I did try, but during the whole night he paced with restless feet up and down my office.  At daylight I sat watching his uneasy slumber.

A few weeks later a young wife came by train to visit her husband, who lay very ill of fever, bringing with her a lovely blue-eyed baby girl about two years old.

I found a room for her at a house near the hospital, and she was allowed to nurse her husband.  When he was nearly ready to report for duty, a fearful accident happened by which the baby nearly lost her life, and was awfully disfigured.  At the house where the young wife boarded there was a ferocious bull-dog, which was generally kept chained until it showed such evident fondness for the babe that he was sometimes allowed to lie upon the gallery beside it while it slept, and the little one on awakening would crawl all over the dog, who patiently submitted, and would affectionately lick her face.

One day, however, when the family were all assembled upon the gallery, the dog suddenly sprung upon the little girl, fastening his dreadful fangs in one side of her face.  Everybody was stricken with horror.  Nothing availed to make the beast loosen his hold, until suddenly he withdrew his teeth from the child’s face and fastened them once more in her shoulder.  At last, as no other alternative presented itself, some one placed a pistol to his ear and killed him.  The baby on being released still breathed, but was so torn and disfigured that the sight turned strong men sick.

The father fell in a swoon; the young mother, pale and shaking as with an ague, yet held her mutilated babe through all the examination and the surgical operations which followed.  For two weeks it seemed as if the child must die, but she did not, and soon, unconscious of her disfigurement, began to play and smile.  All pitied the unfortunate father when, after some time allowed him through sympathy with his misfortune, it became necessary for him to return to the front.  He had borne an excellent record, but now broke down utterly, declaring he could not leave his child.  The young wife, putting down with a strong hand her own sorrow, actually set herself to rouse her husband to a sense of duty, and succeeded; I was present at the depot when the brave, girlish wife waved to the soldier a smiling farewell, and afterwards witnessed her vain efforts to suppress the short, sharp screams of agony which had been kept under as long as her husband needed to be upheld, but which after his departure convulsed her at intervals for hours.

There are two women against whom, during and since the war, I held and still hold a grudge.  One was of that class of women who undervalue and strive to undo all the good done by others; who hold opinions and views which they absolutely insist upon carrying out regardless of consequences.