down the beach--'cause my leg was broke too," he replied. "And we was
all of us there, and you took care of us all and drissed our wounz. I
was with Colonel Shaw, and crawled out of the fote. The oth's nevah got
in. But we all got to you, Miss Clare. And now you's got to us. We's
talked about you a heap o' times, but we nevah 'spected to see you. We's
nevah fo'git it, Miss Clare."

One by one they showed their scars. There was very little clothing to
hide them--bullet wound and sabre stroke. The memory, dark and sad,
stood out before us all. It was a moment not to be forgotten.

Our purchases consisted of meat, mainly dry sides of pork, and grits, or
hominy, for eating. For planting, beside the seed contributed and the
nine hundred bushels of Irish potatoes, were eighteen hundred bushels of
Northern Flint seed corn.

The contributions of food and clothing had been sent to Beaufort, and
were in the warehouses of the perplexed committee of its leading
citizens. This had naturally drawn all the inhabitants of the scores of
desolated islands for fifty miles to Beaufort, until, it is safe to say,
that fifteen to twenty thousand refugees had gathered there, living in
its streets and waiting to be fed from day to day.

As the food was there they could not be induced to return to the
islands. Indeed, there was more often nothing on the islands to return
to. The description given by the heads of families and owners, for they
had largely owned their homes, gotten on the old-time plantations "'fo
de wah," was this: If all had been swept out to sea and nothing
remained, it was described as, "done gone." But if thrown down and parts
of the wreck still remained, it was described as "ractified."

A few of the churches, being larger and more strongly built, still
remained standing. During the first ten days of our stay it would have
been impossible to drive through the principal streets of Beaufort. They
were a solid moving mass, crowding as near to the storehouses as
possible to get, in spite of the policeman, who kindly held them back.

We sat daily in counsel with the local committee, until seeing that only
systematic measures and a decided change could relieve the conditions
and render the city safe. We then, on the first of October, decided to
accede to the request of the Governor made at first, and take sole
charge of the relief.

Our first order was to close every storehouse, both of food and
clothing, and inform the peo