"Please keep it for my little namesake and tell him when he is old
enough to know."
As he rode away with Reagan, his faithful Postmaster General, he said:
"The last coin I had on earth, Reagan. I wouldn't have had that but for
the fact I'd never seen one like it and kept it for luck."
"I reckon the war's about finished us," the General replied.
"Yes," Davis cheerfully answered. "My home is a wreck. Benjamin's and
Breckinridge's are in Federal hands. Mallory's fine residence at
Pensacola has been burned by the enemy. Your home in Texas has been
wrecked and burned--"
He paused and drew from his pocketbook a few Confederate bills.
"That is my estate at the present moment."
He received next day a letter from his wife which greatly cheered him:
"_Abbeville, S. C._, April 28, 1865.
"_My dear old Husband_:
"Your very sweet letter reached me safely by Mr. Harrison and was
a great relief. I leave here in the morning at 6 o'clock for the
wagon train going to Georgia. Washington will be the first place I
shall unload at. From there we shall probably go on to Atlanta
or thereabouts, and wait a little until we hear something of you.
Let me beseech you not to calculate upon seeing me unless I happen
to cross your shortest path toward your bourne, be that what it may.
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