Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/506

 Return of a Refugee. 505

ways, " far from the madding crowd." Eagerly I welcomed now this "madding crowd." I craved life, energy, excitement. The en- forced quiet of the country, always distasteful, had become doubly so, when one of the world's tragedies was being enacted just beyond the prison confines, where was heard but the echo of the victor's shout and the victim's wail. Here I was upon the very stage whence the historic actors had just passed. In fancy I saw through lowering evening shadows, the hapless head of the Confederacy, the broken remnant of an army whose devotion had never been equalled, the exulting enemy, drunk with success all these flitted by me ghost- like, and the pageant of prosperity and every-day life vanished as these were evoked. Such alternations of gloom and brightness fol- lowed me the long journey through.

The night was spent at the house of the Rev. Mr. B., at that time presiding elder of the circuit. His wife was an invalid, and absent; but seven children surrounded the hospitable board. Apropos Ql\hz dainty and elegant supper, the host, a tall, dignified and cultured man, informed me of the numerous and varied accomplishments he had ac- quired perforce since, in the expressive dialect of the negroes, "freedom broke out." Mrs. B. was frequently unable to rise from her couch, and the entire work of the household devolved upon him, aided by his two eldest sons, boys of nine and seven. The rolls, preserves and cake were of his own making ; and on one urgent occasion he had done a day's ironing! This man was the pride and ornament of his church. Does one doubt the position he occupied in his home, and in the respect and affection of his family ? He has since gone to his reward, but his children who survive, and the community he served, " rise up and call him blessed."

Next morning found me awaiting the train at this improvised depot, with a motley crowd, consisting chiefly of "citizens of African de- scent " and Yankee soldiers. The latter made themselves conspicu- ous in their character of conquerors on all possible opportumties- now ordering " Cuffee " about in a most masterful and patronizing manner, and anon befriending (?) him against the encroachments of his quondam masters. It was the first time I had met the blue-coals since my encounter with "John Miller," and hot flashes of indigna- tion and wrath, and something possibly worse, kept me at fever from the first glimpse of them upon arriving at the station. kept my lips compressed even when several of these creatu "dressed in a little brief authority," abused and insulted an old man for not giving a " colored lady ' ' the entire sidewalk as he came down