we had lived in an actual condition of
camp life so long that at its conclusion I remarked to my husband in a
jocular vein that I was prepared for a life with the Comanches! We
restored our damaged fences, dug up our silver which had been buried
many months under a tree in the garden, and Mr. Gouverneur began to turn
his attention to agriculture. Our farm was among the finest in Frederick
County, which is usually regarded as one of the garden spots of the
country. Our social relations had been entirely suspended, as the
distractions attending the war had kept us so actively employed; but
that was now a past episode and we began making pleasant acquaintances
from Frederick and the surrounding country. Among our first visitors
were Judge and Mrs. William P. Maulsby; Richard M. Potts and his
brother, George Potts; Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Trail; the Rev. Dr. and
Mrs. George Diehl and their daughter Marie, who in subsequent years
endeared herself to the residents of Frederick; Mrs. John McPherson and
her daughter, Mrs. Worthington Ross; Dr. and Mrs. Fairfax Schley; Judge
and Mrs. John Ritchie; Mr. and Mrs. Jacob M. Kunkel; and the Rev.
Marmaduke Dillon-Lee, an Englishman who had served in the British Army
and at this time was the rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in
Frederick. He had been selected for this pulpit on account of his
neutral political views and we found in him a congenial acquaintance. He
remained in Frederick, however, for only a short period after the war
and was succeeded by the deservedly beloved Rev. Dr. Osborne Ingle, who,
after a pastorate of nearly half a century, recently passed to his
reward. I can not pass this Godly man by without an encomium to his
memory. He came to Frederick as a very young man and throughout his long
rectorship he was truly a leader of his flock and, like the "Good
Shepherd of Old," the sheep knew him and loved him.

It did not take long for Mr. Gouverneur and me to discover that neither
of us was adapted to a country life under the conditions prevailing at
the close of the War--so very different from those existing in that
locality at a later period. He knew nothing of practical farming and I
knew nothing of practical cooking. Although I was never entirely without
domestic service, as I always had with me the Chinese maid whom I had
brought from the East, we were not fitted, at the best, for such a life.
The result was that after one winter's experience we made _Po-ne-sang_