Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/150

114 us with prayers and tears, for those who languished in the fever of wounds, or from exposure to the malaria of swamps, could have wrought far better work in their distribution than these great, unfeeling men, who grew fat on the rich spoils.

A woman's taste is generally considered as accurate in regard to testing the freshness of canned peaches, or the purity of domestic wines, and they could have pronounced upon them, too, without taking the most of the contents to fill dishes on their own table. Of course abuses will exist—but in this matter of providing comforts for those whose lives hung by the merest thread, I would be severe in protesting against the employment of men wherein the least sign of selfish appropriation appeared.

Too many a one I have seen turn away from the plain toast, or crackers, when half a peach, or a dozen red cherries would have made his eyes sparkle, and the lagging appetite come, urging the parched tongue to partake.

I went sadly away from that dying man, and wondered where selfishness would end, and if the legitimate object of war was to harden men's souls to the miseries of their brothers, till they could look upon dead and dying men with no compunctious feeling for what they had withheld, which might have been a timely salvation to the exhausted body.

Such scenes stirred me to the depths of my nature, and my blood boiled, and my cheeks glowed, till only in the quiet of my little tent could I regain the