solemn promise that he would call twice each day. I again took my place as watch and nurse, and held it for nine consecutive days and nights. Next morning six surgeons came in consultation, and all pronounced the case hopeless. It was the result of bad medical treatment, they said; and many of them, old friends of my husband, shed tears, that "so young, so robust, so skillful a man, should die through the ignorant treatment of medical impostors."

But the attentive care of Dr. Bringhurst, his skill and good judgment, brought about results that belied the fatal prognosis. On the ninth day of his treatment the fatal crisis of typhoid fever (for such it had been driven into) was passed, and recovery pronounced certain. As the joyful tidings were announced, for the first and last time in my life I fainted.

This was my first introduction to army-life, and altogether the severest trial I had ever been called upon to meet. It is not my intention to reflect unkindly upon surgeons, much as our army at first suffered from inefficient ones. The government soon discovered this class of impostors, and gleaned every one from the field. I hope to be pardoned for speaking at length upon personal matters. A play is not complete without the opening scene, and this is but the first act in a personal tragedy that terminated most sadly. Before I close, I would extend my warmest thanks for the great kindness and sympathy, under this trial, of Mrs. Colonel Erwin and her

noble, soldierly husband, Colonels Wallace, Ransom, Oglesby, Marsh, General Paine, and others, who afterwards rose to the highest pinnacle of famemany of them to lives of noble usefulness, while those who fell left unparalleled records on the field.

CHAPTER V.

CAMP-LIFE.

Around the Pickets-Evening Dress Parade - Bristling Bayonets Tempered in the Rays of the Setting Sun-Next Day's Work — Lights and Shades - Heavy Fogs-Funeral Dirge-Sunset on the Brine-Ten Little Mounds-The First Burial - Grand Review on "The Point"- Christmas and Sunshades-Grant and RosecransOne Brace of Pistols put to Flight Three Gun-boats-New Year's in Camp-"Hotel de Louvre"-Five Serenades-Joy and HilarityGeneral Grant-Dr. Aigner, of New York-First Rebel Ball - Battle of Fort Henry.

As my husband became convalescent, I was urged to try the tonic virtues of a horseback ride, the only practicable mode of exercise for a lady in camp. On a bright afternoon, the horses, restive under the inactivity of their present life, were brought to the door, and a party of three couples set out. A cir cuit around the pickets was first in order, over embankment and through intrenchment. The exhilarating breeze and verdant fields and foliage were a welcome contrast to the heavy air and barren walls of a long-occupied sick-room. At every step of the spirited steed I seemed to inhale new life, and get hope and heart afresh. Giving free rein to the willing horses, we were soon lost in the mazy windings of the encampment. The picket course was passed, attended with much difficulty, and even danger; but our reward came, when we emerged from

the dense forest, just in time to get a full view of evening dress-parade.

The fog that usually lingered in nook and glen had disappeared, and the scene was as brilliant as nature and man could make it. The prairie sunset irradiated the whole vault of heaven, bathing the camp-ground in bright but subdued hues, and the air was sweet with the breath of autumnal roses. On the left spread afar the broad Mississippi, dotted with steamers, whose shrill calliopes incessantly pealed through the air; busy insects trilled out their evening song, and the myriad voices of nature blended with the perpetual strain. To the right, the tented ground, with its white tufts, formed a lively contrast to the dark forest and the blue heavens. Regiment by regiment the rank and file stood in even and unbroken line; the official bow was interchanged, and deep-toned voices sent the word of command to seven thousand men. The shrill fife, the mellow bugle, and the heavy tones of the drum echoed from the distant plain and gave life to the enchanting scene. Bristling bayonets flashed and gleamed in the light of the setting sun, as though being tempered by fire for a near to-morrow's bloody work. Long and earnestly did we gaze upon the fascinating scene, which, brilliant as it was, thrilled us with sadness as we remembered the conflict beneath which this fair Southern land was to become a waste. Returning to the Bird House, we dismounted, well pleased with the lights, in spite of the shades of army-life.

The next morning "the Point" was enveloped in a denser fog than ever. The farther end of the Bird House was lost in the dim obscure. The confusion that prevailed, the loud-voiced orders, the beating of the drum, the tramp of men and the clatter of hoofs, created a confusion one might imagine to have reigned ere the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea were classified. A slow, dripping rain completed the gloom of the surroundings, but amid its steady fall a muffled sound of music in the distance was heard, and all too soon the melancholy of its tone was apparent. It was the funeral dirge of ten brave soldiers who fell the night before while on scouting duty. Their victorious comrades, bearing honorable wounds, wet and weary, had just returned from the foray, and with inverted arms and muffled drums bore them to the obscure graves, where they are to rest, unknown. Brave fellows! deep gratitude from many a heart accompanied them, and our earnest prayers went forth in behalf of the bereaved hearts and homes far away, on which no shadow of the sad event as yet rested.

Those frequent fogs, and the effect they produced on animate nature here, were all convincing that color is the glory of the world—the chosen visible expression of the Divine beauty-symbol of the "playimpulse" of the Almighty power. Not until we get a drab world do we so fully realize that God has not expelled us from the enchanted Garden of Eden. The many-hued rainbow, a sunset on the prairie or the boundless sea, are displays of color which, if