are to observe the principles of
decorum and good-breeding may be very necessary, for aught I can tell,
but it seems rather sarcastical, I think, to have them enforced by
servant-girls.

The gentlemen, on their side, are intrenched in a similar manner; and
if a woman has occasion to speak to the person with whom she is
traveling, her entrance into the male den, if she has the courage to
venture there, is the signal for a universal stare and whisper. But, for
the most part, the convenient result of this arrangement is, that such
men as have female companions with them pass their time in prowling
about the precincts of the "ladies' apartment"; while their respective
ladies pop their heads first out of one door and then out of another,
watching in decorous discomfort the time when "their man" shall come to
pass. Our sole resource on the present occasion was to retire again to
the horrible hole above stairs, where we had at first taken refuge and
here we remained until summoned down again by the arrival of the
expected train. My poor little children, overcome with fatigue and
sleep, were carried, and we walked from the _hotel_ at Weldon to the
railroad, and by good fortune obtained a compartment to ourselves.

It was now between eight and nine o'clock, and perfectly dark. The
carriages were furnished with lamps, however, and, by the rapid glance
they cast upon the objects which we passed, I endeavored in vain to
guess at the nature of the country through which we were traveling; but,
except the tall shafts of the everlasting pine trees, which still
pursued us, I could descry nothing, and resigned myself to the amusing
contemplation of the attitudes of my companions, who were all fast
asleep. Between twelve and one o'clock the engine stopped, and it was
announced to us that we had traveled as far upon the railroad as it was
yet completed, and that we must transfer ourselves to stage-coaches; so
in the dead middle of the night we crept out of the train, and taking
our children in our arms, walked a few yards into an open space in the
woods, where three four-horse coaches stood waiting to receive us. A
crowd of men, principally negroes, were collected here round a huge fire
of pine-wood, which, together with the pine-torches, whose resinous
glare streamed brilliantly into the darkness of the woods, created a
ruddy blaze, by the light of which we reached our vehicles in safety,
and, while they were adjusting the luggage, had l