To-day came a godsend. Even a small piece of bread and the
molasses had become things of the past. My larder was empty, when a tall
mulatto woman brought a tray covered by a huge white serviette. Ellen ushered
her in with a flourish, saying, “Mrs.
McDaniel's maid.” The maid set down the tray upon my bare table, and uncovered
it with conscious pride. There were fowls ready for roasting, sausages, butter,
bread, eggs, and preserves. I was dumb with delight. After silent thanks to
heaven my powers of speech returned, and I exhausted myself in messages of
gratitude to Mrs. McDaniel.
“Missis, you oughtn't to let her see how glad you was,” said
Ellen. “It was a lettin' of yo'sef down.”
Mrs. Glover gave me some yarn, and I bought five dozen eggs
with it from a wagon — eggs for Lent. To show that I have faith yet in
humanity, I paid in advance in yarn for something to eat, which they promised
to bring to-morrow. Had they rated their eggs at $100 a dozen in “Confederick”
money, I would have paid it as readily as $10. But I haggle in yarn for the
millionth part of a thread.
Two weeks have passed and the rumors from Columbia are still
of the vaguest. No letter has come from there, no direct message, or messenger.
“My God!” cried Dr. Frank Miles, “but it is strange. Can it be anything so dreadful
they dare not tell us?” Dr. St. Julien Ravenel has grown pale and haggard with
care. His wife and children were left there.
Dr. Brumby has at last been coaxed into selling me enough
leather for the making of a pair of shoes, else I should have had to give up
walking. He knew my father well. He intimated that in some way my father helped
him through college. His own money had not sufficed, and so William C. Preston
and my father advanced funds sufficient to let him be graduated. Then my uncle,
Charles Miller, married his aunt. I listened in rapture, for all this tended to
leniency in the leather business, and I bore off the leather gladly. When asked
for Confederate money in trade I never stop to bargain. I give them $20 or $50
cheerfully for anything — either sum.
SOURCES: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 361-2
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