Hugh was to be the General's best man, and the boys were to be the ushers. The only difficulty was that their patched clothes made them feel a little abashed at the prominent roles they were to assume. However, their mother made them each a nice jacket from a striped dress, one of her only two dresses, and she adorned them with the military brass buttons their father had had taken from his coat; so they felt very proud. Their father, of course, was to give the bride away,--an office he accepted with pleasure, he said, provided he did not have to move too far, which might be hazardous so long as he had to wear his spurs to keep the soles on his boots. * * * * * Thus, even amid the ruins, the boys found life joyous, and if they were without everything else, they had life, health, and hope. The old guns were broken, and they had to ride in the ox-cart; but they hoped to have others and to do better, some day. The "some day" came sooner than they expected. The morning before the wedding, word came that there were at the railroad station several boxes for their mother. The ox-cart was sent for them. When the boxes arrived, that evening, there was a letter from their friend in Delaware, congratulating Cousin Belle and apologizing for having sent "a few things" to her Southern friends. [Illustration: SOME OF THE SERVANTS CAME BACK TO THEIR OLD HOME.] The "few things" consisted not only of necessaries, but of everything which good taste could suggest. There was a complete trousseau for Cousin Belle, and clothes for each member of the family. The boys had new suits of fine cloth with shirts and underclothes in plenty. But the best surprise of all was found when they came to the bottom of the biggest box, and found two long, narrow cases, marked, "For the Oakland boys." These cases held beautiful, new double-barrelled guns of the finest make. There was a large supply of ammunition, and in each case there was a letter from Dupont promising to come and spend his vacation with them, and sending his love and good wishes and thanks to his friends--the "Two Little Confederates." THE END. * * * * * Transcriber's Notes Original spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, and punctuation have been retained except for the following changes: Page 20: oe in Coeur was originally a ligature (C[oe]ur de Lion.) Page 20: hen-roots changed to hen-roosts (hen-roots were robbed). Page 86: litttle changed to little (looked a litttle rustier). Page 107: throughly changed to thoroughly (throughly enjoyed their holiday;). Page 121: oe in manoeuvres was originally a ligature (their man[oe]uvres for some time.).