different points; and when they have them all complete, showers of shot
will rain on us all at once. Non-combatants have been ordered to leave
or prepare accordingly. Those who are to stay are having caves built.
Cave-digging has become a regular business; prices range from twenty to
fifty dollars, according to size of cave. Two diggers worked at ours a
week and charged thirty dollars. It is well made in the hill that slopes
just in the rear of the house, and well propped with thick posts, as
they all are. It has a shelf also, for holding a light or water. When we
went in this evening and sat down, the earthy, suffocating feeling, as
of a living tomb, was dreadful to me. I fear I shall risk death outside
rather than melt in that dark furnace. The hills are so honeycombed with
caves that the streets look like avenues in a cemetery. The hill called
the Sky-parlor has become quite a fashionable resort for the few
upper-circle families left here. Some officers are quartered there, and
there is a band and a field-glass. Last evening we also climbed the hill
to watch the shelling, but found the view not so good as on a quiet hill
nearer home. Soon a lady began to talk to one of the officers: "It is
such folly for them to waste their ammunition like that. How can they
ever take a town that has such advantages for defense and protection as
this? We'll just burrow into these hills and let them batter away as
hard as they please."

"You are right, madam; and besides, when our women are so willing to
brave death and endure discomfort, how can we ever be conquered?"

Soon she looked over with significant glances to where we stood, and
began to talk at H.

"The only drawback," she said, "are the contemptible men who are staying
at home in comfort, when they ought to be in the army if they had a