for thought,
and so had the whole world. We had the element of success in our own
hands, in the capacity of living within ourselves. Had our resources
been properly managed, the importation of all foreign goods prohibited
during the period of the war, and the exportation of gold and
breadstuffs forbidden and guarded against by the closest watch and the
most stringent penalties, with our people practicing the self-denial and
economy of the men and women of the Revolution, setting their
spinning-wheels and looms once more in motion and wearing home-spuns
instead of imported broadcloths and satins,--had these steps been taken,
as they should have been taken, starvation would have fallen upon half
Europe, and the rebellion would long before this time[15] have perished
from its own weakness or been crushed out, from sheer necessity, by the
European powers whose very existence its continuance was perilling.

[Footnote 15: March 7th, 1863.]

The smile of God has not been withdrawn from our fields and orchards; we
have been continued in national health and still supplied with all the
luxuries of production and abundance; and yet what is the use which we
have made of these immense advantages, and what thanks have we rendered
to the Supreme Being in those two most acceptable of worships, _labor_
and _success_, for the health and wealth thus given and continued?

But these reflections over, which have sprung from the fruit glistening
on the trees in John Crawford's garden, the course of this narration
reverts to two who occupied the back piazza of the mansion at that hour
of Sunday noon. The piazza was a broad one, old-fashioned like the
house, with pillars of locust, planed and cornered instead of being
turned or fluted in the more modern fashion. Both the ends and the side
for a considerable distance towards the centre, were enclosed by a low
railing _in pale_; and the western end had lattice-work extending to the
tops of the pillars, with the leaves and tendrils of a large grape-vine
that had been planted many years before at the corner, running over,
twisting and interlacing in the lattice, and making a pleasant
flickering shade of the summer sunshine on the floor of the piazza. A
few birds, not yet thoroughly exhausted by the noonday heat, were
chirping in the thick branches of the fruit-trees near, and the drowsy
hum and chirp of insect life made such a sleepy undertone as could not
fail to bring rest and quiet to any min