ns.

"Now, Colonel, when will you send for these supplies?" asked Dr.
Gardner. "They will be ready any time."

"Lend me a sack and I'll take them right along," he answered with
characteristic decision.

Mrs. Gardner at once looked up a sack, and when filled it must have held
a good many pounds of supplies. Before we had recovered from our
surprise, the incident was closed by the future President of the United
States slinging the big sack over his shoulders, striding off, and out
of sight through the jungle.

The gruel still remained the staple, but malted milk, chocolate, rice,
and tea had come in, and little by little various things were added by
which our _menage_ quite resembled a hotel. The wounded were still being
taken away by ambulance and wagon, assorted and picked over like fruit.
Those who would bear transportation were taken away, the others left
where they were. By the third day our patients seemed strong enough that
we might risk giving them food as solid as rice, and the great kettles
were filled with that, cooked soft, mixed with condensed and malted
milk. The number of wounded grew less day by day, and better care could
be taken of them.

At Siboney, the great needs of the hour were met by the little band of
surgeons and nurses, working night and day. The following is from a
letter in the Times-Herald, now Record-Herald, of Chicago, by Miss Janet
Jennings, who volunteered her service in the hospital. One gets from
this simple, direct picture, a better appreciation of that heroism which
lives after excitement, which survives the rush and shouting of assault,
which is sustained without comradeship:

"SIBONEY, _July 8, 1898_.

"Above hospital tents Red Cross flags are flying, and here is the real
life--the suffering and heroism. Everybody who can do even so little as
carry a cup of water lends willing hands to help the wounded. Most of
the wounded are from the first day's engagement, when the infantry was
ordered to lead the attack on Santiago, instead of using the artillery.

"And it all came at once--a quick blow--with little or no preparation
to meet it. I mentioned in a former letter the lack of preparation on
the part of the army to care for the sick. There was then almost
nothing--no cots, bedding or proper food, for less than one hundred sick
men.

"Two days later, when the wounded came in, the needs of the hour were
overwhelming. The situation can not be described. Thousands of our men