d in this place till the small hours of the morning, and
returned home with the feeling that Virginia was safe and firm in her
place in the Union. Our Union members of the convention were elected by
an overwhelming majority, and we believed that every thing was right.
Judge, then, of our astonishment in finding, a few days later, that the
State had been voted out by a miserable minority, for want of firmness
and resolution on the part of those whom we trusted to represent us
there, and that Virginia had been dragooned out of the Union. I was told
by a brother officer that the State had seceded, and that I must either
resign and turn traitor to the government which had supported me from
childhood, or I must leave this place.

"'Thank God, I was not long in making my decision. I have spent half my
life in revolutionary countries, and I know the horrors of civil war;
and I told the people what I had seen and what they would experience.
They laughed at me, and called me "granny," and "croaker"; and I said,
"I cannot live here, and will seek some other place where I can live." I
suppose they said I left my country for my country's good, and I thank
God I did.'"

"A countryman to be proud of," remarked Mr. Lilburn.

"Oh, I wish I could have seen him!" exclaimed Grace. "Papa, wasn't he a
Christian man?"

"I think so, daughter," replied the captain. "He is said to have had a
strong religious nature and a firm reliance upon Providence, believing
in God's constant guidance."

"Do you remember," said Grandma Elsie, "those lines of Oliver Wendell
Holmes' written in honor of Admiral Farragut, and read at a dinner given
him, in which this passage occurs?

"Fast, fast are lessening in the light
The names of high renown,
Van Tromp's proud besom pales from sight,
Old _Benbow's_ half hull down.

"Scarce one tall frigate walks the sea,
Or skirts the safer shores,
Of all that bore to victory
Our stout old commodores.

"Hull, Bainbridge, Porter--where are they?
The answering billows roll,
Still bright in memory's sunset ray,
God rest each gallant soul!

"A brighter name must dim their light,
With more than noontide ray:
The Viking of the river fight,
The Conqueror of the bay.

"I give the name that fits him best--
Ay