LETTER XXXVII.
Benton Barracks Hospital,
March 18.
My Dear Mother,—I have been wishing to write
to you, but have not had time; I am very busy. Today
I was busy from the time I got up till after seven
to-night. I should be busy in the evening too, but Dr.
Russell has forbidden my making night rounds while
the evenings are so chilly; he is afraid I shall have
pneumonia if I am exposed to night air, in addition to
being over the sick so much. I think the men are
mending, though we still have several deaths every
week. This pneumonia makes sad work among the
colored people; they cannot resist it as well as the
whites. 'It is just a year since I was so sick at Mrs.
Chauvenet's; now I am well. I hope I shall do what
is right. I do not think I am very wise. Mr. Yeatman
was here this afternoon, and I went over the
hospital with him and Dr. Russell. We have many
sick here now. The blacks are attending school; there
are sixty-five scholars in the chapel. I went the other
morning to hear them sing, they sang of the other
life and its peace; it was very touching. Truly this
other life is the all in all. There is an old Methodist
hymn "Let Jesus find us waiting on the shore;" a
sick girl I was taking care of in the Boston Hospital
sang it to me when she was half unconscious. I hope
I shall be "waiting on the shore." I have very much
the same duties here that I had last summer. I am
going to try and profit by what I learnt then, to act
more wisely now; I think it is time that every year of
my life should be spent a little better than the one that
went before it; I surely have had teaching enough to
learn to trust. I have been busy this afternoon in
taking down the names and dates of entrance of our
colored nurses; it was a work of timd to get hold of
all the data. We have ten now, and shall have
more. I think the colored people very interesting.
They are kindly and warm-hearted. I amused the
Doctor very much by announcing the arrival of another
little black baby yesterday morning. There have been
so many of them in that ward that the Doctor has
named it the "Recruiting Infantry Station." The
grass here is growing green notwithstanding the cold.
A month more will make a great difference here, the
trees will be coming out then. One of my nurses, who
came up from Memphis, says the spring flowers are in
bloom there. I hope you and father are well. You
must pray for me and that will help me, I do for
you. Good-night.
