Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/215

Rh up sweet life none the less for their country that they died in hospitals of long, wasting disease.

1em Oh! the sun, the renovating sun; the rain and the wind have gone, and the air is thrilled with sunshine, and the streets of our camp are full again. All who are able to get out of their beds, are at the doors, sitting in the light, catching the soft breeze which whispers of the summer.

I have enjoyed the change from the rain and wind, and have passed the day quite cheerily. I have had company from our regiment. How all the faces of that noble band seem like the faces of brothers to me—I can call them all such, indeed, and could dare and do much to aid them.

I have got to gadding, I fear, for I have again to record that I have been over to the Second Corps, and had a gossiping time with the women. Now there is some comfort in that, of which the masculine gender knows nothing. It is a great comfort to know that others are no better than they should be, and that Mrs. Such-a-one has spirit enough to insist upon her husband passing as much time with her as at the next corner with a curled and perfumed Miss. It is a good thing to ventilate one's opinions, if they do soar no higher than the material things of this material earth, and to keep a sharp look out over your neighbor as well as yourself.

Then again the gossiping of neighborhoods is hardly confined to the women, and when a man