he "Lost Cause" a
husband or a son, and in some cases both. Two gallant sons of the
Habershams, mere boys, had died upon the same battlefield, and when I
saw Mr. Habersham for the first time after the war he was so overcome
with grief that he was obliged to leave the room. Talented to an unusual
degree and possessing much fortitude, his wife fought bravely for the
sake of her dear ones still spared her, but every now and then her
sorrow asserted itself anew and seemed more than her bleeding soul could
bear. She was especially gifted with her pen, and about ten years after
the war, while her heart was still wrung with grief, she wrote the
following pathetic lines:--

Up above, the Pines make sweet music; sad, plaintive, for
must there not be a tone of "infinite sadness" in all the
places of Earth's finite gladness? From a spray of jessamine
I hear the chirp of a little bird--a young beginner; it
tries over and over again "its one plain passage of few
notes"--the prelude to the full-voice anthem which summer
will harmonize. Ah! what shades and sunlight! what coloring!
Green in the grass and trees, blue in the violets and sky,
gray in the moss, yellow in the jessamines, falling around
in a perfect Danaean shower of burnished gold! My truant
fancy sees all this--and more! A dear hand that held mine, a
"pure hand," a boy's hand, that ere many summers had spread
out their gorgeous pageantry had drawn the sword for that
dear summer-land of the jessamine and pine--had drawn the
sword and dropped it; dropped it from the earnest, vigorous
clasp of glorious young manhood to lie still and calm,
life's duty nobly done; ah, a short young life but ... and
then the other young soldier! for is not my sorrow a twin
sorrow? Can they be dissevered? In death they were not
divided. My eyes grow dim. Wipe away the mist, poor mother!
to see the dear faces of sons and daughters gracing the
board. Let the blue of the violets breathe to thee rather of
endless skies and an eternal Heaven, where earth's finite
sadness is beautified into infinite gladness.

We finally reached Tallahassee, where we found the most cordial welcome
awaiting us. Mrs. Winthrop lived in the very heart of the city but our
surroundings were much more beautiful than I can describe, for the
orange trees and hyacinths and jessamine in full bloom and other w