"
"Well, mother, I do not begrudge my blood or my life. You have
taught me that to die is gain; but almost hourly I pray for recovery
that I may soon rejoin my regiment and do more toward achieving our
liberty. How strange it is that men of the North should be animated
by much the same spirit! Miss Baron has been showing me the lovely
faces of the wife and daughter of a Federal officer who died
heroically a few days ago. She says the war is all a dreadful
mystery to her."
"I am beginning to understand her better," replied Mrs. Waldo
musingly, "for to some extent she has given me her confidence. If
she had been brought up as you have been she would feel as you do. I
can see why her uncle and aunts have not won her sympathy, while her
cousin's conduct has been well calculated to alienate her. I can
also understand why the negroes on the place have so enlisted her
sympathy. I do not think they have been treated very harshly, but it
is too clear that they are regarded simply as property, and Mr.
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