we mesmerized, that we obeyed her as promptly as if it had been the Colonel giving an order, or St. Peter inviting us into heaven.
Well, we were soon seated in her spacious dining-room, gloriously refreshed with some of the most delicious wine I ever smacked a lip over. Oh, mother, I can taste it yet! She then made us sit up to her breakfast table, and I found myself suddenly decidedly convalescent. Our appetites were soon with us, and it was precious little like a sick man—I came down to my work then and there.
To tell you the truth, mother, I was at a loss to decide with which I was most infatuated, the beautiful hostess, her delicious wine, or her superb breakfast. It would be a reflection upon all the good taste and sense among the educated gentlemen of Virginia, to suppose that any such woman can be single. That is clear out of the question, or, if it is not, it amounts to an awful commentary upon the real claims of Virginia gentlemen for worthiness. But let her be married or single, I want you, mother, to pray that over her path, through this vale of tears, happy stars may shine, and in it the fairest flowers may bloom, for she has been more than a "Good Samaritan" to your poor sick boy.
When we rose to leave she pressed Charley and me to remain a few days, until I should recover my health, and when we assured her that could not be, she loaded us down with wine and nicknacs, which were as great godsend to us on our weary march, as the manna which was rained on the children of Israel in the wilderness was to them. And now, mother, after all, I blush to tell you I do not know her name.
Her house is covered with Quaker-colored stucco, and stands on the corner of Grace and Sixth or Seventh Streets, and you must not be surprised, my dear mother, if I tell you that, in those dreams heaven sends to bless the soldier's pallet of straw, in which he flies
"To those fields traversed oft
In life's morning march when his bosom was young,"
that on my way through dreamland, back to "The home of my Fathers," I also revert to that palatial residence where I met such
