friend of ours or the boys inquired if they knew the Miss Morgans of
Baton Rouge, "Oh, yes!" would be the answer, "intimately! But you know
they have turned Yankee. Received Federal officers every day, and
placed all their property under Yankee protection. I" (or "my sister,"
as it happened who was retailing the lie, meaning Mrs. S----) "slept in
their house when it was surrounded by a Yankee guard. Oh, they are
perfectly in favor of the Yankees," and so on. Think of a common, low
soldier who stopped for buttermilk somewhere where Anna was,
introducing the subject. "It is all false!" Anna interrupted. The man
answered, "Oh, Miss! you don't suppose we believe it? We would not
believe such stories of any young ladies, much less these; for if they
are true, their conduct must have been perfectly disgraceful. But
though we know these stories to be lies, it does not prevent their
being discussed in camp."...

Lydia saw Mr. McG----, too, at Lynchburg, who sent me his "regards."
Poor fellow! He says he still has "dreams"! He told her a few, but she
says they were chiefly about meeting me at a ball, when I always
treated him with the most freezing coldness. The same old nightmare.
How often he has told me of that same dream, that tormented him
eighteen months ago. He says he often thinks of me now--and he still
"dreams" of me! "Dreams are baseless fabrics whose timbers are mere
moonbeams." Apply your own proverb!...

A clatter of hoofs down the road! And bent over the window-sill which
is my desk, my fingers are not presentable with the splattering of this
vile pen in consequence of my position. Two hours yet before sundown,
so of course I am not dressed. They come nearer still. Now I see them!
Dr. Addison and Mr. M----! I shall not hurry my toilet for them. It
will take some time to comb my hair, too. Wish I could remain up here!

Tuesday, September 30th.

It required very little persuasion to induce those gentlemen to stay
to supper, the other evening, and it was quite late before they took
their leave. Dr. Addison I was very much pleased with, and so were all
the rest. Mr. M----, none of us fell desperately in love with. He is
too nonchalant and indifferent, besides having a most peculiar
pronunciation which grated harshly on my ears, and that no orthography
could fully express. "Garb," for instance, was distorted into "gairb,"
"yard" into "yaird," "Airkansas," and all such wo