"Where was this?" inquired my father.
"Some place - Ball's Bluff, I believe. It was a grand affair."
"How many did they lose?" my mother said.
"Oh, I don't know - some thousands. We lost nothing to speak of. But the thing is, they will lose heart. They will never stand this sort of thing. They have no officers, you know, and they can have no soldiers. They will be obliged to give up."
Words were in my heart, but my lips knew better than to speak them. Had they no officers? Had Christian no soldiers under him? My head was ready to believe it; my heart refused. Yet I thought too I had seen at the North the stuff that soldiers are made of.
"If I were you," said my mother, "I would not let it all be over before I had a part in it."
"The war is not ended yet, Felicia," my father remarked; "and it will take more than a few hard knocks to make them give up."
"They have had nothing but hard knocks, sir, since it began,"
Ransom cried.
"Your father always takes a medium view of everything," my mother said. "If it depended on him, I believe there would be no war."
"I should have one other vote for peace," papa said, looking at me.