I told Mammy where I
was. She seemed to think it perfectly in the nature of things that I should
be there. Indeed, she appeared singularly calm in this cataclysm.
I encountered friends on my return to my quarters, and had invitations
innumerable to meals and shelter. My costume was no drawback. Nobody knew
how anybody was dressed.
The city was in a fever of excitement over the probable fate of those who
had not yet returned, and in making provision for the homeless. Mammy
turned up next morning with some of my civilian clothes that had been
confided to her.
Mammy's simple "What you gwine do now, Mabs William?" thrown in whilst she
assisted by her presence at my complete change of toilet--lapse of time was
nothing to her--woke me to the momentous problem. There was no commissary
sergeant to distribute even the meagre rations that so long left us
ravenous after every meal. I could not camp in the Capitol Square, even if
I had wished so to do.
Mammy left me with the injunction to call on her "ef I didn't have nowhar
else to go."
I went with unbroken fast to see what was left of the city.
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