n of them.
Over some I planted shrubs and flowers, little lilac trees, obtained
with no small trouble, and flowering evergreens, which looked quite
gay and pretty ere I left, and may in time become great trees, and
witness strange scenes, or be cut down as fuel for another besieging
army--who can tell? And from many graves I picked up pebbles, and
plucked simple wild-flowers, or tufts of grass, as memorials for
relatives at home. How pretty the cemeteries used to look beneath the
blue peaceful sky; neatly enclosed with stone walls, and full of the
grave-stones reared by friends over friends. I met many here,
thoughtfully taking their last look of the resting-places of those
they knew and loved. I saw many a proud head bowed down above them. I
knew that many a proud heart laid aside its pride here, and stood in
the presence of death, humble and childlike. And by the clasped hand
and moistened eye, I knew that from many a heart sped upward a
grateful prayer to the Providence which had thought fit in his
judgment to take some, and in his mercy to spare the rest.

Some three weeks before the Crimea was finally evacuated, we moved
from our old quarters to Balaclava, where we had obtained permission
to fit up a store for the short time which would elapse before the
last red coat left Russian soil. The poor old British Hotel! We could
do nothing with it. The iron house was pulled down, and packed up for
conveyance home, but the Russians got all of the out-houses and sheds
which was not used as fuel. All the kitchen fittings and stoves, that
had cost us so much, fell also into their hands. I only wish some cook
worthy to possess them has them now. We could sell nothing. Our horses
were almost given away, our large stores of provisions, etc., were at
any one's service. It makes my heart sick to talk of the really
alarming sacrifices we made. The Russians crowded down ostensibly to
purchase, in reality to plunder. Prime cheeses, which had cost us
tenpence a pound, were sold to them for less than a penny a pound; for
wine, for which we had paid forty-eight shillings a dozen, they bid
four shillings. I could not stand this, and in a fit of desperation, I
snatched up a hammer and broke up case after case, while the
bystanders held out their hands and caught the ruby stream. It may
have been wrong, but I was too excited to think. There was no more of
my own people to give it to, and I would rather not present it to our
old foes.