s, ditches, and ravines, and that the houses had rained
down afterward. Over all there was dust impossible to conceive. The
bombardment has done little injury. People have returned and resumed
business. A gentleman asked H. if he knew of a nice girl for sale. I
asked if he did not think it impolitic to buy slaves now.

"Oh, not young ones. Old ones might run off when the enemy's lines
approach ours, but with young ones there is no danger."

We had not been many hours in town before a position was offered to H.
which seemed providential. The chief of a certain department was in ill
health and wanted a deputy. It secures him from conscription, requires
no oath, and pays a good salary. A mountain seemed lifted off my heart.

_Thursday, Sept. 18._ (_Thanksgiving Day._)--We stayed three days at the
Washington Hotel; then a friend of H.'s called and told him to come to
his house till he could find a home. Boarding-houses have all been
broken up, and the army has occupied the few houses that were for rent.
To-day H. secured a vacant room for two weeks in the only
boarding-house.

_Oak Haven, Oct. 3._--To get a house in V. proved impossible, so we
agreed to part for a time till H. could find one. A friend recommended
this quiet farm, six miles from ---- [a station on the Jackson Railroad].
On last Saturday H. came with me as far as Jackson and put me on the
other train for the station.

On my way hither a lady, whom I judged to be a Confederate
"blockade-runner," told me of the tricks resorted to to get things out
of New Orleans, including this: A very large doll was emptied of its
bran, filled with quinine, and elaborately dressed. When the owner's
trunk was opened, she declared with tears that the doll was for a poor
crippled girl, and it was passed.

This farm of Mr. W.'s[2] is kept with about forty negroes. Mr. W.,
nearly sixty, is the only white man on it. He seems to have been wiser
in the beginning than most others, and curtailed his cotton to make room
for rye, rice, and corn. There is a large vegetable-garden and orchard;
he has bought plenty of stock for beef and mutton, and laid in a large
supply of sugar. He must also have plenty of ammunition, for a man is
kept hunting and supplies the table with delicious wild turkeys and
other game. There is abundance of milk and butter, hives for honey, and
no end of pigs. Chickens seem to be kept like game in parks, for I never
see any, but the hunter shoots them, and egg