Tom was the soul of joy. He sang
"Katy! Katy! don't marry any other!" with an unction which spoke in his
quick color, and "melting glances" as in the tones of his laughing
voice. Riding along the famous highway, upon which only a solitary
cavalryman or a wagon occasionally appeared, the little maiden and her
lover made the pine-woods ring with their songs, their jests, and their
laughter!
It is good to be young and to love. Is there any thing more charming?
For my part I think that the curly head holds the most wisdom! Tell me
which was the happier--the gray-haired general yonder, oppressed by
care, or the laughing youth and maiden? It is true there is something
nobler, however, than youth, and joy, and love. It is to know that you
are doing your duty--to bear up, like Atlas, a whole world upon your
shoulders--to feel that, if you fall, the whole world will shake--and
that history will place your name beside that of Washington!
As the sun began to decline, we rode into Petersburg, and bidding Katy
and Tom adieu, I returned to my Cedars.
I had taken my last ride in the "low grounds" of the county of
Dinwiddie; I was never more to see Disaways, unless something carries
me thither in the future. To those hours spent in the old mansion, and
with my comrades, near it, I look back now with delight.
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