The times., 1898-08-07

blown into little splinters. which had TO
be carefully removed from the surround
ing flesh and muscle. The surgeons per
formed some skillfuI operations upon it.
and are in hopes of getting the bones TO
knit together again, but there is so much
doubt as TO success in the case thai it is
expected the fine young fellow Will have
to lose his leg after all.
1t didn't hurt just at first he told
me. There was a stinging pain, like as
if a red-hot coal struck me. and then for
awhile l didn't feel it much Twas about
as much as l could stand without swear
ing when they put the splints on, though.
Well, it's war, ma am added the big fel-
low cheerfully, "an we gave a sight bet
teri we got. If only was with the boys
over in Santiago" One would have
thought he had had enough of it-this
man with his torn leg and six weeks of
hard pain, but the sigh with which he
turned his head away, and the longing
look in his eyes, told a story of courage
and daring that more than bordered upon
heroism.
Another seaman, who was brought on
the Montgomery, and had been with En-
sign Bagley on the torpedo boat Winslow.
was also wounded by a scrap of shell.
When the poor chap arrived the news
paper men surrounded him and piled him
oath, and told them he didn't want any
thing about him in the blankety-blank
papers, frightening his folks at home. All
he wanted was to get well again as fast
as he could, and get out to pot few more
of the blankety-blank Spaniards. Here he
lay with a dogs wistfulness in his eyes,
the look that says: No use talking
they wouldn't understand me-but, Oh! to
be up and hearty again, and out with the
a -rllcr aera of
them speaks now in their dogged patience
and accomplishing submission to the gen
tie rule of the nurses and sisters.
'The school part Of the convent is turn
ed into the medical ward when ii is full.
Where, a few months ago these little
convent girls were learning their lessons,
Jackie and Yankee Tommy Atkins are
now learning patience. Here are big,
bronzed fellows, mighty with the sword
and quick-firing sea guns, lying very
helplessly on their cots while those
gentle, sweet faced women poultice and
blister and physic them, and make their
beds, and shift their pillows to the cool
side, and cosset and comfort them. Each
one of the four army nurses has her
hands full of these great children. And
the sisters, mostly little slender women,
fit about in their thin, black habits and
modest wells, working like little bees in
tHlS ueipleSS ulNe VI iieH II lS
beautiful to watch them. To hear the
nurses who are of different faith-as if
really any faith were different when it is
the one wonderful God-talk about the
nuns and see the nuns hover about the
nurses. helping so silently: watchful,
quiet and yet SO CHEEKY of smile and
word. It's like living among angels,
said Miss Lease to me; it's the most
wonderful life in the world, though l can
not understand how they can give up
their friends and people and places in
the world and yet remain SO cheerful and
happy She did not know how sweet
and peaceful and spiritual her own face
looked at the moment under its white
cap.
1.-The bell ringing up aloft somewhere
was calling the sisters to the afternoon
service of benediction We were invited to
attend and went up the long. gray stairs
until we came to the piazza, from whence
a wooden stairway, built outside led to
a wonderful little chapel in midair.
tiny place it was, with a tiny white and
gray altar, on which myriads of candles
glowed amid a wealth of tropical flowers.
Never was / at more touching cere-
mony, for, slowly and weakly enough, the
poor sick men who were at all able to at
tend made their way in Seamen and
officers knelt side by side. All were equal
in this little house of God. Jackie, big
and clumsy, and brown Of face, rolled
in, dipping a great hand In the holy water
font. and baptiZing himself copiously.
Then he knelt in the front row, his burly
form spreading far out and beyond the
little prfedieu, his rough head bent In
alteration. And near him was comrade
and next to him a naval officer, and fur
ther on two convalescent soldiers, white