"Confused sort - as the custom is. Skirmishes which amount to nothing, and tell nothing. However, there is a little more this time. Fort Henry has been taken, on the Tennessee river, by Commander Foote and his gunboats."
"Successes cannot always be on one side, of course," remarked my father.
"Roanoke Island has been taken, by the sea and land forces under Burnside and Goldsborough."
"Has it!" - said papa. "Well, - what good will that do them?"
"Strengthen their hearts for continuing the struggle," said
Mr. Dinwiddie. "It will do that."
"The struggle cannot last very long," said my father. "They must see sooner or later how hopeless it is."
"Not in the light of these last events," said Mr. Dinwiddie.
"What does my other friend here think about it?"
"About what, Mr. Dinwiddie?"
"The length of the struggle."
"Do you think Daisy has some special means of knowledge?" asked my father, carelessly.