Major Waldron went to Virginia, there was a quiet wedding in the parlor
one night; and not many days afterwards the young Confederate soldier
donned his gray coat, and rode away with Forrest's Cavalry.

"And ere long a messenger came,
Bringing the sad, sad story--
A riderless horse: a funeral march:
Dead on the field of glory!"

After his death her baby came to gladden the young widow's desolate
life; and he is now almost grown, handsome and noble, and the idol of
his mother.

Diddie is a widow still. She was young and pretty when the war ended,
and has had many offers of marriage; but a vision of a cold white face,
with its fair hair dabbled in blood, is ever in her heart. So Diddie
lives for her boy. Their home is in Natchez now; for of course they
could never live in the old place any more. When the slaves were free,
they had no money to rebuild the houses, and the plantation has never
been worked since the war.

The land is just lying there useless, worthless; and the squirrels play
in and out among the trees, and the mocking-birds sing in the
honeysuckles and magnolias and rose-bushes where the front yard used to
be.

And at the quarters, where the happy slave-voices used to sing "Monkey
Motions," and the merry feet used to dance to "Cotton-eyed Joe," weeds
and thick underbrush have all grown up, and partridges build their nests
there; and sometimes, at dusk, a wild-cat or a fox may be seen stealing