t in it. We use only the lower floor. The bell is often
rung by persons who take it for a hotel and come beseeching food at any
price. To-day one came who would not be denied. "We do not keep a hotel,
but would willingly feed hungry soldiers if we had the food." "I have
been traveling all night, and am starving; will pay any price for just
bread." I went to the dining-room and found some biscuits, and set out
two, with a large piece of corn-bread, a small piece of bacon, some nice
syrup, and a pitcher of water. I locked the door of the safe and left
him to enjoy his lunch. After he left I found he had broken open the
safe and taken the remaining biscuits.

_April 28._--I never understood before the full force of those
questions--What shall we eat? what shall we drink? and wherewithal shall
we be clothed? We have no prophet of the Lord at whose prayer the meal
and oil will not waste. Such minute attention must be given the wardrobe
to preserve it that I have learned to darn like an artist. Making shoes
is now another accomplishment. Mine were in tatters. H. came across a
moth-eaten pair that he bought me, giving ten dollars, I think, and they
fell into rags when I tried to wear them; but the soles were good, and
that has helped me to shoes. A pair of old coat-sleeves saved--nothing
is thrown away now--was in my trunk. I cut an exact pattern from my old
shoes, laid it on the sleeves, and cut out thus good uppers and sewed
them carefully; then soaked the soles and sewed the cloth to them. I am
so proud of these home-made shoes, think I'll put them in a glass case
when the war is over, as an heirloom. H. says he has come to have an
abiding faith that everything he needs to wear will come out of that
trunk while the war lasts. It is like a fairy casket. I have but a dozen
pins remaining, so many I gave away. Every time these are used they are
straightened and kept from rust. All these curious labors are performed
while the shells are leisurely screaming through the air; but as long as
we are out of range we don't worry. For many nights we have had but
little sleep, because the Federal gunboats have been running past the
batteries. The uproar when this is happening is phenomenal. The first
night the thundering artillery burst the bars of sleep, we thought it an
attack by the river. To get into garments and rush up-stairs was the
work of a moment. From the upper gallery we have a fine view of the
river, and soon a red glare lit