This sudden summons in the gray dawn was somewhat startling to a
three days' nurse like myself, and, as the thundering knock came
at our door, I sprang up in my bed, prepared

"To gird my woman's form,
And on the ramparts die,"

if necessary; but my room-mate took it more coolly, and, as she
began a rapid toilet, answered my bewildered question,--

"Bless you, no child; it's the wounded from Fredericksburg; forty
ambulances are at the door, and we shall have our hands full in
fifteen minutes."

"What shall we have to do?"

"Wash, dress, feed, warm and nurse them for the next three
months, I dare say. Eighty beds are ready, and we were getting
impatient for the men to come. Now you will begin to see hospital
life in earnest, for you won't probably find time to sit down all
day, and may think yourself fortunate if you get to bed by
midnight. Come to me in the ball-room when you are ready; the
worst cases are always carried there, and I shall need your
help."

So saying, the energetic little woman twirled her hair into a
button at the back of her head, in a "cleared for action" sort of
style, and vanished, wrestling her way into a feminine kind of
pea-jacket as she went.