Through her bountiful presence Virgil Rust and his comrades had many
dull hours of pain and weariness alleviated and brightened. Interesting
herself in the condition of the seriously disabled soldiers and possibility
of their future took time and work Carley gave willingly and gladly. At
first she endeavored to get acquaintances with means and leisure to help
the boys, but these overtures met with such little success that she quit
wasting valuable time she could herself devote to their interests.
Thus several weeks swiftly passed by. Several soldiers who had been more
seriously injured than Rust improved to the extent that they were
discharged. But Rust gained little or nothing. The nurse and doctor both
informed Carley that Rust brightened for her, but when she was gone he
lapsed into somber indifference. He did not care whether he ate or not, or
whether he got well or died.
"If I do pull out, where'll I go and what'll I do?" he once asked the
nurse.
Carley knew that Rust's hurt was more than loss of a leg, and she decided
to talk earnestly to him and try to win him to hope and effort. He had come
to have a sort of reverence for her. So, biding her time, she at length
found opportunity to approach his bed while his comrades were asleep or out
of hearing.
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