Through Some Eventful Years

March 18th, 1865.—Do not think we have been neglecting either the knitting, the spinning and weaving or the sewing, while this excitement is going on. Lulu takes my work for me when I go away and she is more capable than I, where the sewing is concerned, though she is not so good at the spinning wheel. My knitting I always take with me, no matter where I may go. I have learned to knit in the dark and that is a very necessary accomplishment these candleless nights. My first diary was a small red morocco book, the pages were not ruled and I had great trouble writing straight. When I needed another I bought a book twice as large, from Mr. McDougal’s bookstore. That one lasted until the war and the blockade had made paper of all kinds very scarce. In 1863 I needed another diary and this, in which I now write, is of the coarse, thick, rough paper, almost like wall-paper. I have to use a pencil because in the first place we have no ink, and in the next place the paper would blot if I tried to use it. We have learned to do without so many things we used to consider necessities. We make a substitute for ink but it fades in a short time and we have not been able, as yet, to make a fast color. So, as I am writing this, for my great-grandchildren, I am using a “No. 1” drawing pencil. Brother Amos got me a dozen in Augusta and advised me to hide them away where nobody could find them. I have taken his advice for I have become so attached to you, my Diary, I would really be distressed to give you up.