up. I was too sick, however, to enjoy their company much, although I appreciated their kind intentions. I really felt sad at the idea of being forsaken by Major Bacon, who would gladly have staid by me had he not been under positive orders to leave. When the time came for him to go, he shook me by the hand, and said, "Lieutenant, my boy, I will have to leave you now. Lieutenant Chamberlain and the doctor will take good care of you, and I hope you will be up soon."
I asked the major to write to me, and he promised to do so, and bidding me good-by, he took his departure. After Major Bacon had gone, Lieutenant Chamberlain took charge of me, and I shall ever be grateful for the unwearied kindness of his attention. There was nothing I desired, that was procurable, that he did not get for me, and had I been his own relative he could not have done more to promote my comfort.
In the Hospital.
As I got worse instead of better, however, it was concluded that the hospital was the best place for me, and to the Empire Hospital I accordingly was sent, by order of the chief surgeon of the post. I was first admitted into Dr. Hammond's ward, and subsequently into that of Dr. Hay. Dr. Hay, who was a whole-souled little fellow, is dead, but Dr. Hammond is still living, and I am glad of such an opportunity as this of testifying to his noble qualities. During the entire period I was under his care in the hospital, he treated me, as he did all his patients, with the greatest kindness.
O, but these were sad and weary days that I spent in the hospital! I cannot tell how I longed, once more, to be out in the open air and the sunshine, and participating in the grand scenes that were being enacted not many miles away. My restless disposition made sickness especially irksome to me, and I felt sometimes as if I could scarcely help leaving my bed, and going as I was to the front, for the purpose of plunging into the thickest of the fight ; while at other moments, when the fever was strong upon me, I almost wished that I might die, rather than to be compelled to toss about thus on a couch of pain.
There was one consolation, however, in all my sufferings, which sustained me, and made me measurably patient and contented to endure the irksomeness of the restraint which my illness placed upon me, I was near the man I loved, and
