trained his horses to leap a five-barred gate. He could pick a handkerchief from the ground while his horse was upon a run. He was dashing, brave, and gallant, and a great favorite with the Southern ladies, who called him the bold cavalier.

After the battle, my friend and I visited the farmhouse. Our appetites were keen, and we wanted dinner.

I found the owner at the door.

"Can I obtain dinner for myself, and oats for my horse?" was the question.

"Yes, sir, I reckon. That is, if my wife is willing. She don't like Yankees very well. Besides, the soldiers have stolen all our poultry, with the exception of one turkey, which she is going to have for dinner."

Roast turkey in old Virginia, after weeks of hard-tack and pork, was a dinner worth having.

"Please tell your wife that, although I am a Yankee, I expect to pay for my dinner."

A conference was had in-doors, resulting in an affirmative answer to my request.

A friend was with me.

The cloth was laid, and a little colored girl and boy brought in from time to time the things for the table. At last, there came the turkey, done to a nice brown, steaming hot from the oven, filling the room with a flavor refreshing to a hungry man, after the events of the morning. The hostess made her appearance, entering like a queen in stateliness and dignity. She was tall, and in the prime of womanhood. Her eyes were jet. They shone upon us like electric flashes. Her greeting was a defiance. Seated at the table, she opened the conversation.

"I should like to know what you are down here for, stealing our chickens and niggers?"

It was the first gun of the battle, -a rifle shot. Without any skirmishing, she had opened battery.

"Your Union soldiers, your thieves and ragamuffins, have stolen all my chickens and turkeys, and I had to kill this one to save it. And

you have run off my niggers. I should have lost this turkey if I had not aimed a pistol at the soldier who was about to take it. I threatened to shoot him, and the coward sneaked off."

"Our generals do not permit depredations upon private citizens, when they can help it, but there are thieves in all armies," was the reply.

“O, yes; it is very well for you to apologize! But you are all thieves. General Geary's men, when they were here, stole all they could lay their hands on, and so did Blenker's, and so do McClellan's. You want to steal our niggers. We never should have had this war if you had minded your own business, and let our niggers alone."

“I am not aware that we stole your negroes before the war, but, on the contrary, our free citizens of the North were kidnapped, and sold into slavery. South Carolina began the war by firing on the flag. It was the duty of President Lincoln to defend it."

"Lincoln old Lincoln! He's an ape.

could have the chance!"

I would shoot him if I

up for the papers. You You would go down to

"That would be a tragedy worth writing would immortalize your name by the act. history. The illustrated papers would have sketches of the thrilling scene," said my friend with provoking good humor.

"Yes, you would do just as you have done for twenty years, — get up lying pictures and stories about the South. You are a pack of liars. You think you are going to crush us, but you won't. Never, never! We will fight till the last man, woman, and child are dead before we will surrender!"

She was at a white heat of passion, pale and trembling with rage, the tears for a moment hiding the lightning flashes of her eyes.

"My dear madam, we may as well understand each other first as last. The people of the North have made up their minds to crush this rebellion. They have counted the cost, and the war will go on till every man, woman, and child in the South are exterminated, unless they yield. We are several millions more than you, and we shall conquer you."

It was a sudden outburst of passion and defiance; a sudden explosion, like the howl of a bulldog. All of her energy, hate, and bitterness was thrown into the word. Her lip quivered; her cheek put on a sudden whiteness. I was prepared to see the carving-knife hurled across the table, or a dish of gravy dashed in my face. She could utter only the one word - Never! After the whirlwind, there was a shower of tears. Then she regained her composure.

"You out-number us, but you can't subdue us. Never! never! We are a superior people. We belong to a high-born race. You are a set of mean, sneaking Yankees."

My brother-correspondent informed the lady that he had lived in the South; had travelled from Maryland to Savannah, Mobile and New Orleans many times, and was well acquainted with Southern society in all its aspects; and that the people of the South could lay no claim to superiority, unless it was in following the example of the patriarchs sustaining the system of concubinage, and selling their own children into slavery.

true.

A blush overspread her features. She knew that the assertion was But notwithstanding this home-thrust, she continued: "We are not half so bad as you represent us to be. You Yankees, from Massachusetts and Vermont, who go down South, do nothing but lie about us."

I am

"I am not from Massachusetts, madam," said my friend. a Pennsylvania Dutchman. I was born in Lancaster, and am well acquainted with your friend James Buchanan."

"You Pennsylvanians are the meanest of all Yankees. You are an ignorant set. You live on cabbage and sour-krout. You are a mean, stupid set of thieves as ever lived. General Geary's men stole all my cabbages. I hope both of you will be captured and put in prison. I hope you will get shot. If you will stay here to-night, I will have both of you on your way to Richmond before morning. There is a brigade of Rebels up in the gap."