Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/35

Rh hard condition, and studied how best to make them more comfortable.

I was eyed curiously by the strangers in the hospital, and overheard whispers of "She will soon play out," "It's a new broom that sweeps clean," as I went into the work with a will. I laughed to myself, for I knew my own strength. I had not come to the South with any purpose of shirking my duty wherever it lay.

They had provided no room for me, and I was obliged for the present to find some place in which to sleep and eat. I was fortunate enough to obtain board and lodging at the next door, where my room was with a crew of as hateful specimens of humanity as ever had a stepmother do duty over them.

I returned to Co. G. the next day, and stayed with a Union family named Boughtnot, where I met with a Mrs. Youngs, a cousin of Mrs. Southworth's, the authoress, and to her I took an exceeding fancy. Although "secesh" in principles, and her whole heart in sympathy with the rebel army, yet she nursed many a poor Northern soldier back to life, and gave him again to his country to fight those she loved.

My return to the hospital, and the beginning of its routine, was marked by my first meal at my new boarding-house. It consisted of the favorite dinner of boiled vegetables, and the seasoning of the whole cabbage came on to my plate alone, in the shape of a huge angle-worm, intact.

I thought, every one for himself, and ate my dinner in silence, keeping down as best I could the rebellious