that way, would she? You might ask her to write to me. Then I 'd have somebody to write to me. It 's the only thing makes me feel lonesome, when the boys all get letters."
"I 'd better write in my own name, I think," she said, "and tell her about you. Shall I do it that way?"
"There isn't any use in telling her anything about me," said Joe, more energetically than he had spoken for some time; only just to thank her,—that 's all."
This is what Netty wrote:—
"Dear Miss Bennet: You will be surprised to receive this letter from an entire stranger. Perhaps you remember putting your name on a piece of paper in a pair of red stockings you sent to the soldiers. Those stockings came to this hospital, and were given to a soldier by the name of Hale—Mr. Joseph Hale, of New York. He is very ill now—not able to sit up; and he asked me to write and thank you for the stockings. If you would like to write him a letter, he would be very glad to hear from you. There is no greater pleasure to soldiers in hospital than to get letters from friends. Yours truly,
The coming in of the stage, and the distribution of the mail it carried were the great events of each
