Preliminaries
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Willie K. Pierce
Springfield
Mass
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“JOHN.” The manliest man among my forty. —Page 53.
[figure description] 442EAF. Image of John, lying ill in a bed, with a woman standing behind
him.[end figure description]
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Title Page
HOSPITAL SKETCHES
AND
CAMP AND FIRESIDE STORIES
By LOUISA M. ALCOTT
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BOSTON
ROBERTS BROTHERS
1869
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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
ROBERTS BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
Cambridge: Presswork by John Wilson and Son.
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CONTENTS.
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HOSPITAL SKETCHES.
CHAP.
PAGE
I. Obtaining Supplies 3
II.A Forward Movement 15
III.A Day 25
IV. A Night 40
V.Off Duty 60
VI.A Postscript 80
CAMP AND FIRESIDE STORIES.
PAGE
The King of Clubs and the Queen of Hearts 99
Mrs. Podgers' Teapot 143
My Contraband 169
Love and Loyalty 198
A Modern Cinderella 257
The Blue and the Gray 295
A Hospital Christmas 317
An Hour 345
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PREFACE TO HOSPITAL SKETCHES.
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These sketches, taken from letters hastily written
in the few leisure moments of a very busy life, make
no pretension to literary merit, but are simply a brief
record of one person's hospital experience. As such,
they are republished, with their many faults but partially
amended, lest in retouching they should lose
whatever force or freshness the inspiration of the time
may have given them.
To those who have objected to a “tone of levity” in
some portions of the sketches, I desire to say that the
wish to make the best of every thing, and send home
cheerful reports even from that saddest of scenes, an
army hospital, probably produced the impression of
levity upon those who have never known the sharp
contrasts of the tragic and comic in such a life.
That Nurse Periwinkle gave no account of her
religious services, thereby showing a “sad want of
Christian experience,” can only be explained by the
fact, that it would have as soon occurred to her to
print the letters written for the men, their penitent
confidences, or their dying messages, as to mention
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the prayers she prayed, the hymns she sung, the
sacred words she read; while the “Christian experience”
she was receiving then and there was far too
deep and earnest to be recorded in a newspaper.
The unexpected favor with which the little book
was greeted, and the desire for a new edition, increase
the author's regret that it is not more worthy such a
kind reception.
L. M. A.
Concord, March, 1869.
Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888 [1869], Hospital sketches and camp and fireside stories. (Roberts Brothers, Boston) [word count] [eaf442T].