"Yes," put in the younger; "the very winds are fond of blowing about in this place."
These latter remarks were heard by some of the family and guests, and we all raised a loud laugh, whilst the youngest added:
"Sister, please pass me another of those small, sweet oranges! I don't see for the very life of me why we could not live in the State of Louisiana. And then, mamma says the snakes are not very dangerous, and we could be careful, and look out for them."
"Oh, yes," rejoined her sister; "we could be careful, and look out for them. And would not the good Lord Himself protect us against them?"
"No doubt he would," remarked the other, "if Christianity can protect us against serpents about New Orleans."
By this time we were in a great state of merriment over the two girls, and rose from the breakfast table as if we had been leaving a successful entertainment, and walked out to see the garden.
After we had made the rounds of the garden, and regaled our senses with all that was most delicious in the Sunny South, we came back to the house, when a member of this good family placed before us on the sitting-room table, one of the New Orleans morning papers, which contained the following article. I think the good reporter who wrote this most grandiloquent article on myself, family and connections must either have been drinking too much wine, or else he is on the point of getting married! I can account for such high praise in no other way. But let us hear what he has got to say:
"ARRIVAL OF MRS. THOMAS LINCOLN AND HER TWO DAUGHTERS.
"It is an old and true saying 'that wonders never cease,' and again we are reminded of the words used by Paul against his enemies,—'Those who have turned the world up-side down have come hither also!' We Southern people, after this, need wonder no longer at the terrible war that the mighty North has brought about our ears! There arrived in the port of New Orleans yesterday, the wife and two daughters of Capt. Thos. Lincoln, an inmate of one of our hospitals, a captain of colored troops, promoted on the battle-field for bravery. Mrs. Lincoln is a perfect paragon among ladies, and seem to possess every accomplishment under the sun,—both mind and body. She is only twenty-seven years of age, and brought her children, two well-grown girls—along with her, having traveled by rail from Buffalo, New York, and from thence came on the 'Natchez,' down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. Their arrival was a great surprise to Captain Lincoln, and all the high authorities at the hospital; and a tremendous, warm welcome was what they all received from all whom they met. We ourselves heard of their arrival, hurried up to the hospital, met Captain Lincoln's wife and daughters in one of the parlors there, and were very much impressed indeed by this entire happy family, who appeared to us 'as fine as silk.' We found all four brimful of talk and intelligence; Mrs. Lincoln and the girls being expert hands on the piano, whilst the girls have evidently had splendid opportunities of getting a first-class training in every way. Indeed the intelligence of the great North has not yet been told by one half!
"We remember reading in the public papers, some nine or ten years ago, that this self-same Capt. Thos. Lincoln and Miss Beulah Jackson, now Mrs. Lincoln, made their escape from Riverside Hall, Kentucky, and were married on the evening of the same day at Cincinnati, Ohio. Tom Lincoln, as he used to be called, was general manager at the old baronial residence, and Beulah went by the facetious name of 'The Flower Girl of Riverside Hall,' and Beulah is 'Flower Girl' still.