_Feb. 19._ You will see by this copy of the _Free South_[108] the
outrages that have been committed by the troops who were landed at
Land's End, but it can give you but little idea of the outrages that
have been committed or the mischief done. Besides the actual loss to
the people,--and in many cases it has been their all,--the loss of
confidence in Yankees is an incalculable injury. The scenes some of
the superintendents have had to go through with are beyond
description. Sumner had a pistol put at his breast for trying to stop
the soldiers and protect the negroes, and Mr. Hammond, when he went
with General Saxton to tell Hunter of what had been done under his
very eyes on his own plantations, burst into tears. It is disgusting
that any Massachusetts regiment should be mixed up with such savage
treatment, and that the Twenty-Fourth should be is shameful in the
extreme.
_Feb. 20._ To-day all the people were on the Bay "drawing seine" when
I came out of morning school, and as that is a process I have wished
to see I ran down to the beach myself between whiles. Here was a droll
enough scene indeed. They had made one "drawing" and were just casting
the seine again as I walked along for half a mile towards the
drum-hole.[109] The shell-banks, which are exposed at low tide, were
fringed with small children with baskets and bags which they were
filling with oysters and conchs. Rose followed me as guide and
protector, jabbering away in her outlandish fashion to my great
entertainment, and was very much afraid that the oyster-shells, over
which she walked with impunity with bare feet, would cut up my heavy
leather boots. I could go out to the very edge of one of these curious
shell-banks, and the seine was drawn up almost at my feet. The net was
laid on a boat which was hauled out into the water by the men, who
were up to their waists, then dropped along its full length, which is
very great, and gradually hauled in shore again with two or three
bushels of fish in it, and any number of crabs, which the children
pick up very carefully and fling ashore. There were about thirty men,
and you would have thought from the noise and talking that it was a
great fire in the country, with no head to the engine companies and
every man giving orders. They were good-natured as possible, but
sometimes their gibberish sounds as if they were scolding. The boys,
with their pantaloons, or what answer for sich, rolled up to their
knees, were hauling at the rope or picking up the crabs and making
them catch hold of each other till they had a long string of them.
Another mode of proceeding with them--for a crab-bite is a pretty
serious thing--is to hold an oyster-shell out, which they grab, and
then with a quick shake the claw is broken off, and they are harmless.
A large bass having been taken in the haul I witnessed, it was laid at
my feet for my acceptance, and then, the girls following, most of the
boys staying to see the third drawing, I wended my way back to school.
_Feb. 21._ Such steady shop that C. could not get off very early and
sold a barrel of flour before he departed. Shop is a great nuisance,
but I don't know what the people would do without it and don't see how
it can be given up for a long time. They can't get things as cheap
anywhere else, but they cannot understand that it is of no advantage
to us. When I told them yesterday they must not hurry me, for I had to
put everything down so as to keep a correct account to send to the
Quartermaster and people who sent the things, they were quite
surprised, and when in explaining the state of the case to them I
remarked that I was not even paid for the trouble, Binah said she
would not take the trouble then; and they can't understand that any
one should.
Other comments on this laborious shop-keeping are: [Feb.
23]. What with sugar and dry goods upstairs, and flour,
pork, and salt down, it's busy, not to say nasty work. [Apr.
9.] Mr. P.'s molasses fell short about $5.00 on the barrel!
Yet you can't convince the people he is not making heaps of
money, and I, too, for the matter of that. [June 6.] A
stranger the other day asked me for a looking-glass that he
might see how his new hat looked, and then informed me that
I ought to keep lemonade for my friends! But such things are
rare, and so ludicrous that one doesn't mind.