A Yankee Girl at Shiloh

								

the Arnolds came to Tennessee, to live with an aunt in Nashville, and
the only son, a lad of sixteen, had run away to join the army of the
Confederacy, so that in January, 1862, Mollie was the only child at
home.
Although the Arnold and Bragg cabins were three miles apart, hardly
a day passed that Mollie and Berry did not see each other. Mollie
would often set out early in the morning and appear at the Arnolds’
door before they had finished breakfast, to be eagerly welcomed by
Berry, and urged to a seat at the round breakfast table near the big
window that overlooked the ravine by Mrs. Arnold, and helped to the
well-cooked porridge, followed by crisp bacon and toast, and often
a dish of stewed fruit, all of which the little visitor evidently
enjoyed.
To Mollie the Arnolds’ cabin seemed the finest place in the world.
Although it had only five rooms, and the family had their meals in
the kitchen, it was indeed a pleasant and attractive home, with its
muslin-curtained windows, its floors painted a shining yellow, with
rag rugs here and there, the open fire in the sitting-room that
blazed so cheerfully on winter days, the well-filled bookshelves in
one corner and the stout wooden chairs and settles with their big
feather-filled cushions. Mr. Arnold had spent a good part of his time
in improving the cabin from the rough state in which they had found
it, and had made most of the simple furniture. A vine-covered fence
enclosed the yard, where Berry had her own garden. Each spring she
began by planting lettuce and radishes, and then peas and carrots
and string beans; before these had time to sprout she had bordered
her vegetable beds with spring flowers. Mollie learned many things
from her new friends, and, in her turn, showed Berry where the wild
trillium and Jack-in-the-pulpit could be found, and where to look for
the nests of cardinal and mocking-bird, birds that the little Yankee
girl had never seen before coming to Tennessee. Therefore when Mr.
Arnold declared that it was time for Berry to have regular lessons,
“to begin school,” as he termed it, it was quite natural for Berry to
say that Mollie Bragg would also have to study.
There was no schoolhouse within miles of these mountain cabins where
the little girls could “begin school,” and Berry understood that her
father would be her teacher. And on the day after their excursion to
Shiloh church Mr. Arnold told Berry that she could go to the Braggs’
cabin and ask Mollie to be her schoolmate.
“Tell her school begins at ten o’clock each morning and closes at
twelve,” he said as Berry put on her cap and started toward the door.
“And say to Mrs. Bragg that we shall expect Mollie to stay for
dinner,” added Mrs. Arnold, who realized that the Bragg family seldom
had the kind of food that would nourish a delicate child like Mollie,
and welcomed the opportunity to give her small neighbor one good meal