She made him promise to keep warm if it were
possible, to read his Bible when he had the time, and to think of her at
all hours in every season. In a neat little package there came one day a
gray knitted waistcoat which he was to wear when on picket duty beside the
river, "and be very sure to fasten it," she had written. "I have sewed the
buttons on so tight they can't come off. Oh, if I had only papa and
Virginia and you back again I could be happy in a hovel. Dear mamma says
so, too."
And after much calm advice there would come whole pages that warmed him
from head to foot. "Your kisses are still on my lips," she wrote one day.
"The Major said to me, 'Your mouth is very warm, my dear,' and I almost
answered, 'you feel Dan's kisses, sir.' What would he have said, do you
think? As it was I only smiled and turned away, and longed to run straight
to you to be caught up in your arms and held there forever. O my beloved,
when you need me only stretch out your hands and I will come."
VII
THE SILENT BATTLE
Despite the cheerfulness of Betty's letters, there were times during the
next dark years when it seemed to her that starvation must be the only end.
The negroes had been freed by the Governor's will, but the girl could not
turn them from their homes, and, with the exception of the few field hands
who had followed the Union army, they still lived in their little cabins
and drew their daily rations from the storehouse.
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