he had only six pupils, but her fame spread so rapidly
that when June came six hundred children had entered her classes and
were much disappointed when they found she could not teach them all
but had to have assistant teachers.

The strain of planning for so many pupils was too heavy for her, so
she gave up teaching and took a position in the pension office at
Washington. She was there at the beginning of the great war between
the North and South, and at once felt it to be her duty to leave her
work and minister to the wounded soldiers.

At first she busied herself in the hospitals at Washington, but she
longed to go to the front and help on the battle fields. She told her
father of her strong desire, and he said to her, "Go, if you feel it
your duty to go! I know what soldiers are, and I know that every true
soldier will respect you and your errand."

At last our government gave her permission, and she went to the front
as fearless as any officer in the army. Amid the rain of shot and
shell she went about on errands of mercy. Then there was no organized
relief for the soldiers, no Red Cross, no Y. M. C. A., no help of any
kind except what kind persons here and there over the country tried to
give. This was very little, when compared to the vast amount of
suffering, but Clara Barton managed to gather supplies and money so
that she was able to give assistance to both the boys in blue and the
boys in gray. She saved many lives, she wrote countless letters home
for wounded soldiers, and she stood alone by the death-bed of many a
brave fellow, speaking words of comfort and cheer. Whenever anyone
suggested that she was working beyond her strength, she would say, "It
is my duty," and go on regardless of her personal welfare. One of her
best friends, Miss Lucy Larcom, wrote of her as follows:

"We may catch a glimpse of her at Chantilly in the darkness of the
rainy midnight, bending over a dying boy who took her supporting arm
and soothing voice for his sister's--or falling into a brief sleep on
the wet ground in her tent, almost under the feet of flying cavalry;
or riding in one of her trains of army-wagons towards another field,
subduing by the way a band of mutinous teamsters into her firm friends
and allies; or at the terrible battle at Antietam, where the regular
army supplies did not arrive till three days afterward, furnishing
from her wagons cordials and bandages for the wounded, making gruel
for the fainting men f