your thoughts. I wonder how long it will last."

"I don't suppose it will last much longer, mother," Vincent said
with a laugh. "Anyhow, it will make a jolly change for a week.
One had got so sick of hearing nothing talked about but secession
that a week without hearing the word mentioned will do one lots
of good, and I am sure I felt that if one had much more of it, one
would be almost driven to take up the Northern side just for the
sake of a change."

"We should all disown you, Vin," Annie said, laughing; "we should
have nothing to say to you, and you would be cut by all your
friends."

"Well, you see, a week's sailing and fishing will save me from all
that, Annie; and I be all be able to begin again with a fresh stock of
patience."

"I believe you are only half in earnest in the cause, Vincent," his
mother said gravely.

"I am not indeed, mother. I quite agree with what you and every
one say as to the rights of the State of Virginia, and if the North
should really try to force us and the other Southern States to
remain with them, I shall be just as ready to do everything I can as
any one else; but I can't see the good of always talking about it,
and I think it's very wrong to ill-treat and abuse those who think
the other way. In England in the Civil War the people of the towns
almost all thought one way, and almost all those of the counties
the other, and even now opinions differ almost as widely as to