turers among our
gentlemen-artists. I have a large lot on the corner of Pine Street and
Huntingdon Avenue, opposite the court-house, which will be a fine location
for it, and I wish to appropriate it to this purpose. While you are
adorning the interior of the building, the walls of which are to contain
frescoes of some of the most impressive scenes of our Revolution, I will
embellish the grounds in front, and make them my special charge. I
understand the cultivation of flowers, though the gift of painting them is
denied me. Yesterday I sold my diamonds for a much larger amount than I
supposed they would command, and this sum, added to other funds now at my
disposal, will enable me to accomplish the scheme. Dr. Arnold and Uncle
Eric cordially approve my plan, will aid me very liberally, and as soon as
tranquillity is restored I shall succeed in erecting the building without
applying to any one else for assistance. When your picture is finished, I
wish you to make me a copy to be hung up in our School of Design, that the
students may be constantly reminded of the debt of gratitude we owe our
armies."

The canvas, which she leaned forward to inspect more closely, contained an
allegorical design representing, in the foreground, two female figures. One
stern, yet noble-featured, crowned with stars--triumph and exultation
flashing in the luminous eyes. Independence, crimson-mantled, grasping the
Confederate Banner of the Cross, whose victorious folds streamed above a
captured battery, where a Federal flag trailed in the dust. At her side
stood white-robed, angelic Peace with one hand over the touch-hole of the
cannon against which she leaned, and the other extended in benediction.
Vividly the faces contrasted--one all athrob with national pride, beaming
with brilliant destiny; the other wonderfully serene and holy. In the
distance, gleaming in the evening light which streamed from the West, tents
dotted a hill-side; and, intermediate between Peace and the glittering
tents, stretched a torn, stained battlefield, over which the roar and rush
of conflict had just swept, leaving mangled heaps of dead in attestation of
its fury.

"How many months do you suppose it will require to complete it?" asked
Irene, whose interest in the picture was scarcely inferior to that of its
creator.

"If I work steadily upon it, I can soon finish it; but if I go with you to
a Tennessee hospital, I must, of course, leave it here until the war ends.