Roxy Hastings — page 66: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ROXY HASTINGS. srt It was a time when no regular system of exchanges had been established, and there was a prospect before him of a long and dreary confinement. His scanty funds were rapidly exhausted in supplying himself with a few comforts which he was allowed to buy, so after this the privations of a prison life seemed intoler- able. He wrote home without being able to learn whether his letters ever passed the lines. He implored his brother if by any means he could spare a little money, and could find the means of its transmission, to send it to him to alleviate his condition. ‘With money,” he said, ‘‘we can buy food and clothing, and I am in sad want of both. My stomach revolts at prison fare, and I am already becoming thin, though not weak. I know you have not much to spare, and I would not ask this of you if the emergency were less severe. As it is, I ask but little. A very little would be of some service, for it would procure me the luxuries of good tea and coffee, and tobacco for smoking, and these last delights I think would give me a relish for the coarse but still nutritious fare that is allowed us. I have a friend that is worse off than myself, for he is sick, and nearly helpless. He has shared in all that I have bought, but our last drawing of tea, and our last ounce of ‘Solace,’ are now gone. We puff sometimes at the empty pipe when ennuz is direst, or we will fill up with pine whittlings, and firing them, catch some faint odors from the blackened bowl. | “l often regret this college-acquired habit of smoking, and am resolved to lay it.aide when I return home, but in a strait like this it is a resource not to be despised. “Hartley, my friend, will not write home, nor does he ever receive letters. Indeed, he is quite reticent on the subject of his relations. But do not distress yourselves on my account. Send nothing more than you can easily spare —for a single golden eagle will work wonders here, and a double one I think would make us the envy of our mess.” ‘“ Again—do not worry about me. I said Il was thin but not weak. Indeed, I believe I toughen asIdry. I think I can stand a great deal yet,” The letter, of which we have given an extract, was re- ceived by the Lees only a few days after the family con- versation which has been recorded concerning the young soldier, and of course it awakened the deepest interest. Nothing else could now be thought of, but how to send Eomicbhboo “S (e(e)