Daisy In The Field

Mr. Dinwiddie came back with a business step. I looked up, but

I would not fear. He laid a pile of letters and papers before

papa, and then sat down to the consideration of some of his

own.

"What is doing at home, Dinwiddie?" papa asked.

"A good deal, since our last advices."

"What? I am tired of reading about it."

"Yes," said Mr. Dinwiddie. "You want me to save you the

trouble?"

"If it is no trouble to you."

"The news is of several advantages gained by the Yankees."

"That won't last," said papa. "But there are always

fluctuations in these things."

"Back in March," Mr. Dinwiddie went on, "there are reported

two engagements in which our troops came off second best - at

Newhern and at Winchester. It is difficult perhaps to know the

exact truth - the papers on the two sides hold such different

language. But the sixth of April there was a furious battle at

Pittsburg Landing, our men headed by Beauregard, Polk and

Sidney Johnston, when our men got the better very decidedly;

the next day came up a sweeping reinforcement of the enemy

under Grant and others, and took back the fortune of war into

their own hands, it seems."

"Perhaps that is doubtful too," observed my father.

"I see Beauregard asked permission to bury his dead."

"Many killed?" asked my father.

"Terribly many. There were large numbers engaged, and fierce

fighting."

So they can do it, I said to myself, amid all my heart-

beating.

"There will be of course, some variation of success," said my

father.

"The pendulum is swung all to one side, in these last news,"

said Mr. Dinwiddie.

"What next?"

"Fort Pulaski is taken."

"Pulaski!" my father exclaimed.

"Handsomely done, after a bombardment of thirty hours."

"I am surprised, I confess," said papa.

"The House of Representatives has passed a bill for the

abolition of slavery in the District."

"Oh, I am glad!" I exclaimed. "That is good."

"Is that all you think good in the news?" said Mr. Dinwiddie a

little pointedly.

"Daisy is a rebel," said papa.

"No, papa; not I surely. I stand by the President and the

Country."

"Then we are rebels, Dinwiddie," said papa, half wearily.

"Half the country is playing the fool, that is clear; and the

whole must suffer."

"But the half where the seat of war is, suffers the most."

"That will not last," said papa. "I know the South."

"I wonder if we know the North," said Mr. Dinwiddie. "Farragut

has run the gauntlet of the forts at the mouth of the

Mississippi and taken New Orleans."

"Taken New Orleans!" my father exclaimed again, rising half up

as he lay on the cushions of the divan.

"It was done in style," said Mr. Dinwiddie, looking along the

columns of his paper. "Let me read you this, Mr. Randolph."