Alice's Tulips: A Novel by Sandra Dallas Read Free Book Online Page A

when he was on picket duty, Charlie caught himself a Rebel. The man broke and ran, like Rebels generally do, but Charlie went after him and grabbed him up. The man said he was only a poor farmer, but Charlie didn’t trust him and went through his pockets, and sure enough, there was a map of the camp and a letter to his wife saying if she never heard from him again, he had died in a loyal cause—the traitor! Charlie wrote that the man thought so little of himself that he referred to himself with a little i instead of big
I
. Now Charlie is quite the hero for capturing a spy.
    I have had a hard time of it, too, this spring and am feelingplenty sorry for myself. At least we have had good rain, and you know what ’tis said: “Rains in May bring lots of corn and hay.” Well, that means I will have my work cut out for me at harvest time.
    Then I must do the cooking, or else Mother Bullock does it, and we don’t eat so good as chickens. She loathes indoor chores and is so unhandy at cooking, we would not eat so well as soldiers, who dine on bacon, coffee, and hardtack (which Charlie says was made before the dawn of the Christian era). Her cooking would make a hog wish it’d never been born. I would not mind the work here so much if there was something to look forward to, such as a sociable gathering. If we could have parties or a ball, I would be much more pert, but all this work and no more fun than you can have with a bunch of farm women sits hard on me.
    Well, this is as dull a letter as I ever wrote, for I have got the blues like an old maid. Lizzie, why would anyone think the worse of you for doing your own housework? No one would believe for one minute that James is failing. Rather, I think you are being patriotic to get rid of the servant, because with the war, economy is all the rage. You know how the newspapers criticize Mrs. Lincoln for throwing fancy parties in the White House. Of course, she is rumored to be Secesh in her sympathies. Besides, I would not like a servant living in my house, spying on me, although a servant problem is not likely to be one I’ll have on Bramble Farm. You always were a worker, Lizzie, and now that you don’t go about so much, you won’t need more than a hired girl coming in days. I am glad James is more cheerful. I haven’t been married so long, but I know as well as you how to improve a man’s disposition! Do you use the sheaths, or do you want another baby? There’s always withdrawing, but everybody knows that causes nervous prostration and paralysis—although that would be on James’s part, not yours. Now I close the poorest letter I ever wrote.
From little i, your sister,
    Alice Bullock
     
    June 3, 1863
    Dear Lizzie,
    Here is news that will cheer you. Well, pr’aps not, but it certainly cheers me. There is to be a Soldiers Relief Fair in Slatyfork this summer. We shall have farmers donate part of their harvest and livestock. Booths will sell pies and cakes, needle books, pincushions, pen wipers, and straw hats. Mrs. Van Duyne has donated a silver cake basket, and we will sell chances at ten cents. We are to give a quilt exhibition and prize for the best. (Since I am to be the judge, I won’t be allowed to compete.) There will be wire dancing, feats of strength, an oratory contest, and a mesmerist. But best of all, we’ll have evening entertainment—most likely a minstrel show, because they are the rage here—followed by a
ball!
Oh, Lizzie, I shall wear my blue silk and dance my feet off, even though the men will have to pay a nickel to the Soldiers Relief fund for each dance! I think I shall have my choice of one or two handsome men, but if not, any man with two legs will do.
In haste,
    Alice
     
    June 18, 1863
    Dear Lizzie,
    Charlie has got him a Johnny Reb—not just one but two! And they were all but handed to him on a platter. You see, he and about a dozen soldiers were on a patrol when they ran across a company of Rebels. Well, they weren’t really on patrol, but