s of her
breakfast table.

"Blackberries--an'--an' coffee made out of aco'ns."

Again the troubled conqueror turned away.

"Oh, it's a shame!" he muttered between his teeth. "A wicked shame!"

He stood for a moment, silently, till Virgie spoke and jarred him with
another confidence.

"My cousin Norris told me that the Yankees have bread every day; an'
tea--an' milk--an' everything. _An' butter!_"

This last-named article of common diet was mentioned with an air of
reverential awe; and, somehow, it hurt the well-fed Union officer far
more than had she made some direct accusation against the invading
armies of the North.

"Don't, Virgie--please," he murmured softly. "There are some things we
just can't bear to listen to--even in times of war." He sighed and
dropped into his former seat, striving gently to change the subject.
"You have lived here--always?"

"Oh, no," she assured him, with a lift of her small, patrician brows.
"_This_ is the overseer's house. _Our_ house used to be up on the hill,
in the grove."

"_Used_ to be--?"

"Yes, sir. But--but the Yankees burnt it up."

Morrison's fist came down on the table with a crash. He remembered now
his raid of some months before upon this same plantation, so unfamiliar
in its present neglected state. Again he looked into the fearless eyes
of a Southern gentlewoman who mocked him while her lover husband swam
the river and escaped. Again he saw the mansion wrapped in flame and
smoke--the work of a drunken fiend in his own command. Yes, he
remembered now; too well; then he turned to the child and spoke:

"Tell me about it. Won't you?"

She nodded, wriggled from her chair, and stood beside the table.

"Oh, it was a long time ago--a month, maybe--an' they came after our
horses. Mamma an' me were all by ourselves--'ceptin' Uncle Billy and
Sally Ann. An' we were dreadful scared--an' we hid in the ice house."

She paused. Her listener had leaned his elbow on the table, his hand
across his eyes.

"Yes, dear. Go on."

The child had been standing opposite, with Susan Jemima and the
acorn-coffee pot between them; but gradually she began to edge a little
nearer, till presently she stood beside him, fingering a shiny button on
his coat.

"An' the blue boys ate up everything we had--an' took our corn. An' when
they went away from our house, they--a man set it on fire. But another
man got real mad with him, an'--an' shot him. _I_ know, 'cause Uncle
Billy put him in