that the times were
harder than they had ever been--though the plantation was now utterly
destitute; there were no provisions and no crops, for there were no
teams. It was not merely that a shadow was settling down on all the
land; for the boys did not trouble themselves about these things,
though such anxieties were bringing gray hairs to their mother's
temples.

The General had been wounded and captured during a cavalry fight. The
boys somehow connected their Cousin Belle with the General's capture,
and looked on her with some disfavor. She and the General had
quarrelled a short time before, and it was known that she had returned
his ring. When, therefore, he was shot through the body and taken by
the enemy, the boys could not admit that their cousin had any right to
stay up-stairs in her own room weeping about it. They felt that it was
all her own fault, and they told her so; whereupon she simply burst
out crying and ran from the room.

The hard times grew harder. The shadow deepened. Hugh was wounded and
captured in a charge at Petersburg, and it was not known whether he
was badly hurt or not. Then came the news that Richmond had been
evacuated. The boys knew that this was a defeat; but even then they
did not believe that the Confederates were beaten. Their mother was
deeply affected by the news.

That night at least a dozen of the negroes disappeared. The other
servants said the missing ones had gone to Richmond "to get their
papers."

A week or so later the boys heard the rumor that General Lee had
surrendered at a place called Appomattox. When they came home and told
their mother what they had heard, she turned as pale as death, arose,
and went into her chamber. The news was corroborated next day. During
the following two days, every negro on the plantation left, excepting
lame old Sukey Brown. Some of them came and said they had to go to
Richmond, that "the word had come" for them. Others, including even
Uncle Balla and Lucy Ann, slipped away by night.

After that their mother had to cook, and the boys milked and did the
heavier work. The cooking was not much trouble, however, for
black-eyed pease were about all they had to eat.

One afternoon, the second day after the news of Lee's surrender, the
boys, who had gone to drive up the cows to be milked, saw two
horsemen, one behind the other, coming slowly down the road on the far
hill. The front horse was white, and, as their father rode a white
horse, t