rds to say.

This, then, is the only return you have to make for all the favors
I have showered upon you! I had expected great things of you,
George, for you have the abilities that would have raised you to a
high position in the South; and it seems hard that my fond hopes
should be dashed to the ground, by one fell blow, given, too, by
your own hand. But I know my duty; and now, sir, I have done with
you. I cast you off forever. You will never enter my house again;
and not a cent of my property shall ever be possessed by you--no,
not even if you were starving. I have instructed my family to
forget that such a person as George Le Dell ever existed. Take
part with our oppressors, if you choose, but be assured that the
justly-merited consequences of your folly will be visited upon
you.

In conclusion, I have to say, that if any more letters are
received from you, they shall be returned unopened.

EDWARD LE DELL.

"Now you can see exactly how I am situated," said George, taking the
letter from Frank's hand, and putting it with the others carefully
away in his pocket. "Do you wonder, then, that I am sorrowful, cut off
as I am from all my relatives, with strict orders never to cross the
threshold of my father's house again, not even if I am dying for want
of food? You have, doubtless, heard of the malignity displayed by the
rebel leaders toward any Southerner who dares to differ with them
in opinion, and have looked upon them as idle stories, gotten up
for effect; but I know, by the most bitter experience, that it is a
reality. Does it seem possible that a person can be so blind, and act
with such cruelty toward a son?

"When the war was fairly begun," he continued, "I kept the vow I had
made--that as long as the old flag needed defenders, I should be found
among them, by enlisting as fourth master, in what was then called
the 'Gun-boat Flotilla,' about to commence operations on the Western
waters. I participated in the battle of Island No. 10; was at the
taking of Memphis, and at St. Charles; when the 'Mound City' was blown
up, I barely escaped being scalded to death. I was on the 'Essex,'
when she ran the batteries at Vicksburg, and during the subsequent
fight, which resulted in the defeat of the 'Arkansas' ram. About a
month after that I was captured with a party of men, while on shore
on a foraging expedition. I fought as long as I could, for I knew th