she'll come, she'll come,
Maryland! my Maryland!"

"She hasn't come yet. The people evidently don't dislike us, and as a
matter of course we aren't giving them any reason to. But their farms
are all nice and green and well tilled, and we haven't seen a burned
house or mill, and the children are going to school, and the stock is
all sleek and well fed--and if they haven't seen they've heard of the
desolation on our side of the river. They've got a pretty good idea of
what War is and they're where more people would be if they had that idea
beforehand. They are willing to keep out of it.--So they're respectful,
and friendly, and they crowd around to try to get a glimpse of General
Lee and General Jackson, but they don't volunteer--not in shoals as the
Marylanders said they would! The Maryland Line looks disdain at them.
Mathew Coffin is dreadfully fretted about the way we're dressed. He says
that's the reason Maryland won't come. But the mess laughs at him. It
says that if Virginia doesn't mind, Maryland needn't. I wish you could
see us, Aunt Sairy. When I think of how I went away from you and Tom
with that trunk full of lovely clean things!--Now we are gaunt and
ragged and shoeless and dirty--" Tom stopped to wipe his spectacles.

Sairy threaded a needle. "All that's less lasting than some other
things, they air. I reckon they'll leave a brighter streak than a deal
of folk who aren't gaunt an' ragged an' shoeless an' dirty."

"I don't ever see them so," said Christianna, in her soft drawling
voice. "I see them just like a piece we had in a book of reading pieces
at school. It was a hard piece but, I learned it.

"All furnished, all in arms,
All plumed like estridges that with the wind
Bated--like eagles having lightly bathed,
Glittering in golden coats like images."

"No. I reckon if Virginia don't mind, Maryland needn't."

Tom began again. "We've got a lovely camp here, and it's good to lie and
rest on the green grass. The Army has had hard fighting and hard
marching. Second Manassas was a big battle. It's in the air that we'll
have another soon. Don't you worry about me. I'll come out all right.
And if I don't, never forget that you did everything in the world for
me and that I loved you and thought of you at the very last. Is living
getting hard on Thunder Run? I fear so sometimes, for it's getting hard
everywhere, and you can't see the end--I wish