do, what will become of us? All we expect in the way of
earthly property is as yet mere paper, which will be so much trash if
the South is ruined, as it consists of debts due father by many
planters for professional services rendered, who, of course, will be
ruined, too, so all money is gone. That is nothing, we will not be
ashamed to earn our bread, so let it go.

But this house is at least a shelter from the weather, all sentiment
apart. And our servants, too; how could they manage without us? The
Yankees, on the river, and a band of guerrillas in the woods, are
equally anxious to precipitate a fight. Between the two fires, what
chance for us? It would take only a little while to burn the city over
our heads. They say the women and children must be removed, these
guerrillas. Where, please? Charlie says we must go to Greenwell. And
have this house pillaged? For Butler has decreed that no unoccupied
house shall be respected. If we stay through the battle, if the
Federals are victorious, we will suffer. For the officers here were
reported to have said, "If the people here did not treat them decently,
they would know what it was when Billy Wilson's crew arrived. _They_
would give them a lesson!" That select crowd is now in New Orleans.
Heaven help us when they reach here! It is in these small cities that
the greatest outrages are perpetrated. What are we to do?

A new proclamation from Butler has just come. It seems that the ladies
have an ugly way of gathering their skirts when the Federals pass, to
avoid any possible contact. Some even turn up their noses. Unladylike,
to say the least. But it is, maybe, owing to the odor they have, which
is said to be unbearable even at this early season of the year. Butler
says, whereas the so-called ladies of New Orleans insult his men and
officers, he gives one and all permission to insult any or all who so
treat them, then and there, with the assurance that the women will not
receive the slightest protection from the Government, and that the men
will all be justified. I did not have time to read it, but repeat it as
it was told to me by mother, who is in utter despair at the brutality
of the thing. These men our brothers? Not mine! Let us hope for the
honor of their nation that Butler is not counted among the gentlemen of
the land. And so, if any man should fancy he cared to kiss me, he could
do so under the pretext that I had pulled my dress from under his feet!
That will justify