Lucy, dear, here is Elsie." "Yes, our own dear, darling Elsie, scarcely changed at all!" Lucy cried, springing up to greet her friend with a warm embrace.
A long talk followed, Mrs.Carrington and Sophie giving their experiences of the war and its results, to which the others listened with deep interest.
"Thank God it is over at last!" concluded the elder lady; "and oh, may He, in His great goodness and mercy, spare us a repetition of it.

Oh, the untold horrors of civil war--strife among brethren who should know nothing but love for each other--none can imagine but those who have passed through them! There was fault on both sides, as there always is when people quarrel.

And what has been gained?
Immense loss of property, and of far more precious lives, an exchange of ease and luxury for a hard struggle with poverty." "But it is over, dear mother, and the North will help the South to recuperate," said Lucy.

"Phil says so, and I've heard it from others too; just as soon as the struggle ended, people were saying, 'Now they have given up, the Union is safe, and we're sorry for them and will do all we can to help them; for they are our own people.'" "Yes, I have been most agreeably surprised at the kind feeling here," her mother answered; "nobody has had a hard word to say of us, so far as I have been able to learn; and I have seen nothing like exultation over a fallen foe; but on the contrary there seems a desire to lend us a helping hand and set us on our feet again." "Indeed, mother, I assure you that is so," said Sophie.
"And all through the war," added Lucy, "there was but little hard feeling towards the people of the South; 'deceived and betrayed by their leaders, they are more to be pitied than blamed,' was the opinion commonly expressed by those who stood by the government." "And papa says there will be no confiscation of property," Sophie said, "unless it may be merely that of the leaders; and that he will help us to restore Ashlands to what it was: so you will have your own home again, mother." "How generous! I can never repay the obligation," Mrs.Carrington said, in a choking voice.
"But you need not feel overburdened by it, dear mother.

It is for Herbert, you know, his own grand son." "And mine! Ah, this news fills me with joy and gratitude." "Yes, I feel papa's kindness very much," Sophie said, "and hope my son will never give him cause to regret it." Elsie rose.