muskets did. The Devil hasn't got you yet, but he will, unless you're good."
"I'll be good if you won't leave me"
Elsie turned her head away smiling, and he went on slowly:
"But I'm dead, I know. I'm sleeping on a cot with a canopy over it. I ain't hungry any more, and an angel has been hovering over me playing on a harp of gold"
"Only a little Yankee girl playing the banjo."
"Can't fool me—I'm in heaven."
"You're in the hospital."
"Funny hospital—look at that harp and that big trumpet hanging close by it—that's Gabriel's trumpet"
"No," she laughed. "This is the Patent Office building, that covers two blocks, now a temporary hospital. There are seventy thousand wounded soldiers in town, and more coming on every train. The thirty-five hospitals are overcrowded."
He closed his eyes a moment in silence, and then spoke with a feeble tremor:
"I'm afraid you don't know who I am—I can't impose on you—I'm a rebel"
"Yes, I know. You are Colonel Ben Cameron. It makes no difference to me now which side you fought on."
"Well, I'm in heaven—been dead a long time. I can prove it, if you'll play again."
"What shall I play?"
"First, 'O Jonny Booker Help Dis Nigger.'"
She played and sang it beautifully.
