“Somebody out dar wan’ ter see you right erway, mistis--er solger.” When I went out into the hallway, there stood the most abject, pitiable-looking creature--a soldier, ragged and footsore! He was at the end of the hall farthest from the dining-room, and looked as if he didn’t wish to attract attention. He wore gray trousers patched with blue--or were they blue patched with gray?--and a jacket which had as much Federal blue as Confederate gray in it. From the color of his uniform, he belonged equally to both armies. His trousers were much too short for him, and altogether too small. His shoes were heavy brogans twice too large for him, and tied on with strings. He was without socks and his ankles showed naked and sore between trousers and shoes. He had on a bedticking shirt, a tobacco-bag of bedticking hung by a string from a button of his shirt--a button which, by the way, was doing more than double duty--and an old slouch hat was pulled over his face. “You wanted to see me, sir?” I asked, stopping at a short distance from him. He looked up quickly. “How do you do, Nell?” he said. “I got leave to come from camp to see you to-day. My company got in from Maryland yesterday.” “Dick!” I cried in amazement; and then I burst into tears. Dick, our dandy, to look like this! Laughter mingled with weeping. “Good gracious, Nell! what is the matter?” he said. “Dick, Dick, how you look!” “Hush, Nell! Good gracious! You’ll have everybody in the dining-room out here to look at me.” Then I began to beg incoherently that he would go in and dine with me. I think Dick was hungry, but he was not _that_ hungry. In his present garb starvation would not have driven him into a dining-room where ladies were. He looked toward the door with abject terror, and tried to hide himself behind the hat-rack. I was puzzled to know what I should do with him. As a young lady was my roommate it was out of the question to take him to my room, and he positively refused to go into the parlor. While we debated, the dining-room door opened and the ladies filed out into the hall. Unkempt, unshorn, patched, ragged, and dirty, a very travesty of his former foppish self, Dick went through the introductions with what grace he might.