G. is really up and about, looking thin and white, and
feeling hungry and weak; but little H. has been sick with the same disease
these ten days past. I got your letter and the little cat, for which G. and I
thank you very much. I should think it would about kill you to cook all day
even for our soldiers, but on the whole can not blame any one who wants to get
killed in their service. I am impressed more and more with their claims upon
us, who confront every danger and undergo every suffering, while we sit at home
at our ease. However, the ease I have
enjoyed during the last five weeks has not been of a very luxurious kind, and I
have felt almost discouraged, as day after day of confinement and night after
night of sleeplessness has pulled down my strength. But, what am I doing?
Complaining, instead of rejoicing that I am not left unchastised.
SOURCE: George L. Prentiss, The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss, 207-8
