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and another to a different one; while anxious relatives were hunting everywhere, advertising for names and sometimes passing many days in searching for their missing sons or brothers. These scenes are too harrowing to dwell upon; the case of those two young Millers is only one of the mildest and least painful of the scores one heard of.

The general opinion seemed to be that a temporary cessation of hostilities would take place, as it always had done after the severest battles. The great "On to Richmond" had received one more check, and if ever an opportunity would present itself of being able to get away, it might be now, when the prisoners would no doubt be exchanged, and flags of truce again granted for a time. I became more and more alarmed and impatient; the remembrance of the last summer's delays, and their consequences weighed heavily on my mind, and once more I wrote to the Governor to have our business settled, and my route decided upon.

CHAPTER XVII.

The Cotton-field in Bloom-An instance of Negro AmbitionFinal Arrangements-General Beauregard's Furlough..

THE Conscription Act had at last been passed, for the purpose of enrolling all between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. This step was deemed necessary, that the Conscripts might embrace the great number of "Northern men with Southern sympathies," who persisted in remaining in the South for the purposes of trade, but who seldom volunteered; and also many foreigners, who had taken the oath of allegiance, but abstained from joining the Confederate army; which was composed almost entirely of landholders and slaveholders.

The "thrilling" (as Americans call them) contents of the newspapers kept one's sympathies on a perpetual rack.

The well-known "Appeal" of the daughters of New Orleans to their countrymen was published, which incited the Southerners, and especially the

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Louisianians, to a savage fury against the tyrant Butler, whose very name sufficed to stimulate them on the battle-field. I was assured that "Butler, boys! Butler!" was used as a command to advance.

Once more the Governor re-appeared at home. We had already taken leave of each other, and Jenny had gone to Tallahassee and returned again. She and I had parted to meet no more, but in the delays of the times had, nevertheless, met once again.

Our school had been dispersed nearly a month, but that made no difference in my stay, as far as the family were concerned; for their efforts to study my comforts were, if possible, rather increased than diminished towards me as a visitor.

I had enjoyed leisure to rest, and to stroll about with little Fanny, collecting and exploring; and we had been to see some of the beautiful springs and caves with which Florida abounds.

There was one part of the plantation where a very short walk through the woods brought us to a large cotton-field, belonging to the adjoining estate. It was extremely interesting to watch the progress of the all-important plant, in its different stages of bud, blossom, and boll; not unmixed with anxiety, for fear the pods should not ripen, and burst in time for me to gather some of them.

There was very frequently a gang of negroes, some twenty or thirty, at work in this field; for the cotton requires a vast deal of weeding, and hoeing; but I never saw a white man with them, nor do I think the

owner kept an overseer; and they afforded me one proof that the negro is not altogether devoid of ambition, and this even in Florida, where the race is not seen to the best advantage.

My first acquaintance with these people was as follows. Walking one day in a road that ran along the edge of another part of the field, I beheld a large herd of cattle approaching in no very tractable mood. These creatures, semi-wild with their woodland life, are not always safe to meet vis-à-vis in that manner; besides which they were creating a suffocating cloud of dust; there was no alternative but to mount a "snake-fence," ten feet high, with a view to escape into the cotton-field, just then rendered doubly attractive by the splendid masses of asclepias, (tuberosa) phloxes, and commelyna, &c., in bloom.

Having achieved the feat of reaching the very top rail, with one foot just ready to begin the descent, my ears were assailed by a furious barking, and behold a large rough dog stood guard over the cotton-field, flowers and all. Of the two, this last foe was the most to be feared; the cattle were not likely to leap upon the fence; but the dog might; and I must own to considerable cowardice on that occassion; but pretending to look defiantly at the noisy brute, I called aloud to the negroes, who were so far off, that I almost despaired of my voice reaching their ears. The barking of the dog caused them to look towards us, and by dint of beckoning and screaming, two of them were induced to approach, who comforted me with the

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assurance that "he warn't a goin' to trouble yer,” which had already dawned upon me, or he would not have waited so patiently while I was perched up there in terror.

Of course the negroes, an uncle and an aunt, were curious to know where I lived, and what I was doing "all that way from home," a short half mile; as they can never understand a person moving for mere pleasure. They were hoeing up the beautiful phloxes most mercilessly, and I pointed to some other flowers not yet in bloom in a corner of the fence, begging the negroes to allow them to remain there until I came again, and then made my way to Sylvania, by the shorter cut across the field.

I suppose that man must have been the "boss," as they call any one placed over them. Whether by appointment or choice, he appeared to take the lead, and it was very amusing to hear the arguments carried on between him and his fellow-labourers, who always resent any usurped authority of "coloured folk."

These people, whom I used to come upon quite suddenly, on emerging from our little path in the woods upon the cotton-field, evinced the same fearless freedom of manner towards "white folk" that was so remarkable in Virginia. Whether I noticed them or not, a salutation was not long in greeting me.

"You be allers a hunting weeds, arn't you, missus? What's the use an' them?" On seeing me examine the cotton plants, and no doubt investing me with