cannon at Vicksburg. This is a great distance, I think, to have heard
it--over a hundred miles.

H. and Max have bought a large yawl and are busy on the lake-bank
repairing it and fitting it with lockers. Aunt Judy's master has been
notified when to send for her; a home for the cat Jeff has been engaged;
Price is dead, and Sancho sold. Nearly all the furniture is disposed of,
except things valued from association, which will be packed in H.'s
office and left with some one likely to stay through the war. It is
hardest to leave the books.

_Tuesday, July 8._--We start to-morrow. Packing the trunks was a
problem. Annie and I are allowed one large trunk apiece, the gentlemen a
smaller one each, and we a light carpet-sack apiece for toilet articles.
I arrived with six trunks and leave with one! We went over everything
carefully twice, rejecting, trying to off the bonds of custom and get
down to primitive needs. At last we made a judicious selection.
Everything old or worn was left; everything merely ornamental, except
good lace, which was light. Gossamer evening dresses were all left. I
calculated on taking two or three books that would bear the most reading
if we were again shut up where none could be had, and so, of course,
took Shakspere first. Here I was interrupted to go and pay a farewell
visit, and when we returned Max had packed and nailed the cases of books
to be left. Chance thus limited my choice to those that happened to be
in my room--"Paradise Lost," the "Arabian Nights," a volume of
Macaulay's History I was reading, and my prayer-book. To-day the
provisions for the trip were cooked: the last of the flour was made into
large loaves of bread; a ham and several dozen eggs were boiled; the few
chickens that have survived the overflow were fried; the last of the
coffee was parched and ground; and the modicum of the tea was well