Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/197

Rh low-diet kitchen—low diet, indeed—codfish, which seems to have slipped, without preparation, into the dishes from the briny barrel—a starving man would have hard work to eat some of that food, and how would one expect sick men to recover their appetites under such a regimen?

Still, a woman is not supposed to know, and these Lords of Creation, first in everything, deem themselves also first in the mysteries of cooking, when a corn mush for the hogs, or a kettle of Irish potatoes, fresh from the hill, was perhaps the extent of practice which they had previous to the advent of secession. Secession! thou hast developed many a trait which dormant lay!—thou hast raised many a talent which lay buried deep—art thou to be cursed or blessed? Oh, shapeless one!

1em Now for the boat again; those who are to go, are as pleased to go as any child with a long-promised visit to a place filled with rare and curious things. I am glad to see them go, for they are nearer home—the spot for which we yearn with wistful eyes turned hitherward, and my homesick heart beats pulse to pulse with their own.

There is heavy cannonading again to-day, but I hardly think Petersburg has yet fallen; delay—defeat! Oh! when will it be ended, and the city lie under the flutter of the old flag?