equently bringing flowers, and in many pleasant ways cheering his
loneliness.

Meanwhile the Confederate forces had swept on into Pennsylvania, but,
alas, were forced back. When they returned to Virginia, Mrs. Grey and
Nelly went with them, for both preferred to risk all chances rather
than to remain within the Federal lines, cut off from all
communication with the husband and father who might at any time need
their services. So they became "refugees," living as did thousands of
homeless ones, as best they might. Maum Winnie having proved her skill
as a nurse, found plenty of employment. Her wages, added to the little
Mrs. Grey could earn by her needle, kept them from absolute want. At
last came the sad day of "the surrender."

Nelly was yet too young to understand the sorrow and despair of her
mother, nor could she refrain from exceeding wonder when one day Mr.
Grey appeared, looking like an old and haggard man, and without a
greeting to his wife and child, tottered to a seat, throwing his arms
upon the table, burying his face within them, while be moaned and
sobbed as only a man can. Kneeling by his side, his wife tried to
soothe and comfort him, but although he was able at last to restrain
his grief, it was many a day before he was seen to smile.

There was nothing left for the impoverished family but to return to
the old Virginia home, and try to make the best of it. They were
compelled to travel as best they could, sometimes walking many miles,
sometimes taking advantage of a passing wagon. At last one evening,
just as the sun was setting, they approached the home-place, once a
blooming paradise, now a desert waste. The cabin of Maum Winnie with a
few of the servants' houses were still standing, but deserted and
desolate. Doors, log fireplaces, etc., had been torn down for
firewood, and in many places patches of charred wood, or dead embers,
showed where camp-fires had been lighted. The little garden in front
of Maum Winnie's cabin, made and carefully tended by "de ole man," was
a wilderness of weeds among which flowers of rank growth still
struggled for a place. Where the chimneys of the "house" still stood,
and all over the half-burned trunks of once beautiful trees crept and
clung sickly-looking vines, springing from the roots which had once
nourished a luxuriant growth and were not wholly dead.

As Mr. Grey surveyed the scene, a deep groan burst from his lips; but
the wife laid her hand upon his shoulder, s