.
The ragged edges of the wound, when the swelling subsided, could be
closed up. Then, by direction of his kind nurse, he plunged his face
into a basin of broth, and supped from it strength, since it did not
all escape from the still unhealed wound. Every day witnessed an
improvement. In a little time he took his food like a human being; each
day witnessed new strength and healing, and then he was saved, and the
nurse proved wiser, for once, than the doctor!

For three weeks Mrs. Spencer remained in the White Church Hospital. She
then accompanied some wounded to New York City, and took a brief respite
from her duties, and the awful scenes she had witnessed.

On her return to Gettysburg, she received as a mark of the esteem felt
for her by those who had witnessed her labors and devotion to the work,
and the confidence reposed in her, the appointment of Agent of the State
of New York, in the care of its sick and wounded soldiers in the field.
Large discretionary powers, both as to the purchase and the distribution
of supplies, were granted her; and every effort was made to have this
appointment distinguished as a mark of the high appreciation and esteem
which she had won in the discharge of her duties.

As her husband was detailed as clerk in the Medical Purveyor's Office,
at Gettysburg, she remained there in the active performance of her
duties for a considerable time.

Beside the supplies furnished by the State of New York, a large amount
were entrusted to her, by various Ladies' Aid Societies, and kindred
associations.

After leaving Gettysburg, Mrs. Spencer was variously but usefully
employed at various places, and in various ways, but always making her
duties as State agent for the New York troops prominent, and of the
first importance. She was for some time at Brandy Station. While there
her husband received his discharge from the Volunteer Service, but
immediately entered the regular service, as Hospital Steward, and was