The teachers were all convalescent soldiers from the hospitals, moving noiselessly about among the benches in their hospital slippers and cheap calico wrappers—as they themselves had often seen moving about among their hospital cots the angels of mercy from the North.
Reid describes the teachers as convalescent soldiers, drawing a parallel to angels of mercy.
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And next, shall we not probably fare best in the end if we try to profit somewhat by the experience others have had in like cases?
It seems to me, then, idle to thresh over old straw when the grain is not only winnowed, but gone to the mill.
Give them order and justice, and trust to these to win them in other regards to our ways.
With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship, and nothing would tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause.