Page:Lest We Forget The Sisters of Providence in Civil War Service.djvu/60

 steward told me that that morning the doctor offered him a dollar if he would smile; but the poor fellow would not do it. I hoped to get a smile without paying for it, but was no more successful than the doctor had been. Sister Mary Ambrose asked him what he wished for his dinner.

"He replied, 'Twelve sweet cakes.' "I said to her: 'Will you give them to him?'

"'Oh, certainly,' she answered, 'he never asks for less.'

"'But you will kill him,' I urged.

"'Not at all,' she replied, 'but if he were to die he would be happy. He often sheds tears when I speak of God and our Blessed Mother, but I have never seen him smile.'"