The fancy seemed to tickle him mightily, for he laughed blithely,
and so did I; which, no doubt, caused the new nurse to be
regarded as a light-minded sinner by the Chaplain, who roamed
vaguely about, informing the men that they were all worms,
corrupt of heart, with perishable bodies, and souls only to be
saved by a diligent perusal of certain tracts, and other equally
cheering bits of spiritual consolation, when spirituous ditto
would have been preferred.

"I say, Mrs.!" called a voice behind me; and, turning, I saw a
rough Michigander, with an arm blown off at the shoulder, and two
or three bullets still in him--as he afterwards mentioned, as
carelessly as if gentlemen were in the habit of carrying such
trifles about with them. I went to him, and, while administering
a dose of soap and water, he whispered, irefully:

"That red-headed devil, over yonder, is a reb, damn him! You'll
agree to that, I'll bet? He's got shet of a foot, or he'd a cut
like the rest of the lot. Don't you wash him, nor feed him, but
jest let him holler till he's tired. It's a blasted shame to
fetch them fellers in here, along side of us; and so I'll tell
the chap that bosses this concern; cuss me if I don't."

I regret to say that I did not deliver a moral sermon upon the
duty of forgiving our enemies, and the sin of profanity, then and
there; but, being a red-hot Abolitionist, stared fixedly at the
tall rebel, who was a copperhead, in every sense of the word, and
privately resolved to put soap in his eyes, rub his nose the
wrong way, and excoriate his cuticle generally, if I had the
washing of him.