o'clock, as we sat reading,
sewing, and making lint in the parlor, we heard a tremendous shell
whizzing past, which those who watched, said passed not five feet above
the house. Of course, there was a slight stir among the
unsophisticated; though we, who had passed through bombardments,
sieges, and alarms of all kinds, coolly remarked, "a shell," and kept
quiet. (The latter class was not very numerous.) It was from one of the
three Yankee boats that lay in the river close by (the Essex and two
gunboats), which were sweeping teams, provisions, and negroes from all
the plantations they stopped at from Baton Rouge up. The negroes, it is
stated, are to be armed against us as in town, where all those who
manned the cannon on Tuesday were, for the most part, killed; and
served them right! Another shell was fired at a carriage containing
Mrs. Durald and several children, under pretense of discovering if she
was a guerrilla, doubtless. Fortunately, she was not hurt, however.

By the time the little _emeute_ had subsided, determined to have a
frolic, Miss Walters, Ginnie, and I got on our horses, and rode off
down the Arkansas Lane, to have a gallop and a peep at the gunboats
from the levee. But mother's entreaties prevented us from going that
near, as she cried that it was well known they fired at every horse or
vehicle they saw in the road, seeing a thousand guerrillas in every
puff of dust, and we were sure to be killed, murdered, and all sorts of
bloody deaths awaited us; so to satisfy her, we took the road about a
mile from the river, in full view, however. We had not gone very far
before we met a Mr. Watson, a plain farmer of the neighborhood, who
begged us to go back. "You'll be fired on, ladies, sure! You don't know
the danger! Take my advice and go home as quick as possible before they
shell you! They shot buggies and carriages, and of course they won't
mind _horses_ with women! Please go home!" But Ginnie, who had taken a
fancy to go on, acted as spokeswoman, and determined to go on in spite
of his advice, so, nothing loath to follow her example, we thanked him,
and rode on. Another met us; looked doubtful, said it was not so
dangerous if the Yankees did not see the dust; but if they did, we
would be pretty apt to see a shell soon after. Here was frolic! So we
rode on some mile or two beyond, but failing to see anything startling,
turned back again.

About two miles from here, we met Mr. Watson coming at full speed.