John, how does the milk toast taste ?' 'Bully, Mother; it's sweet as the night's milk at home.' Thank you for the white sugar in the tea,' calls another; 'my wife. couldn't beat that; it has cured me, I believe, for I feel chirk as a robin.' Here is a woful spectacle-a poor face with the jaw shot away. A woman is feeding the mutilated man. 'How are you to-night, James ?' asks the Mother, compassionately. 'All right since she's come,' he articulates, painfully, laying his hand on the faithful wife's arm. Last week Mrs. Hoge, of Chicago, known throughout the West for her exertions in behalf of the Sanitary Commission, paid a visit to our hospital. She was greeted with cheers for the Commission, and blessings on the women at home.' 'But, my brave boys,' she responded, 'you look so bright and happy-you are all heroes, I know, none the less such because untitled; but are you all really wounded?' 'Why. shouldn't we be happy?' called a manly voice; we left the flag flying at Arkansas

Post, if we did get hit.' Then, as she

of beds, one showed another the empty another a bandaged

passed along the rows the stump of a leg; socket of a right arm; head, and so on. 'I could show you a wound or two,' said a Wisconsin battery boy; 'one arm is already gone, and I take leave of the other to-morrow. I've been wounded on nine different battle-fieldsall that I ever fought upon. What am I to do in the world-not yet twenty-one, and armless' 'My grand fellow, we shall take care of you,' answered Mrs. Hoge. 'God has spared your life that you might live to bless and be blessed.' The men cheered, and the gunner's eye looked dim but happy as he said: "Thank you for that.'"

"Those are like the stories that Aunt Ellen sends us," said Maedy, whose interest in the war had grown with her growth during the last two years. "Have they taken Vicksburg yet, papa ?"

"No; that stronghold will not yield in

a day. It is the centre of rebel strength and sympathies in the West as Richmond is in the East; and I think it will cost us nearly as much treasure and blood as the Confederate capital itself."

"What a pity that one town should control the whole river after our armies have toiled so hard to open it!" exclaimed Frank. "To think the gunboats can sail. up and down, miles upon miles, but must stop when they reach miserable Vicksburg, where the people burrow like moles in the ground, and live on mule meat! I wish the boats could find some way to get round it, and leave the rebels alone inside their trenches till they're ready to surrender."

"Mules are slow, obstinate creatures, you know," said the father; "hence the diet of the rebel garrison may not be favorable to the growth of loyal sentiments. The bluecoated boys have tried to go around the city, since they could not go by it; but their attempts have been like that of the king in Roger's song, who 'first marched up the

hill and then marched down again.' They began a canal last year, and while they were digging hopefully, the overflowing of the river drove them from the spot, proving the work to be a failure. Passages through the bayous have also been tried, and found impassable at certain seasons of the year; the other water-courses withal are so hedged about with obstructions by nature and the 'greybacks' that all attempts to use them have been given up."

"Well, if the flag can't pass by the place it must float over it, Daniel and Horace would say," added Roger. "If we have all the rest of the Mississippi, why shouldn't we have Vicksburg, too, after a while ?"

"Occasionally a vessel goes by in spite of the batteries," continued Mr. Warren. "Do you recall Col. Ellett, who plied his monitors at Fort Pillow and Memphis? He steamed his ram, Queen of the West,' past the Vicksburg guns on the tenth of February last, and extended his trip to the

6

region of the Red River, where he did much damage. Coming back, however, the Queen' was well nigh wrecked by the treachery of a secession pilot, and finally she was captured. At the same time we lost another valuable iron-clad, the 'Indianola,' an immense boat, carrying five boilers, seven engines, and guns of the heaviest calibre."

"Seven engines!" echoed Roger; "she must be a stunner! I thought boats never had more than one or two. How did they catch her, do you suppose?"

"The rebel iron-clads thrust their sharp cleaving prows into her, and disabled the machinery with their guns. Yet, neither of these captures were of long avail to the Confederates in occupying the river. We outwitted them by an odd manoeuver."

"I guess I know it," said Frank; "Commodore Porter's Yankee trick, do you mean? Here, Roge, is the story," he added, finding the page in his book, and reading: