, she lived with Seraine and me for about three years
after her return, when she sickened and died. When she spoke on any
subject she would finally get to those murders. They preyed upon her
mind constantly, and I think hastened her death."

"How strange that all who were connected with your household during the
war should have had such a fate!"

"Yes, my friends, it has been the one unaccountable mystery in my life.
Poor old Joseph Dent died in the same year, and I was left almost alone.
My dear Jennie, a few years ago, married Mr. Wilson, and I came to live
with them in Oakland. Seraine went to her father and mother in Michigan.
They are both alive and she remains with them. Her son Harvey--named for
his uncle, my youngest son, who was murdered at the battle of the Gaps,
if you remember--is now in Chicago working as one of the cash-boys in a
dry-goods store. I thought, as he was the last link in our family, that
the Government owed it to us to send him to the West Point Military
Academy, but I could not get him into the school. The member from here
was not favorable, inasmuch as he was an anti-war Democrat during the
rebellion. Harvey is making his own living now and I hope he may have
a bright future. He often comes to see us. Poor Seraine; when the boy
could not get into West Point, it almost broke her heart. She said to
me:

"'Father, how shallow is this world. You, his grandfather, lost seven
sons, six in the army. This boy's father was starved near unto death in
Pine Forest Prison. I, his mother, risked my life in going through
the rebel lines to obtain his release. He was murdered by one of the
conspirators; and now we are forgotten. No one cares what we suffered
during and since the war. My son cannot even have the poor privilege of
being educated by the Government, when the sons of nearly every rebel
General who tried to destroy the Union are now under the guardianship of
the Government, being educated either at West Point for the army, or at
Annapolis for the navy.'"

Dr. Adams said: "This is hard; it is uncharitable, and shows a
great want of the proper gratitude that should be due under the
circumstances."

Col. Bush said: "What does the Government or people care for those who
made the sacrifices? We are so far away from the war now in space of
time, that we are not only forgotten, but regarded as pests in society.
Are the people not grumbling about what has been done for the soldiers?
Do they not com