Starvation in its worst form stared her in the face, until at last she sold what clothing she had brought out from New Orleans.

This relieved her necessities but a short time, and then her last resource was gone.
If her present was dark, the future seemed but one black cloud of despair.

Hope, that _ignis fatuus_, which deceives so many on earth, left the soldier's wife, and she was indeed wretched.

The blooming woman had become a haggard and care-worn mother.

She had no thought for herself.