Daisy in the Field

attend to the rest."

  I thanked him; for the tone of genuine, manly care andprotection, was in my ears for the first time in many a day.Mamma was very willing to avail herself of it too, and to mygreat pleasure received Dr. Sandford and treated him withperfect courtesy. Rooms were provided for us in one of thebest hotels, and comforts ready. The doctor saw us establishedthere, and asked what more he could do for us before he leftus to rest. He would not stay to dinner.

  "The papers, please," said mamma. "Will you send me all thepapers. What is the news? We have heard nothing for weeks."

  "I will send you the papers. You will see the news there,"said the doctor.

  "But what is it?"

  "You would not rest if I began upon the subject. It would takea good while to tell it all."

  "But what is the position of affairs?"

  "Sherman is in Georgia. Grant is in Virginia. There has been,and there is, some stout fighting on hand."

  "Sherman and Grant," said mamma. "Where are my people,doctor?"

  "Opposed to them. They do not find the way exactly open," thedoctor answered.

  "Hard fighting, you said. How did it result?"

  "Nothing is decided yet - except that the Yankees can fight,"said the doctor, with a slight smile. And mamma said no more.But I took courage, and she took gloom. The papers came, abundle of them, reaching back over several dates; givingdetails of the battles of the Wilderness and of Sherman'soperations in the South. Mamma studied and studied, andinterrupted her dinner, to study. I took the sheets as theyfell from her hand and looked - for the lists of the wounded.They were long enough, but they did not hold what I waslooking for. Mamma broke out at last with an earnestexpression of thanksgiving that Sedgwick was killed.

  "Why, mamma?" I said in some horror.

  "There is one less!" she answered grimly.

  "But _one_ less makes very little difference for the cause,mamma."

  "I wish there were a dozen then," said she. "I wish all wereshot, that have the faculty of leading this rabble of numbersand making them worth something."

  But I was getting, I, to have a little pride in Northernblood. I said nothing, of course.

  "You are just a traitor, Daisy, I believe," said mamma. "Youread of all that is going on, and you know that Ransom andPreston Gary are in it, and you do not care; except you careon the wrong side. But I tell you this, - nothing that callsitself Yankee shall ever have anything to do with me or mineso long as I live. I will see you dead first, Daisy."

  There was no answer to be made to this either. It only sankdown into my heart; and I knew I had no help in this world.

  The question immediately pressed itself upon our attention,where would we go? Dr. Sandford proposed Melbourne; and urgedthat in the first place we should avail ourselves of thehospitalities of his sister's house in that neighbourhood,most generously tendered us, till he could be at leisure tomake arrangements at our old home. Just now he was under thenecessity of returning immediately to Washington, where he hadone or more hospitals in charge; indeed he left us that samenight of our landing; but before he went he earnestly pressedhis sister's invitation upon my mother, and promised that sosoon as the settlement of the country's difficulties shouldset him free, he would devote himself to the care of us andMelbourne till we were satisfactorily established.

  "And I am in hopes it will not be very long now," he saidaside to me. "I think the country has got the right man atlast; and that is what we have been waiting for. Grant says hewill fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer; and Ithink the end is coming."

  Mamma would give no positive answer to the doctor's instances;she thanked him and talked round the subject, and he wasobliged to go away without any contentment of her giving.Alone with me, she spoke out: -

  "I will take no Yankee civilities, Daisy. I will be under noobligation to one of them. And I could not endure to be in thehouse of one of them, if it were conferring instead ofreceiving obligation."

  "What will you do, then, mamma."

  "I will wait. You do not suppose that the South can beconquered, Daisy? The idea is absurd!"

  "But, mamma? -"

  "Well?"

  "Why is it absurd?"

  "Because they are not a people to give up. Don't you knowthat? They would die first, every man and woman of them."

  "But mamma, whatever the spirit of the people may be, numbersand means have to tell upon the question at last."

  "Numbers and means!" mamma repeated scornfully. "I tell you,Daisy, the South _cannot_ yield. And as they cannot yield, theymust sooner or later succeed. Success always comes at last tothose who cannot be conquered."

  "What is to become of us in the mean time, mamma?"

  "I don't see that it signifies much," she said, relapsing outof the fire with which the former sentences had beenpronounced. "I would like to live to see the triumph come."

  That was all I could get from mamma that evening. She lay downon a sofa and buried her face in pillows. I sat in thedarkening room and mused. The windows were open; a soft warmair blew the curtains gently in and out; from the street belowcame the murmur of business and voices and clatter of feet andsound of wheels; not with the earnestness of alarm or thedroop of depression, but ringing, sharp, clear, cheery. Thecity did not feel badly. New York had not suffered in itsfortunes or prosperity. There was many a battlefield at theSouth where the ravages of war had swept all traces and hopesof good fortunes away; never one at the North where the cornhad been blasted, or the fruits of the earth untimely ravaged,or the heart of the husbandman disappointed in his ground.Mamma's conclusions seemed to me without premise. What of myown fortunes? I thought the wind of the desert, had blown uponthem and they were dead. I remember, in the trembling of myheart as I sat and listened and mused, and thoughts trooped inand out of my head with little order or volition on my part,one word was a sort of rallying point on which they gatheredand fell back from time to time, though they started out againon fresh roamings - "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-placein all generations"! - I remember, - it seems to me now as ifit had been some time before I was born, - how the muslincurtains floated in on the evening wind, and the hum and stirof the street came up to my ear; the bustle and activity,though it was evening; and how the distant battlefields ofVirginia looked in forlorn contrast in the far distance. Yetthis was really the desert and that the populous place; forthere, somewhere, my world was. I grew very desolate as Ithought, or mused, by the window. If it had not been for thosewords of the refuge, my heart would have failed me utterly.After a long while mamma roused up and we had tea brought.

  "Has Dr. Sandford gone?" she asked.

  "He bid us good bye, mamma, you know. I suppose he took theevening train, as he said."

  "Then we shall have no more meddling."

  "He means us only kindness, I am sure, mamma."

  "I do not like kindness. I do not know what right Dr. Sandfordhas to offer me kindness. I gave him none."

  "Mamma, it seems to me that we are in a condition to receivekindness, - and be very glad of it."

  "You are poor-spirited, Daisy; you always were. You never hadany right pride of blood or of place. I think it makes nodifference to you who people are. If you had done your duty tome, we should have been in no condition now to 'receivekindness,' as you express it. I may thank you."

  "What do you mean to do, mamma?"

  "Nothing."

  "Stay here, in this hotel?"

  "Yes."

  "It will be very expensive, mamma."

  "I will meet the expense."

  "But, mamma, - without funds?"

  "I have a diamond necklace yet, Daisy."

  "But, mamma, when that is gone? -"

  "Do you think," she broke out with violence, "that this war isgoing to last for ever? It _cannot_ last. The Yankees will findout what they have undertaken. Lee will drive them back. Youdo not suppose _he_ can be overcome?"

  "Mamma - if the others have more men and more means -"

  "They are onl
y Yankees," - mamma said quietly, but with aconcentration of scorn impossible to give in words.

  "They know how to fight," - I could not help saying.

  "Yes, but _we_ do not know how to be overcome! Do you think it,Daisy?"

  "Mamma - there was New Orleans - and Vicksburg - andGettysburg; - and now in Virginia -"

  "Yes, now; these battles; you will see how they will turn. Doyou suppose this Yankee Grant is a match for Robert E. Lee?"

  It was best to drop the discussion, and I dropped it; but ithad gone too far to be forgotten. Every bit of news from thattime was a point of irritation; if good for the