One of the soldiers wrote home:  “She would speak to one and another, and nod and smile to many more; but she could not do it to all, you know, for we lay there by hundreds; but we could kiss her shadow as it fell, and lay our heads on our pillows again content.”  Another wrote home:  “Before she came there was such cussin’ and swearin’, and after that it was as holy as a church.”  No wonder she was called the “Angel of the Crimea.”  Once she was prostrated with fever, but recovered after a few weeks.

Finally the war came to an end.  London was preparing to give Miss Nightingale a royal welcome, when, lo! she took passage by design on a French steamer, and reached Lea Hurst, Aug. 15, 1856, unbeknown to any one.  There was a murmur of disappointment at first, but the people could only honor all the more the woman who wished no blare of trumpets for her humane acts.

Queen Victoria sent for her to visit her at Balmoral, and presented her with a valuable jewel; a ruby-red enamel cross on a white field, encircled by a black band with the words, “Blessed are the merciful.”  The letters V. R., surmounted by a crown in diamonds, are impressed upon the centre of the cross.  Green enamel branches of palm, tipped with gold, form the framework of the shield, while around their stems is a riband of the blue enamel with the single word “Crimea.”  On the top are three brilliant stars of diamonds.  On the back is an inscription written by the Queen.  The Sultan sent her a magnificent bracelet, and the government, $250,000, to found the school for nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital.

Since the war, Miss Nightingale has never been in strong health, but she has written several valuable books.  Her Hospital Notes, published in 1859, have furnished plans for scores of new hospitals.  Her Notes on Nursing, published in 1860, of which over one hundred thousand have been sold, deserve to be in every home.  She is the most earnest advocate of sunlight and fresh air.

She says:  “An extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night air.  What air can we breathe at night but night air?  The choice is between pure night air from without, and foul night air from within.  Most people prefer the latter,—­an unaccountable choice.  What will they say if it be proved true that fully one-half of all the disease we suffer from, is occasioned by people sleeping with their windows shut? An open window most nights of the year can never hurt any one.  In great cities night air is often the best and purest to be had in the twenty-four hours.

“The five essentials, for healthy houses,” she says, are “pure air, pure water, efficient drainage, cleanliness, and light....  I have known whole houses and hospitals smell of the sink.  I have met just as strong a stream of sewer air coming up the back staircase of a grand London house, from the sink, as I have ever met at Scutari; and I have seen the rooms in that house all ventilated by the open doors, and the passages all unventilated by the close windows, in order that as much of the sewer air as possible might be conducted into and retained in the bed-rooms.  It is wonderful!”