victory and the
record of suffering. Then she read the news of elsewhere in the vast,
beleaguered fortress--of the fighting on the Mississippi, in Louisiana,
in Arkansas, in the Carolinas; echoes from Cumberland Gap, echoes from
Corinth. She read all the Richmond news--hot criticism, hot defence of
the President, of the Secretary of War, of the Secretary of State;
echoes from the House, from the Senate; determined optimism as to
foreign intervention; disdain, as determined, of Burnside's "On to
Richmond"; passionate devotion to the grey armies in the field--all the
loud war song of the South, clear and defiant! She read everything in
the paper. She read the market prices. Coffee $4 per lb. Tea $20 per lb.
Wheat $5 per bushel. Corn $15 per barrel. Bacon $2 per lb. Sugar $50 per
loaf. Chickens $10. Turkeys $50.

"Oh," cried Molly. "We have chickens yet, beside what we send to the
hospitals! And we have eggs and milk and butter, and I was looking at
the turkeys to-day. I feel _wicked_!"

"A lot of the turkeys will die," said Unity consolingly. "They always
do. I spoke to Sam about the ducks and the guinea-hens the other day. I
told him we were going to send them to Fredericksburg. He didn't like
it. 'Miss Unity, what fer you gwine ter send all dem critturs away lak
dat? You sen' 'em from Greenwood, dey gwine die ob homesickness!' And we
don't use many eggs ourselves, honey, and we've no way to send the
milk."

Miss Lucy having read the paper through, the Greenwood ladies went to
supper. That frugal meal over, they came back to the library, the
parlour looking somewhat desolate with the carpet up and rolled in one
corner, waiting for the shears to-morrow. "The shepherds and
shepherdesses look," said Unity, "as though they were shivering a
little. I don't suppose they ever thought they'd live to see a Wilton
carpet cut into blankets for Carys and other soldiers gone to war! It's
impossible not to laugh when you think of Edward drawing one of those
coverlets over him! Oh, me!"

"If Edward gets a furlough this winter," said Judith suddenly, "we must
give him a party. With the two companies in town, and some of the
surgeons, there will be men enough. Then Virginia and Nancy and Deb and
Maria and Betty and Agatha and all the refugeeing girls--we could have a
real party once more--"

"Just leaving out the things to eat," said Unity; "and wearing very old
clothes. We'll do it, won't we, Aunt Lucy?"

Aunt Lucy thought it an