I knew the smoke must raise outside help as I did it. The Doctor had been to the post office. He rushed in to find me in the midst of darkness. I had closed the doors at first, still the smoke poured out of the chamber windows we kept closed. My right hand, which had taken the tip of the bucket, was nearly covered in a coat of tar, put on boiling hot, and to stay. I did not try to remove it but put it in hot water and went to work with it. I need not say that the rest of the day was needed, and given to the house, but we were only too thankful that we _had_ a house to clean up. The tar coating and hot water saved the hand, so that a few heavy blisters tell the story of their hardship. It is all over now. I write this the _next_ day; last night I could not have done it. Doctor went to Mrs. Warneke’s; I remained home. Mrs. Hinton came but I made no mention of the morning adventure. She has commenced her new home. I gave her butter, fruit, jellies, to help her table. A _rather_ hard day. LI All the world pays homage to the nurse—poets, warriors, statesmen, kings, and the numberless multitudes of human sufferers.... EUGENE UNDERHILL, M.D., author of “_Nursing—The Heart of the Art_.” Efficient nurses are the most difficult to obtain of all aid in Red Cross work. CLARA BARTON. I never claimed to be a nurse. There are hundreds of women who could nurse as well as I, if not better, than I could. CLARA BARTON. Time is the great physician. DISRAELI. Physicians mend or end us. LORD BYRON. Send for a physician;—but the sick man answered, “It is no matter for, if I die, I’ll die at leisure.” LORD BACON. For the woman has a friend Who will keep her to the end. IRONQUILL. NURSING A FINE ART—OVER THE WASHTUB Was Clara Barton a nurse? Yes, and Florence Nightingale said that nursing is a fine art; and to succeed requires greater devotion than that in the art of painting or sculpture, for nursing has to do with “the living body, the temple of God’s spirit.” It’s probably the finest of the fine arts. Clara Barton did not assume the rôle of an art-nurse; she said others could surpass her in this art. Miss Barton in her passion for service claimed to be only a “working-woman.” Work did not undignify her; instead, she seemed to dignify work—she surely made nursing popular. Work was a part of the best religion she ever had. With her Human hopes and human creeds Have their seat in human needs. The day preceding the delivery of her public address she spent washing the clothes of the family and the linen of the household. Such exercise, more useful than golf and serving like purpose, strengthened the muscles, increased the blood circulation, made the brain active.