“Hold your tongue, Rhody,” retorted Mrs. Lightfoot, and then drew Betty a little to one side. “I have some port wine, my dear,” she whispered, “which Cupid buried under the old asparagus bed, and I'll tell him to dig up several bottles and take them to you. The other servants don't know of it, so I can't get it out till after dark. Poor Julia! how does she stand these terrible days?”
Betty's lips quivered. “I have to force her to eat,” she replied, “and it seems almost cruel—she is so tired of life.”
“I know, my dear,” responded the old lady, wiping her eyes; “and we have our troubles, too. Champe is in prison now, and Mr. Lightfoot is very much upset. He says this General Grant is not like the others, that he knows him—and he's the kind to hang on as long as he's alive.”
“But we must win in the end,” said Betty, desperately; “we have sacrificed so much, how can it all be lost?”
“That's what Mr. Lightfoot says—we'll win in the end, but the end's a long way off. By the way, did you know that Car'line had run off after the Yankees? When I think how that girl had been spoiled!”
“Oh, I wish they'd all go,” returned Betty. “All except Mammy and Uncle Shadrach and Hosea—and even they make starvation that much nearer.”
“Well, we shan't starve yet awhile, dear; I'm in hopes that Congo will ransack the town. If you would only stay.”
But Betty shook her head and went back across the meadows, walking rapidly through the lush grass of the deserted pastures. Her mind was so filled with Mrs. Lightfoot's forebodings, that when, in climbing the low stone wall, she saw the free negro, Levi, coming toward her, she turned to him with a gesture that was almost an appeal for sympathy.
“Uncle Levi, these are sad times now,” she said. “I am looking for something for mamma's supper and I can find nothing.”
The old negro, shabbier, lonelier, poorer than ever, shambled up to the wall where she was standing and uncovered a split basket full of eggs.