"Yes, sah, reckon I does. I Street, sah. Jump right in, sah."

Virginia sank back on the stuffy cushions of the rattle-trap, and then
sat upright again and stared out of the window at the dismal scene. They
were splashing through a sea of mud. Ever since they had left St. Louis,
Captain Lige had done his best to cheer her, and he did not intend to
desist now.

"This beats all," he cried. "So this is Washington, Why, it don't
compare to St. Louis, except we haven't got the White House and the
Capitol. Jinny, it would take a scow to get across the street, and we
don't have ramshackly stores and nigger cabins bang up against fine
Houses like that. This is ragged. That's what it is, ragged. We don't
have any dirty pickaninnies dodging among the horses in our residence
streets. I declare, Jinny, if those aren't pigs!"

Virginia laughed. She could not help it.

"Poor Lige!" she said. "I hope Uncle Daniel has some breakfast for you.
You've had a good deal to put up with on this trip."

"Lordy, Jinny," said the Captain, "I'd put up with a good deal more than
this for the sake of going anywhere with you."

"Even to such a doleful place as this?" she sighed.

"This is all right, if the sun'll only come out and dry things up and
let us see the green on those trees," he said, "Lordy, how I do love to
see the spring green in the sunlight!"

She put out her hand over his.

"Lige," she said, "you know you're just trying to keep up my spirits.
You've been doing that ever since we left home."

"No such thing," he replied with vehemence. "There's nothing for you to
be cast down about."

"Oh, but there is!" she cried. "Suppose I can't make your Black
Republican President pardon Clarence!"

"Pooh!" said the Captain, squeezing her hand and trying to appear
unconcerned. "Your Uncle Daniel knows Mr. Lincoln. He'll have that
arranged."

Just then the rattletrap pulled up at the sidewalk, the wheels of the
near side in four inches of mud, and the Captain leaped out and spread
the umbrella. They were in front of a rather imposing house of brick,
flanked on one side by a house just like it, and on the other by a
series of dreary vacant lots where the rain had collected in pools. They
climbed the steps and rang the bell. In due time the door was opened by
a smiling yellow butler in black.

"Does General Carvel live here?"

"Yas, miss, But he ain't to home now. Done gone to New York."

"Oh," faltered Virginia. "Didn't he get