The bright morning sunlight sometimes made the little girl forget to
be sorrowful, and when her "Ponto" came frisking around her, she
gladly joined him in a wild romp. Immediately Maum Winnie would
appear, the very picture of dignified astonishment,--"Now, Miss Nelly,
_ain't_ you 'shame'? Yer pore mar she bin had a mity onrestless night,
an' jes' as she 'bout to ketch a nap o' sleep, yere you bin start all
dis 'fusion. Now, her eye dun pop wide open, an' she gwine straight to
studyin' agin." The days passed, each made more gloomy by rumors of
the near approach of the enemy. At last, one dreadful night, a
regiment of Federal soldiers suddenly appeared, and at midnight Nelly
and her mamma were compelled to seek shelter in Maum Winnie's cabin.
The next morning only a heap of smoking ruins remained to show where
their sweet home had been.
The plantation owned by Nelly's papa was some three miles distant from
the family residence; therefore, only the few servants necessary for
household service lived upon the "home place." Their cabins, somewhat
removed from the house, had escaped the flames. Maum Winnie's was
larger and better furnished than any, and far more attractive in
appearance.
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