Page:Memorials of a Southern Planter.djvu/232

 224 happy months togcthor at Burleigh. We frequently numbered twenty-five or even more at the table during this time, and a gayer, merrier circle could not well be imagined. Flour was almost unknown in that part of the Confederacy, coffee and sugar were about as scarce as flour. We had coffee made of peanuts or potatoes, black tea made of blackberry-leaves, and green tea made of holly-leaves. We gave "war" names to all the varieties of corn-bread that appeared on the table. We had rebel bread, Beauregard cakes, etc. It was so delightful to be in the old home again, that the younger members of the family almost threw off the depressing feeling of the war for a time. Privations had almost ceased to be felt. We had scarcely any clothes. A percale apiece at fifteen dollars a yard had been bought as a great bargain; three hundred and fifty dollars had been given for a purple calico dress for Sophy, a pair of coarse shoes cost forty dollars, a pound of tea twenty-five dollars, and it rose to fifty dollars in two days. Our roasts of beef in Macon cost fifty dollars apiece. The only bridal present bought for one of our brides during the war was a pair of green kid gloves,—white could not be bought,—they cost fifty dollars, and were both for the left hand! Our shoes wore made of the skins of oxen, roughly tanned by the plantation shoemaker, and manufactured into coverings for the feet by him. Some idea of the appearance and fit of his handiwork may be formed when it is known that his boast was that it was unnecessary for him to take measurements of the feet of the ladies. "I jes' have to glarnce at your foot, missis, an' I ken fit it."

It may be said of these prices that they were only Confederate money, but it must be borne in mind that each Confederate dollar represented to this family what had been a dollar in specie. The income in Confederate money was no larger than the income had been in gold. But people tried not to think of these things, and laughed as they saw the amusing substitutes contrived out of unsuitable and incongruous material.

The young people got up amusements in the house. The longest to be remembered with pride and pleasure