Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-12-31

about. and everybody went TO every one of
them rligionsly- The Christmas dinner WAS
carly. to leave time TO arrange everything for
the dance at night All the ladies anG little
gIrie wore wreaths of holly and mistletoe and
we danced TO the best Music in the world the
darkey h'ldieTs to be foaad o. every plantation
In those DAYS. How they would beat time With
their feet. and when the tune was Come out
the Wilderness how they would shout the
chorus 20 help along and what lot of drains
tnev could stand withou; winking.
There are no dances like i. now. How CAV
The girls we're and how pretty. How well all
the men looked in uniform and how they
danced and made love, Trust a soldier for
that. The very shortness OF the furiuagh
makes them make all the hay they can when in
the sunshine OF eyes dearest-or nayhap near
est-to them
linen the music would pause and great trays
OF egg Zip would be handed round, with such
cake as We could make under difficulties
total absence Of sugar for iustance-and all
wouid Partake Of it with RELISH though it was
MADE OF our own homemade brandy distilled
from the persimmons which grew on the
opposite hill. with . dash of rum made from
sorghum molasses.
Then more dancing, till at last In the early
hours OF the new day the gay crowd left in the big
wagons that brought them. and we heard them
singing rs they drove down the hill, the voices
getting fainter and fainter.
NEW YEAR PARTY.
On New Years eve was allowed to 20 with
the grown folks to another party. the last for
these furlough boys Ii stormed SO furionsly
that most OF us had to stay all night and my
sell two days, as it WAS at a plantation some
miles from ours. l can never forget some
Things that occurred on that memorable even
ing, especially the little girl who told me. truly
fear. that danced like a lame cow" at
which remark vept; or the bad little boy who
wanted to tell each little girl something very
privately behind the big door and when he got
ner there kissed her and made her cry. II IL
strange, but each of us In turn was "taken in
and done for" by that very enterprising youth,
and every one of US cried.
How we all danced as the storm grew wilder
and the rain beat in torrents on the windows
Then the rest near daylight, when the ladies
lay down upstairs as best they could on the
beds on the floor with quilt any way for a few
minutes sleep. leaving the men the lower floor.
And then. after breakfast, the boys went
away through the fast falling snow, into which
the rain had changed. and the women and chill
dren stood on the porches and said good bye"
IN some cases for the last time. There were
no carpets in this house either, for the mother
had cut them up into blankets. one OF which
her boy carried away with him on his KNAPP
sack that morning, and many another boy"
felt their comfort in camp that winter.
Through the snow and bitter weather rode
home the next day. the roads were still too bad
for wheels. and through the snow and bitter
weather OF many succeeding sorrow l look
back upon that old life as dead, as SO many of
those merrymakers are now.
The bride was buried during the siege Of
petersburg, when the voice of the priest was
drowned by the roar of the cannon, and the hus-
band died OF fever on scorching Manassas.