Hospital Sketches

ing Su

somethin

reply; so I repeated it to the smaller world about me, received the following suggestions, and s

quoth the auth

gh, sir. First l

again," sugges

'am, ten years of

and fulfill your mission," sa

pensive luxuries

ze your name," said sister V

won

d my young brother, Tom, pan

wil

ants of the inventor of aerial architecture. An hour's conversation on the subject set the whole family in a blaze of enthusiasm. A model hospital was erected, and each member had accepted an honorable post therein. The paternal P. was chaplain, the maternal P. was matron, and all the y

n a furlough, and able and willing to satisfy all inquiries. A morning chat with Miss General S.-we hear no end of Mrs. Generals, why not a Miss?-produced three r

ng my commission, to return; therefore no time was to be lost; and heartily thanking my pair of friends, I tore home through t

enli

irrepressible, broke it with a slap on

, you're

eling off my news at the rate of three dozen words to a mouthful; and as every

sed, I detailed some for picket duty while airing over the fence; some to the sanitary influences of the wash-tub; others to mount guard in the trunk; while the weak and wounded went to the Work-basket Hospital, to be made ready for active service again. To this squad I devoted myself for a week; but all was done, and I had

Tom remarked, with the disdainful pity which small boys affect when they get into their teens. I was wa

ne; I shall

family swarming after me, all working, talking, prophesying and lamenting, while I packed my "go-abroady" possessions

e back, make a

psack-it was only a traveling bag, but do let me preserve the unities-hugged my family three times all round withou

y dear, how can

if you say

and the Lord will

have sent ten sons to the war, had she possessed them, as freely as she sent one daughter, smiling and flapping on the

pping. A December twilight is not the most cheering time to enter upon a somewhat perilous enterprise, and, but for t

I left b

distorting the pockets of the same. If I thought that any one would believe it, I'd boldly state that I slept from C. to B., which would simplify matters immensely; but as I know they wouldn't, I'll confess that the head under the funereal coal-hod fermented with all manner of high thoughts and heroic purposes "to do or die,"-perhaps both; and the heart under the fuzzy brown coat fe

out attempting, if she could. Then I went to my usual refuge, and, fully intending to keep awake, as a sort of vigil app

a room containing several gentlemen, and blunder out my request in a high state of stammer and blush. Nothing could have been more courteous than this dreaded President, but it was evident that I had made as absurd a demand as if I had asked for the nose off his respectable face. He referred me to the Governor at the State House, and I backed out, leaving him no doubt to regret that such mild maniacs were left at large. Here was a Scylla and Charybdis business: as if a President wasn't trying enough, without the Governor of Massachusetts and the hub of the hub piled on top of that. "I never can do it," thought I. "Tom will hoot at you if you don't," whispered the inconvenient little voice that is alway

e, resolving not to come out till I'd made somebody hear and answer me. I suspect that of all the wrong places I had blundered into, this was the most so. But I didn't care; and, t

vernor anyw

he w

ell me wher

e cou

anything abou

he d

ne there of whom

a pe

lace where informatio

a pl

lest gleam of light upon

a

fore my wrath found vent in words, my General appeared, having seen me from an opposite window, and come to know what I was about. At her command the languid gentleman woke up, and troubled himself to remember that Ma

t Milk Street, now, and I d

my dear, so don't be discouraged; and if you don't succeed, c

K. in Haymarket Square. Who my informant was I've really forgotten; for, having hailed several busy gentlemen, some one of them fabricated this delusive quietus for the perturbed spirit, who instantly departed to the sequestered locality he named. If I had been in search of the Koh-i-noor diamond I should have been as likely to find it there as any vestige of Mc K. I stared at signs, inquired in shops, invaded an eating house, visited the recruiting tent

e ticket man, and there won't be time to see Joan, and I'm so tired and cro

nto some kind of an office, held counsel with an invisible angel, who sent him out radiant. "All serene. I'

if not better, myself. My strong-mindedness had rather abated since then, and I was now quite ready to be a "timid trembler," if necessary. Dear me! how easi

," thought I, and as usua

s, after a morning's tramp, down in some place about Dock Square, and was told to step to Temple Place. Nor was that all; he might as well have asked me to catch a humming-bird, toast a salamander, or call on the man in the moon, as find a Doctor at home at the busiest hour of the day. It was

r. H.

um, he

re I asked: and, considering it all i

he probab

grim satisfaction, in the fulfillment of my own dark prophecy

ysteriously delivered message I departed, hoping that I left her c

ain that he would not, till, having waited till the last minute, I was driven to buy a ticket, and, five minutes after the irrevocable deed was done, he would be at my service, with all manner of helpful documents and directions. Everything go

the order, with

the busy scratch of his pen; and, when he turned about, giving me not only the order, but a paper of directions wherewith to smooth away all difficulties between Boston and Washington, I felt as did poor Christian when the Evangelist gave him the scroll, on the safe side of the Slough of D

K. The order was read, and certain printed papers, necessary to be filled out, were given a young gentleman-no, I prefer to say Boy, with a scornful emphasis upon the word, as the only means of re

the little

get, my dinner to eat, my blessed sister to see, and the depot to reach, if I didn't die of apoplexy. Meanwhile, Patience certainly had her perfect work that day, and I hope she enjoyed the job more than I did. Having waited some twenty minutes, it pleased this reprehensible Boy to make various m

ed me with a yearning to pluck them apart, and see what came of it. But, remembering through what fear and tribulation I had obtained them, I curbed Satan's promptings, and, clutching my prize, as if it were my pass to the Elysian Fields, I hurried home. Dinner was rapidly consumed; Joan