Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/42

14 used for napkins;—we were anxious to support some style while yet in the regions of civilization.

Adjutant Hopkins, forgetting that we should need them for the destined purpose ultimately, pocketed his, and was called back to deliver it up, amidst much laughter. They would soon forget the use of napkins in the camp, and on the hard marches; we could excuse it if he had passed into partial forgetfulness thus early in the day.

Col. Ireland of the One Hundred and Thirty-Seventh N. Y. V. took dinner with us, and seemed to enjoy the occasion. I put my hands to all the work which lay in my way;—now washing—now mending—now making a toast, or cup of tea for a sick man, yet the days were long at times, and the nights endless, and sleepless. And yet I was not sorry to be where I was, I was not homesick—I would not have returned if I could.

Some jokes were perpetrated, and some patients suspected of not helping nature in rapid recovery,—still it was hard to think this of men who had done all the duty thus far required of them.

We had one man who "did not complain of feeling very well,"—his lungs were bad, and I proposed blistering. He had few friends, for above all a true soldier despises a sneak, and such we thought him to be—whispering and drawing his face into unusual length whenever he came near the steward or myself—of whom he was a little in fear, having been told that we were "cross."

Some of the boys in the secret said I would not