drollery in the scene, not even an ugliness, but was touched, was rife,
with the woe of a war whose burning walls were falling in on us. And
outward, too, upon others; a few up-ended cottonbales leaned against
each other ragged and idle, while women and babes starved for want of
them in far-away Lancaster.

One of the cars furthest from the engine had no freight proper, only a
number of trunks; and these were nearly hidden by the widely crinolined
flounces of an elegant elderly lady who sat on the middle one. And now
she, too, was hidden, and the wide doorway in the side of the car more
than filled, by the fashionable gowns of three girls. On the ground
below there stood a lieutenant in a homemade gray uniform, and at his
back half a dozen big, slouching, barefoot boys squirted tobacco juice
and gazed at the ladies. The officer scanned me, spoke to the ladies,
scanned me again, and threw up an arm. "Ho--o! Come here! Hullo! Come
here--if you please."

If he had not said please he should have ho'd and hullo'd in vain, but
at that word I turned. Before I had covered half the distance I read New
Orleans! my dear, dear old New Orleans! in every line of those ladies'
draperies, and at twenty-five yards I saw one noble family likeness in
all four of their sweet faces. Oh, but those three maidens were fair!
and I could name each by her name at a glance: Camille, Cecile, Estelle;
eighteen, nineteen, twenty!

There was a hush of attention among them as the lieutenant and I
saluted. His left hand was gone at the wrist and the sleeve pinned back
on itself. He asked my name; I told him. In the car there was a stir of
deepening interest. I inquired if he was the post-quartermaster here.
He was.