wretched, it is true, but such as it was there was always enough. But in
the Liverpool Infirmary I experienced the miseries of SHORT ALLOWANCE,
and had an opportunity to witness the effect it produces in ruffling
the temper and breeding discontent. It also opened my eyes to the
instinctive selfishness of man. Those who were in sound health,
with good appetites, although apparently endued with a full share of
affections and sympathies, seemed actually to rejoice when one of their
companions, through suffering and debility, was unable to consume his
allowance of bread or porridge, which would be distributed among the
more healthy inmates of the apartment.

Chapter XV. SCENES IN A HOSPITAL.

At the expiration of three weeks the dresser informed me he was about
to case my fractured limb in splints and bandages, when I might quit my
mattress, don my garments, and hop about the room or seat myself by the
fireside.

This was good news, but my joy was somewhat dampened by the intelligence
that I could not be furnished immediately with a pair of crutches,
all belonging to the establishment being in use. I borrowed a pair
occasionally for a few minutes, from an unfortunate individual who was
domiciled in my apartment, and sometimes I shuffled about for exercise
with a stout cane in my right hand, and a house-brush, in an inverted
position under my left arm, in lieu of a crutch.

I witnessed many interesting scenes during my stay in the Infirmary, and
fell in with some singular individuals, all of which showed me phases of
human life that I had never dreamed of. The tall, military-looking man,
with whom I became acquainted soon after I entered the establishment,
proved to have been a soldier. He had served for years in a regiment
of heavy dragoons, and attained the rank of corporal. He had sabred
Frenchmen by dozens during the unsuccessful campaign in Holland under
the Duke of York. He fought his battles over again with all the ardor
and energy of an Othello, and to an audience as attentive, although, it
may be, not so high-born or beautiful.

There was also present during my stay a young native of the Emerald
Isle, who had seen service in the British navy. In an obstinate and
bloody battle between English and French squadrons off the Island of
Lissa, in the Adriatic, about nine months before, in which Sir William
Hoste achieved a splendid victory, his leg had been shattered by a
splinter. After a partial recovery he ha