A sequel to"ELSIE'S GIRLHOOD"
Complete Authorized Edition
Published by arrangement with
Dodd, Mead and Company
A Burt Book
BLUE RIBBON BOOKS, Inc.
New York
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
DODD & MEAD
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
COPYRIGHT, 1903,
BY MARTHA FINLEY
COPYRIGHT, 1917,
BY CHARLES B. FINLEY
The call for a sequel to "Elsie's Girlhood" having become too loud andimportunate to be resisted, the pleasant task of writing it wasundertaken.
Dates compelled the bringing in of the late war: and it has been theearnest desire and effort of the author to so treat the subject as towound the feelings of none; to be as impartial as if writing history; and,by drawing a true, though alas, but faint picture, of the great losses andsufferings on both sides, to make the very thought of a renewal of theawful strife utterly abhorrent to every lover of humanity, andespecially of this, our own dear native land.
Are we not one people: speaking the same language; worshipping the onetrue and living God; having a common history, a common ancestry; andunited by the tenderest ties of blood? And is not this great grand,glorious old Union—known and respected all over the world—our commoncountry, our joy and pride? O! let us forget all bitterness, and livehenceforth in love, harmony, and mutual helpfulness.
For all I know of the Teche country I am indebted to Mr. Edward King's"Old and New Louisiana"; for facts and dates in regard to the war, and inlarge measure for Mr. Dinsmore's views as to its causes, etc.,principally to Headley's "History of the Great Rebellion."
The description of Andersonville, and the life led by the prisoners there,was supplied by one who shared it for six months. An effort was made toobtain a sketch of a Northern prison also, but without success.
Yet what need to balance accounts in respect to these matters? Theunnatural strife is over, and we are again one united people.
M.F.