nd, as
they walked together into the parlor, he noticed that her
expression was serious.

"'Have you heard the latest news, Moses?' she asked.

"'No,' returned the haughty Southerner.

"'Well,' said the lady, 'just before you came in, I gave Sambo a
hundred and twelve dollars ($112) to get an evening paper, which
says that the Confederate Government is about to seize all the
money in the country, to pay the soldiers.'

"A gorgeous smile lit up the features of the chivalric Virginian,
and he said:

"'Let them take both my shedsfull ($00000000); let them take it
all! Sooner than submit, or consent to be Reconstructed, I would
give my very life even, for the sake of the Confederacy!'

Mrs. Faro still looked serious.

"'Moses,' she said, with quivering lips, 'have you not got, hidden
away somewhere, _a twenty-shilling gold-piece_ ($2,500,000)?'

"Ghastly pale turned the proud Confederate, and he could barely
stammer,--

"'Ye-ye-yes.'

"'Well,' murmured the matron, 'it's the gold they intend to take, I
reckon.'

"That was enough. Frantically tore Mr. Faro into the street;
desperately raced he to the city limits; madly flew he past the
pickets and sentinels; swiftly scoured he down the Boynton Plank
Road. A Yankee bayonet was at his bosom.

"'Reconstruction!' shouted he.

"They took him before the nearest post-commandant, and he only
said,--

"'Let me be Reconstructed.'"

Need the reader be informed that he is now in New York, looking for a
house, and in great need of some financial aid to help him pay the rent
of such a residence as he has always been accustomed to and cannot live
without? Yes, far from home, family, and friends, he is now one of
those long-suffering, self-sacrificing Union refugees from the South,
whom it is a pleasure to assist, and whose manly opposition to the
military despotism of the Confederacy commends them to our utmost
liberality. He will accept donations in money, and this fact should be
sufficient to make all loyal men eager to extend such pecuniary
encouragement as may suffice to keep him above any necessity for
exertion until the presidency of some Bank can be procured for him by
the Christian Commission.

I may add, my boy, that any monetary contribution intended for this
excellent man, may be directed to

Yours, patronizingly,

ORPHEUS C. KERR.