g turned to broad farce by my absurd second
one.

February 5th, Thursday night.

A letter from Lavinia has come to me all the way from California. How
happy it made me, though written so long ago! Only the 30th of June!
Lavinia has changed, changed. There is a sad, worn-out tone in every
line; it sounds old, as though she had lived years and years ago and
was writing as though she were dead and buried long since. Lavinia,
whose letters used to keep me in sunshine for weeks at a time! Well! no
wonder she is sad. All these dreary years from home, with so faint a
hope of ever again seeing it, and all these sorrows and troubles that
have befallen us, combined, are not calculated to make her happy. But I
wish she had kept her cheerful heart. Well, perhaps it is easier for us
to be cheerful and happy, knowing the full extent of our calamities,
than it is for her, knowing so little and having just cause to fear so
much. Courage! Better days are coming! And then I'll have many a funny
tale to tell her of the days when the Yankees kept us on the _qui
vive_, or made us run for our lives. It will "tell" merrily; be almost
as lively as those running days were. One of my chief regrets over my
helplessness is that I will not be able to run in the next stampede. I
used to enjoy it. Oh, the days gone by, the dreary days, when, cut off
from our own people, and surrounded by Yankees, we used to catch up any
crumb of news favorable to our side that was smuggled into town, and
the Brunots and I would write each other little dispatches of
consolation and send them by little negroes! Those were dismal days.
Yet how my spirits would rise when the long roll would beat, and we
would prepare for flight!

Monday, February 9th, 1863. Night.

A letter from my dear little Jimmy! How glad I am, words could not
express. This is the first since he arrived in England, and now we know
what has become of him at last. While awaiting the completion of the
ironclad gunboat to which he has been appointed, like a trump he has
put himself to school, and studies hard, which is evident from the
great improvement he already exhibits in his letter....

My delight at hearing from Jimmy is overcast by the bad news Lilly
sends of mother's health. I have been unhappy about her for a long
while; her health has been wretched for three months; so bad, that
during all my long illness she has ne