led achievements of the Southern
armies. Scarcely less admirable is the heroic spirit in which they
have accepted defeat; the industry which has hidden the desolation of
our land with bountiful harvest, the honesty of purpose which now
seeks to restore the constitution framed by our forefathers as it was,
the patient yet invincible determination which has driven out tyranny
and oppression, and reclaimed for posterity this beautiful Southland,
rich with historic memories, made sacred and beautiful by the graves
of heroes.

And these are _my boys_--still--always my boys. From the highest
places of the land they turn to give me a comrade's greeting. I glory
in the renown of these, but just as dear and precious to me is the
warm grasp of the toil-hardened hand and the smile which beams upon me
from the rugged face of the very humblest of "the boys who wore the
gray."

Dear friends, this subject is to me inexhaustible; but I may no longer
trespass upon your patience. With loving, reverent hands I have lifted
the veil of the past. Let the transcendent glory streaming through
penetrate the mask which time and care and sorrow have woven for the
faces of my boys, and show you the brave, unfaltering hearts as I know
them.

CHAPTER II.

THE CONFEDERATE REUNION AT DALLAS.

On the morning of August 6, 1885, a small party of ladies and
gentlemen set forth from Shreveport to attend the Confederate reunion
at Dallas, Texas.

The gentlemen of the party were veteran soldiers, and your
correspondent claimed like honors. (Place this admission to my credit,
for, believe me, it is a ruthless sacrifice of womanly vanity to
dearer memories.)

In congenial companionship the day passed quickly. Its close brought
us to Dallas. And here began at once an emotional experience which
might well be called "a tempest of the heart,"--glimpses of glory once
real. "Forms and scenes of long ago" appeared in such constant
succession that it seemed like a resurrection of the dead and buried
past.

The first object that met our view was a large Confederate
battle-flag, suspended from a conspicuous building on one of the
principal streets, surmounted, surrounded by "star-spangled banners,"
large and small, but still there, to set our hearts throbbing wildly,
to call forth a rain of blinding tears. This was but the beginning.
Borne swiftly onward to the hotel, we momentarily started forward with
streaming eyes and bated breath to gaze upon t