This, then, is the only return you have to make for all the favors I have showered upon you!  I had expected great things of you, George, for you have the abilities that would have raised you to a high position in the South; and it seems hard that my fond hopes should be dashed to the ground, by one fell blow, given, too, by your own hand.  But I know my duty; and now, sir, I have done with you.  I cast you off forever.  You will never enter my house again; and not a cent of my property shall ever be possessed by you—­no, not even if you were starving.  I have instructed my family to forget that such a person as George Le Dell ever existed.  Take part with our oppressors, if you choose, but be assured that the justly-merited consequences of your folly will be visited upon you.

    In conclusion, I have to say, that if any more letters are
    received from you, they shall be returned unopened.

    EDWARD LE DELL.

“Now you can see exactly how I am situated,” said George, taking the letter from Frank’s hand, and putting it with the others carefully away in his pocket.  “Do you wonder, then, that I am sorrowful, cut off as I am from all my relatives, with strict orders never to cross the threshold of my father’s house again, not even if I am dying for want of food?  You have, doubtless, heard of the malignity displayed by the rebel leaders toward any Southerner who dares to differ with them in opinion, and have looked upon them as idle stories, gotten up for effect; but I know, by the most bitter experience, that it is a reality.  Does it seem possible that a person can be so blind, and act with such cruelty toward a son?

“When the war was fairly begun,” he continued, “I kept the vow I had made—­that as long as the old flag needed defenders, I should be found among them, by enlisting as fourth master, in what was then called the ‘Gun-boat Flotilla,’ about to commence operations on the Western waters.  I participated in the battle of Island No. 10; was at the taking of Memphis, and at St. Charles; when the ‘Mound City’ was blown up, I barely escaped being scalded to death.  I was on the ‘Essex,’ when she ran the batteries at Vicksburg, and during the subsequent fight, which resulted in the defeat of the ‘Arkansas’ ram.  About a month after that I was captured with a party of men, while on shore on a foraging expedition.  I fought as long as I could, for I knew that death would be preferable to the treatment I should receive; but I was overpowered, and finally surrendered to save the lives of my men.  The rebels, of course, immediately commenced crowding about us, and the very first officer I saw was my brother Henry, who had risen to the position of adjutant, in father’s regiment.  He instantly recognized me, and, after giving strict orders that I should be closely confined, rode off.  I had many acquaintances in the regiment.  Some of them had been my classmates at college; and the story of my treason, as