y toilet set, taking also all Lydia's
china ornaments I had packed in the wash-stand. The debris filled my
basin, and ornamented my bed. My desk was broken open. Over it was
spread all my letters, and private papers, a diary I kept when twelve
years old, and sundry tokens of dried roses, etc., which must have been
_very_ funny, they all being labeled with the donor's name, and the
occasion. Fool! how I writhe when I think of all they saw; the
invitations to buggy rides, concerts, "Compliments of," etc.--! Lilly's
sewing-machine had disappeared; but as mother's was too heavy to move,
they merely smashed the needles.

[Illustration: SARAH FOWLER
Sully's portrait of Mrs. Morgan]

In the pillaging of the armoirs, they seized a pink flounced muslin of
Miriam's, which one officer placed on the end of a bayonet, and paraded
round with, followed by the others who slashed it with their swords
crying, "I have stuck the damned Secesh! that's the time I cut her!"
and continued their sport until the rags could no longer be pierced.
One seized my bonnet, with which he decked himself, and ran in the
streets. Indeed, all who found such, rushed frantically around town, by
way of frolicking, with the things on their heads. They say no frenzy
could surpass it. Another snatched one of my calico dresses, and a pair
of vases that mother had when she was married, and was about to decamp
when a Mrs. Jones jerked them away, and carried them to her
boarding-house, and returned them to mother the other day. Blessed be
Heaven! I have a calico dress! Our clothes were used for the vilest
purposes, and spread in every corner--at least those few that were not
stolen.

Aunt Barker's Charles tried his best to defend the property. "Ain't you
'shamed to destroy all dis here, that belongs to a poor widow lady
who's got two daughters to support?" he asked of an officer who was
foremost in the destruction. "Poor? Damn them! I don't know when I have
seen a house furnished like this! Look at that furniture! _They_ poor!"
was the retort, and thereupon the work went bravely on, of making us
poor, indeed.

It would have fared badly with us had we been there. The servants say
they broke into the house crying, "Where are those damned Secesh women?
We know they are hid in here, and we'll make them dance for hiding from
Federal officers!" And they could not be convinced that we were not
there, until they had searched the very garret. Wonder what they would
have