“Can that be possible?” provoked that he should have left out anything so important. “Why, it was General Robert E. Lee!” "I’m afraid we don’t know who General Lee was,” said Mary Bennett, blushing a little, and then she added quickly, “you see we live so far away from where the war was fought,” for Brevet’s undisguised look of astonishment was really quite paralysing.
“We only know what we have learnt at school,” Teddy further explained, “and we don’t remember so very much of that.”
“Why, General Lee,” said Brevet earnestly, feeling that he must come personally to the rescue of such dense ignorance, “was the greatest general they had down South. He would have whipped us Yankees if any one could.”
“He was a fine man though, a fine man,” said Joe, solemnly. “He and Miss Mary lived right on here at Arlington after dey was married and dere wasn’t a slave of us on de place who wouldn’t hab let Lieutenant Lee walk right ober us if he’d wanted to. So den when Mr. Custis died in 1857, and Lieutenant Lee done come to be de haid of de house, it was changin’ one good master for anoder.”
“Was Joe a slave?” asked Allan, drawing himself up to Mammy’s knees, near whom he happened to be sitting, and speaking in an awe-struck whisper.
“Why, yes, Honey, Joe was born in a cabin nex’ where he lives to-day, an’ we was all slaves down here ‘fo’ de wah, but de coloured folks here at Arlington was always treated ver’ han’some. I wasn’t so fortunate, Honey—I belonged down to a plantation in Georgia, where de Missus was kind, but where our Master treated us des like cattle, an’ I had my only chile sold away from me, when she wasn’t no mo’ den fo’teen or fifteen, an’ I don’ know ter this day whether she be livin’ or daid.”
“Oh, Mammy!” was all Allan could say in reply, but his little face looked worlds of sympathy.
Meanwhile Joe and Colonel Anderson between them went on with the story of Arlington, now one and now the other taking up its thread. Joe told of the many cosy cabins at that time dotted about the place in which the slaves lived, and of their happy life on a plantation where they all felt as though they were part of the household, and took as great pride and pleasure as the Master himself in everything belonging to it. He described, too, to the great delight of the children, the wild excitement of the Autumn hunting parties, when Mr. Custis and a whole houseful of guests would start off at sunrise, coming home at night with their game-bags full to a banquet in the house and an evening of unbounded fun and merriment. The Colonel told about the house itself, for from the time he became a young man until the day when, about to take command of a Washington regiment, he came to say goodbye to Lieutenant Lee, he had been a constant visitor there. He told of the luxury and comfort of the delightful home, now so bare and desolate; of the pretty sewing-rooms in the right wing, set apart for Mrs. Custis and Miss Mary; of the cosy library in the left wing, and then of the pictures painted on the walls by Mr. Custis. The pictures represented five of the battles of the Revolution, and Washington was the central figure in them all. There is just a trace of some of his work left now on the rear entrance of the wide hall, but Colonel Anderson admitted they could never have been considered very fine, rather detracting than adding to the other beautiful finishings of the house.
“But what became of all the beautiful things and how did the place ever happen to become a national cemetery?” asked Courage in one of the pauses, when both Joe and the Colonel seemed to be casting about in their minds for what would best be told next. She had listened as intently as any of the children to the whole narrative, and was every whit as much interested. "Well, it seems to me that is almost a story in itself,” Colonel Anderson answered, “and that we would better have out the luncheon baskets and take a bit of rest.”
Even the children agreed but half-heartedly at first to this interruption, but the avidity with which they afterward settled down to sandwiches and sponge cake showed that they really had minds not above the physical demands of life.