unseen way the friend?
The children were facing the mystery Death
With the deepest prayer that their hearts could send.

Children, too, and the mysteries last!
We are but comrades with them _there_,--
Stammering over a meaning vast,
Crooning our guesses of how and where.

But the children were right with their A, B, C;
In our stammering guess so much we say!
The singers were happy, and so are we:
Deep as our wants are the prayers we pray.

FROM W. C. G.

_Captain Oliver Fripp's Plantation, June 9._ I came here, in
consequence of a letter received from Mr. Pierce, asking me to take
charge over some plantations here. There is a Mr. Sumner here,--lately
arrived,--who is teaching. The place is quite at the other end of the
island from Coffin's Point. At present I am by no means settled; it
seems like jumping from the 19th century into the Middle Ages to
return from the civilization and refinement which the ladies
instituted at Coffin's to the ruggedness of bachelor existence.

_June 22._ In regard to danger of sickness, I hear much about it,--but
I think it is exaggerated. The white overseer stayed on Edgar Fripp's
Plantation--close by--all summer. The planters generally went to
Beaufort or the Village, but I think very much as we go out of town in
summer. The summer was the fashionable and social time here, when the
rich people lived together, gave parties, etc.

_July 6._ The people do not work very willingly,--things are not so
steady as they have become at Coffin's. The district is even more
exposed to the influence of visits to and from the camps.

We had quite a celebration for the people on the Fourth. A stage was
erected near the old Episcopal church in a cool grove of live-oaks,
all grey with long trails of Southern moss. A large flag was obtained
and suspended between trees across the road--it was good to see the
old flag again. The people had been notified the previous Sunday, and
I should think about a thousand were present, in gala dress and mood,
from all parts of the island. When the ladies, the invited
superintendents from Port Royal, and the General (Saxton)[48] had
taken their seats, the people marched up in two processions from each
direction, carrying green branches and singing. Under the flag they
gave three rousing cheers, then grouped around the stage. The children
from three or four of the schools marched in separately. After a
prayer and