tive search for supplies. H. got back this
evening with no supplies.

_June 15, 1862._--Max got back to-day. He started right off again to cross
the lake and interview the planters on that side, for they had not
suffered from overflow.

_June 16._--Max got back this morning. H. and he were in the parlor
talking and examining maps together till dinner-time. When that was over
they laid the matter before us. To buy provisions had proved impossible.
The planters across the lake had decided to issue rations of corn-meal and
peas to the villagers whose men had all gone to war, but they utterly
refused to sell anything. "They said to me," said Max, "' We will not see
your family starve, Mr. K.; but with such numbers of slaves and the
village poor to feed, we can spare nothing for sale.'" "Well, of course,"
said H., "we do not purpose to stay here and live on charity rations. We
must leave the place at all hazards. We have studied out every route and
made inquiries everywhere we went. We shall have to go down the
Mississippi in an open boat as far as Fetler's Landing (on the eastern
bank). There we can cross by land and put the boat into Steele's Bayou,
pass thence to the Yazoo River, from there to Chickasaw Bayou, into
McNutt's Lake, and land near my uncle's in Warren County."

_June 20, 1862._--As soon as our intended departure was announced, we
were besieged by requests for all sorts of things wanted in every
family--pins, matches, gunpowder, and ink. One of the last cases H. and
Max had before the stay-law stopped legal business was the settlement of
an estate that included a country store. The heirs had paid in chattels of
the store. These had remained packed in the office. The main contents of
the cases were hardware; but we found treasure indeed--a keg of powder, a
case of matches, a paper of pins, a bottle of ink. Red ink is now made out
of poke-berries. Pins are made by capping thorns with sealing-wax, or
using them as nature made them. These were articles money could not get
for us. We would give our friends a few matches to save for the hour of
tribulation. The paper of pins we divided evenly, and filled a bank-box
each with the matches. H. filled a tight tin case apiece with powder for
Max and himself and sold the rest, as we could not carry any more on such
a trip. Those who did not hear of this in time offered fabulous prices
afterwards for a single pound. But money has not its old attractions. Our
preparations