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temerity. To be judged by the thoughtful mind, sensitive to breaches of order and morals in society, the widest range of reading could find no better region or period for successful competition with the rest of the world, as a perfect picture of dreariness and desolation, than this part of Mississippi and Louisiana in the spring of 1864. Soon after the conquest of ancient Palestine by Joshua, it is said that "the highways were unoccupied, and travelers walked through byways." "When Israel had sown, the Midianites came up against them, and left no sustenance for them, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.' Gideon sought

a place for threshing his wheat where he might be hid from the predatory bands of Midian. But in ancient warfare, plunder, generally, and not murder, was the object. If prisoners were sold into bondage or their lives taken, it was upon a system recognized by both parties, and by the age. The bearers of the cross in the 13th and 14th centuries, against the Albigenses of the Pyrenees, and the Waldenses of Piedmont, had certain laws to which they paid some regard. Even the wild Bedouins of the Arabian deserts, and the savages of American wilds, have traits which shed a relieving light upon the darker shades of their character, and their captives may trust them within the precepts of their rude ethical systems. The peasants of France and Germany, so often made the sport of American travelers, will leave untouched, to be picked up by the owner of the soil, the apple which has fallen by the wayside where they pass. But in the region of which I now write, the neighborhood of the Rebel President's house, all definite grounds of assurance were wanting. There were, indeed, many people in the South who had even the finer feelings of humanity, but the "Northerner" who escaped by one man's mercy had little reason to console himself with the hope of meeting the same in another. Many carried on war in their own interests, on their own responsibility, and in accordance with their own laws. The fortune seekers from the North were offensive to all parties. The real patriots in the Union army could not bear to see them gathering wealth from the contest, while its issue was still in suspense. The many Union officers, who, forgetful of their duty, were speculating in cotton, hated all who might either rival or expose them, and preferred the alliance of guerrilla chiefs, who often proved their best auxiliaries in obtaining cotton; while the guerrillas themselves, and the whole rebel South, were without any feelings of compassion toward the Yankee speculators; and of course these, left thus utterly destitute of friends, fared but ill.

On Friday, the 11th of March, our attempt to reach the Bend was renewed, and this time by a Government transport. Some thirty to

forty boxes of clothing were sent under my charge by the Western Sanitary Commission—with which, however, I had no connection-to be distributed among the contraband camps there. It was just after sunset when the boat touched the shore near the late residence of Joseph E. Davis. More than a hundred swarthy faces gleamed with delight, as they saw the steamer stopping, and especially as they looked upon the boxes tumbling from the deck.

My traveling companion, Rev. Dr. M, was of that small but intelligent body of Christians which numbers George H. Stewart, of Philadelphia, President of the United States Christian Commission, among its members-a body which even in a land of slavery would not defile its garments by any participation in its guilt. He was of South Carolinian birth, and when a mere child emigrated to Illinois, with a colony of persons who found it inconvenient to carry out the action which their church took in the year 1800, against the holding of slaves, and still live in the South. After completing his education, he went to Mississippi to teach school, and there knew Jefferson Davis.

The goods in safe keeping, we started for the late home of the rebel President, nearly two miles distant. There was no reason why we should have felt ticklish, as though we might meet persons whom we should not care to see; but still there was an indescribable sensation as if we were just in the place where rebel spirits, whether in the body or out of the body, would delight to walk round in the twilight. We met nothing visible, however, but a squad of half-a-dozen men bearing guns and wearing the uniforms of United States soldiers. My friend said to them: "Why! what does this mean? I always saw your people carrying hoes and not guns." "Them days is past," was the reply, which revealed the negro heart of the whole region.

The last traces of the evening twilight were just disappearing in the west, as we stepped into the cozy veranda of the patriarchal mansion. Light gleaming from many windows, intimated a cheerful social life within. To this a colored servant, promptly responding to our rap, introduced us. Two gentlemen in military habit sat conversing before a cheerful fire, blazing in an old-fashioned fireplace, surrounded with marble jambs and mantel-piece, while large brass andirons, articles dimly remembered from the days of my childhood, supported the burning sticks. These were the lieutenant commanding the troops on the Bend, and a surgeon sent to look after the sanitary condition of the contraband camps. Besides these, a young man and two young ladies, missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church, made up, with the servants, the household. The former preached to the colored

people of the plantation on Sundays, and the three, together with some eight or ten others of both sexes, daily taught the children and a portion of the adults of the peninsula. Like the diamond-hunters of India or Brazil, they had the joy of seeing frequent gleams shot forth from bright surfaces which their own labors first brought to the light, the luster of which shone more beautiful from the blackness of the soil in which they were found. These brilliants, too, were to be set in crowns to be worn by the finders.

Here is seen some relief to that picture of weariness and desolation which everywhere presented itself. To change the figure, the genius of Christianity was sending her servants to plant the seeds of science and religion, wherever the plowshare of war had been driven to break up the soil. A few persons, whom their cotemporaries have ever branded with the name of fanatics, had at various times made attempts single-handed to scatter these seeds, but with no results visible at the time beyond the sacrifices of property, liberty, or life, which each movement had cost the mover. These, like indices by the roadside, pointed in the direction which we must take, and showed that our destination could be reached only by the way of "the bloody fields," but did not give the distance thither. This proved less than we had expected. The breaking up of the soil was more thorough than we supposed. The expenditure for enriching it with blood, the only means which could accomplish the end, was far beyond our estimates, and a harvest may be hoped for on the same enlarged scale. Already we saw here the prophet's vision quite literally realized—the plowers and reapers, the treaders of grapes and sowers of seed, all working together! On many a plantation some fair Ruth was already gleaning among the sheaves, where no Boaz was present to welcome, cheer, and reward her.

REX ASHCROFT.

I LOVED Rex Ashcroft-which is something for a proud woman to confess with a depth and recklessness which shivered my heart as lightning shivers the matter it touches; but I would quite as soon have put my hand into living coals, as to have touched his lips with mine. Indeed, it would have been better for me to have been burned with fire, than to have linked my name with his. This is the solemn truth, and yet, I have seen moments when I would have sold my soul for one look into his flashing, desperate eyes. But I have seen others when, for the hate (such hate as is born of love) I bore him, I would have put half the world between us if I could.

Do you know what it is to love and hate in the same breath? You would have soon learned had Rex Ashcroft been your lover as he was mine.

Such a man as he was to woo a woman! Fire to-day and ice tomorrow; tender as an angel now, distant and severe as he who never felt or needed mercy then; but always strong and daring as the wild north winds which scatter terror in their track.

He was a skillful teacher, and, alas! I learned quickly and well the lessons he put before me. First I feared him as a sinning mortal fears the King of Terrors, then I loved him with the same mad devotion he lavished upon me, and at the last, I came to love, and hate, and fear, by turns as he himself did, only mine was a woman's soul, and it was easier for me to love, than either hate, or fear.

The days, which were alternately like triumph and torment to me, came and went as other days come and go; but they never seemed to me to be hours which belonged to my life at all. I believed then, and I believe now, that I received, by some curious slip of fortune's wheel, what the fates prepared for another. Everybody warned me against this man, and for that very reason I clung to him the more, saying to myself: "What fools they are to think I do not know him as well, and better than they! And greater fools to think I can ever fall into his clutches!" as in truth they were.

He never made me waver but once, and then only for an instant. We were standing beside the river under a September sky, and watching the swift waters as they swept by at our feet, when a horseman galloped past on the opposite bank, and at a curve in the river came face to face with a train of approaching cars, and was killed in an instant.

What if it had been the man beside me, was my first quick thought and it sprang to my lips as soon as it was in my heart.

"It might have been you, Rex," I said, with a sudden cry of pain. He turned swiftly.

"It would have taken me to hell, Fane. You alone can save me from that at last." His eyes held mine like a band of steel, and I, remembering only that I loved him and would gladly die to save him, had the words upon my lips which would have sealed my fate, when he bent to kiss me. That movement broke the spell which was upon me. I drew back as if from poison.

"Let us go home," I said.

"And forget that you love me, and might save me?"

We ought to have parted then and there, but we did not. I

answered him quietly in some evasive way, and, turning to other subjects, we walked slowly home.

"Time enough yet for each to take up the dreary way alone," I said, as I bade him adieu at the door, and went into the solitude of my own room. The end came summarily enough.

A friend of mine came from Cuba to visit us, and he and I, while riding out the day after his arrival, passed Rex Ashcroft. I knew what would follow, when I caught the look in his eyes, as he lifted his hat to me, and, therefore, I was not surprised when that evening brought him to the house, with a request to see me alone. I went into the parlor with my nerves ready.

"You and I love each other, I believe," he began, waiting only until I had closed the door.

I answered nothing.

"Well, then, you love me as you will never love the man who sat beside you, and smiled to-day, if you like that better."

"I shall marry him, nevertheless," I answered steadily.

It did not start him, because he did not believe it.

"That has nothing to do with the question just now. People have warned you against me. Why did you love me!"

"If I have loved you, I have hated you as well," I answered, still holding my own.

A curious look came into his face.

"Did you think I was not aware of that? Just because you hate and love with a strength like my own, I want you."

"But you will never have me," I answered.

An incredulous smile crept into his lips.

"As sure as the fire has heat I shall."

"Never!"

"I have your soul already.

Take that away if you can!"

I shuddered involuntarily. He was quick to notice it.

"You are not so strong after all, Fane," his voice growing tender and kind. "You tremble in spite of yourself."

"Neither from weakness nor fear," I answered, meeting his look unflinchingly. "The sooner you go the better."

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"I will give you a diamond necklace with my own hands, the day you are any man's wife save my own."

He drew himself up proudly, though I could see the color dying out of his face, and came toward me.

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