Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/204

164 can build another, in a brief space of time, grander than the first.

I hope some time to see one built up which will last as long as life—a fabric large enough to hold contentment, and peace, and happiness; high enough to hold God's sunshine, and low enough to look with charity unto all my fellow-creatures. I wonder if the foundations are being laid now, and what form the structure will bear.

I have had a sore throat all day, with a hard cold, and the rain has kept me within my tent; but now I must go, for they have sent for me to make beef-tea and gruel for five men who need it very bad.

Well, my little boxstove carried me through, although the wind did blow, and I feel better for the exertion; I think the men do also. Off to bed after a long day and reading a letter from Mrs. Youngs.

1em A beautiful Sabbath morning; but my cold has the best of me to-day, and if it were not so lonely I would not venture out. The mail-boat has just arrived, and my heart is in a flutter of hope, waiting for the letter from home.

Oh! waiting for the letter from home, how many waited and went into the fierce battle waiting, and fell foremost before the foe; and when they threw off the full soldier's mail, there were the little missives for which his heart had waited, and other eyes than his should read those words of love and cheer. How strange it must have seemed to them at home to write