and I reckon a trifle of tobaccer would do more good and be a sight
more relishin', ef you'll excuse my mentionin' it.'

"Harry rushed off and got a great lump and a pipe, and Joe lay
blissfully puffing, in a cloud of smoke, when we left him, promising
to come again. We did go nearly every day, and had lovely times; for
Joe told us his adventures, and we got so interested in the war that
I began to read up evenings, and Papa was pleased, and fought all
his battles over again for us, and Harry and I were great friends
reading together, and Papa was charmed to see the old General's
spirit in us, as we got excited and discussed all our wars in a
fever of patriotism that made Mamma laugh. Joe said I 'brustled up'
at the word BATTLE like a war-horse at the smell of powder, and I'd
ought to have been a drummer, the sound of martial music made me so
'skittish.'

"It was all new and charming to us young ones, but poor old Joe had
a hard time, and was very ill. Exposure and fatigue, and scanty
food, and loneliness, and his wounds, were too much for him, and it
was plain his working days were over. He hated the thought of the
poor-house at home, which was all his own town could offer him, and
he had no friends to live with, and he could not get a pension,
something being wrong about his papers; so he would have been badly
off, but for the Soldiers' Home at Chelsea. As soon as he was able,
Papa got him in there, and he was glad to go, for that seemed the
proper place, and a charity the proudest man might accept, after
risking his life for his country.

"There is where I used to be going when you saw me, and I was SO
afraid you'd smell the cigars in my basket. The dear old boys always