ly,
and preferred doing as I pleased. If she had been officious, I would
have been embarrassed. So we walked in the moonlight, Ginnie and I,
while the rest sat in the shade, and all discussed the fun of the
evening, those who had been most alarmed laughing loudest. The old
gentleman insisted that we girls had been the cause of it all; that our
white bodies (I wore a Russian shirt) and black skirts could easily
have caused us to be mistaken for men. That, at all events, three or
four people on horseback would be a sufficient pretext for firing a
shell or two. "In short, young ladies," he said, "there is no doubt in
my mind that you were mistaken for guerrillas, and that they only
wanted to give you time to reach the woods where they heard they have a
camp, before shooting at you. In short, take my advice and never mount
a horse again when there is a Yankee in sight." We were highly
gratified at being mistaken for them, and pretended to believe it was
true. I hardly think he was right, though; it is too preposterous.

_Pourtant_, Sunday morning the Yankees told a negro they did not mean
to touch the house, but were shooting at some guerrillas at a camp just
beyond. We know the last guerrilla left the parish five days ago.

Our host insisted on giving us supper, though Phillie represented that
ours was on the road; and by eleven o'clock, tired alike of moonlight
and fasting, we gladly accepted, and rapidly made the preserves and
batter-cakes fly. Ours was a garret room, well finished, abounding in
odd closets and corners, with curious dormer windows that were reached
by long little corridors. I should have slept well; but I lay awake all
night. Mother and I occupied a narrow single bed, with a bar of the
thickest, heaviest material imaginable. Suffocation awaited me inside,
gnats and mosquitoes outside. In order to be strictly impartial, I lay
awake to divide my time equally between the two attractions, and think
I succeeded pretty well. So I spent the night on the extreme edge of
the bed, never turning over, but fanning mother constantly. I was not
sorry when daybreak appeared, but dressed and ascended the observatory
to get a breath of air.

Below me, I beheld four wagons loaded with the young Mrs. Lobdell's
baggage. The Yankees had visited them in the evening, swept off
everything they could lay their hands on, and with a sick child she was
obliged to leave her house in the night and fly to her father-in-law. I
wonde