of Sherman in December, and the one paper published here shouts victory
as much as its gradually diminishing size will allow. Paper is a serious
want. There is a great demand for envelops in the office where H. is. He
found and bought a lot of thick and smooth colored paper, cut a tin
pattern, and we have whiled away some long evenings cutting envelops and
making them up. I have put away a package of the best to look at when we
are old. The books I brought from Arkansas have proved a treasure, but
we can get no more. I went to the only book-store open; there were none
but Mrs. Stowe's "Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands." The clerk said I
could have that cheap, because he couldn't sell her books, so I got it
and am reading it now. The monotony has only been broken by letters from
friends here and there in the Confederacy. One of these letters tells of
a Federal raid to their place, and says: "But the worst thing was, they
would take every toothbrush in the house, because we can't buy any more;
and one cavalryman put my sister's new bonnet on his horse, and said,
'Get up, Jack,' and her bonnet was gone."

_February 25._--A long gap in my journal, because H. has been ill unto
death with typhoid fever, and I nearly broke down from loss of sleep,
there being no one to relieve me. I never understood before how terrible
it was to be alone at night with a patient in delirium, and no one
within call. To wake Martha was simply impossible. I got the best doctor
here, but when convalescence began the question of food was a trial. I
got with great difficulty two chickens. The doctor made the drug-store
sell two of their six bottles of port; he said his patient's life
depended on it. An egg is a rare and precious thing. Meanwhile the
Federal fleet has been gathering, has anchored at the bend, and shells
are thrown in at intervals.

_March 20._--The slow shelling of Vicksburg goes on all the time, and we
have grown indifferent. It does not at present interrupt or interfere
with daily avocations, but I suspect they are only getting the range of
different points; and when they have them all complete, showers of shot
will rain on us all at once. Non-combatants have been ordered to leave
or prepare accordingly. Those who are to stay are having caves built.
Cave-digging has become a regular business; prices range from twenty to
fifty dollars, according to size of cave. Two diggers worked at ours a
week and charged thirty dollars. It is well