“What can I do to comfort you most, Joe? I’ll send my good Ben to help you to bed, and will be here myself when the surgeon goes his rounds. Is there anything else that would make you more easy?” “If you could just drop a line to mother to let her know I’m alive, it would be a sight of comfort to both of us. I guess I’m in for a long spell of hospital, and I’d lay easier if I knew mother and Lucindy warn’t frettin’ about me.” He must have been suffering terribly, but he thought of the women who loved him before himself, and, busy as I was, I snatched a moment to send a few words of hope to the old mother. Then I left him “layin’ easy,” though the prospect of some months of wearing pain would have daunted most men. If I had needed anything to increase my regard for Joe, it would have been the courage with which he bore a very bad quarter of an hour with the surgeons; for his arm was in a dangerous state, the wound in the head feverish for want of care; and a heavy cold on the lungs suggested pneumonia as an added trial to his list of ills. “He will have a hard time of it, but I think he will pull through, as he is a temperate fellow, with a splendid constitution,” was the doctor’s verdict, as he left us for the next man, who was past help, with a bullet through his lungs. “I don’no as I hanker to live, and be a burden. If Jim was able to do for mother, I feel as if I wouldn’t mind steppin’ out now I’m so fur along. As he ain’t, I s’pose I must brace up, and do the best I can,” said Joe, as I wiped the drops from his forehead, and tried to look as if his prospect was a bright one. “You will have Lucindy to help you, you know; and that will make things easier for all.” “Think so? ’Pears to me I couldn’t ask her to take care of three invalids for my sake. She ain’t no folks of her own, nor much means, and ought to marry a man who can make things easy for her. Guess I’ll have to wait a spell longer before I say anything to Lucindy about marryin’ now;” and a look of resolute resignation settled on Joe’s haggard face as he gave up his dearest hope. “I think Lucindy will have something to say, if she is like most women, and you will find the burdens much lighter, for sharing them between you. Don’t worry about that, but get well, and go home as soon as you can.” “All right, ma’am;” and Joe proved himself a good soldier by obeying orders, and falling asleep like a tired child, as the first step toward recovery.