he ruins of Carthage, nor even Rachel
weeping for her Hebrew children. But there were on every hand
manifestations of adherence to the Southern cause, except among a few
males who feared unutterable things, and were disposed to cringe and
prevaricate. The women were not generally handsome; their face was
indolent, their dress slovenly, and their manner embarrassed. They
lopped off the beginnings and the ends of their sentences, generally
commencing with a verb, as thus: "Told soldiers not to carr' off the
rye; declared they would; said they bound do jest what they pleased. Let
'em go!"

The Captain stopped at a spruce residence, approached by a long lane,
and on knocking at the porch with his ponderous fist, a woman came
timidly to the kitchen window.

"Who's thar?" she said, after a moment.

"Come out young woman," said the Captain, soothingly; "we don't intend
to murder or rob you, ma'am!"

There dropped from the doorsill into the yard, not one, but three young
women, followed by a very deaf old man, who appeared to think that the
Captain's visit bore some reference to the hencoop.

"I wish to buy for the use of the United States Government," said the
Captain, "some stacks of hay and corn fodder, that lie in one of your
fields."

"The last hen was toted off this morning before breakfast," said the old
man; "they took the turkeys yesterday, and I was obliged to kill the
ducks or I shouldn't have had anything to eat."

Here Fogg so misdemeaned himself, as to laugh through his nose, and the
man Clover appeared to be suddenly interested in something that lay in a
mulberry-tree opposite.

"I am provided with money to pay liberally for your produce, and you
cannot do better than to let me take the stacks: leaving you, of course,
enough for your own horses and cattle."

Here the old man pricked up his ears, and said that he hadn't heard of
any recent battle; for his part, he had never been a politician; but
thought that both parties were a little wrong; and wished that peace
would return: for he was a very old man, and was sorry that folks
couldn't let quiet folks' property alone. How far his garrulity might
have betrayed him, could be conjectured only by one of the girls taking
his hand and leading him submissively into the house.

The eldest daughter said that the Captain might take the stacks at his
own valuation, but trusted to his honor as a soldier, and as he seemed,
a gentleman, to deal justly by them. Th