tily, for he laughed blithely, and
so did I; which, no doubt, caused the new nurse to be regarded as a
light-minded sinner by the Chaplain, who roamed vaguely about,
informing the men that they were all worms, corrupt of heart, with
perishable bodies, and souls only to be saved by a diligent perusal of
certain tracts, and other equally cheering bits of spiritual
consolation, when spirituous ditto would have been preferred.

"I say, Mrs.!" called a voice behind me; and, turning, I saw a rough
Michigander, with an arm blown off at the shoulder, and two or three
bullets still in him--as he afterwards mentioned, as carelessly as if
gentlemen were in the habit of carrying such trifles about with them. I
went to him, and, while administering a dose of soap and water, he
whispered, irefully:

"That red-headed devil, over yonder, is a reb, damn him! You'll agree
to that, I'll bet? He's got shet of a foot, or he'd a cut like the rest
of the lot. Don't you wash him, nor feed him, but jest let him holler
till he's tired. It's a blasted shame to fetch them fellers in here,
along side of us; and so I'll tell the chap that bosses this concern;
cuss me if I don't."

I regret to say that I did not deliver a moral sermon upon the duty of
forgiving our enemies, and the sin of profanity, then and there; but,
being a red-hot Abolitionist, stared fixedly at the tall rebel, who was
a copperhead, in every sense of the word, and privately resolved to put
soap in his eyes, rub his nose the wrong way, and excoriate his cuticle
generally, if I had the washing of him.

My amiable intentions, however, were frustrated; for, when I
approached, with as Christian an expression as my principles would
allow, and asked the question--"Shall I try to make you more
comfortable, sir?" all I got for my pains was a gruff--

"No; I'll do it myself."

"Here's your Southern chivalry, with a witness," thought I, dumping the
basin down before him, thereby quenching a strong desire to give him a
summary baptism, in return for his ungraciousness; for my angry
passions rose, at this rebuff, in a way that would have scandalized
good Dr. Watts. He was a disappointment in all respects, (the rebel,
not the blessed Doctor,) for he was neither fiendish, romantic,
pathetic, or anything interesting; but a long, fat man, with a head
like a burning bush, and a perfectly expressionless face: so I could
dislike him without the slightest drawback, and ignored his existence