He wanted to be a planter, and with the financial assistance of his brother, he went into the business of raising cotton near Mobile, in Alabama.

But years before the war, he had paid off every dollar of his indebtedness to Horatio, and had made a comfortable fortune besides.

The two families had visited each other as much an possible, and the captain, with his little family, had been almost to the plantation in the Bellevite, the magnificent steam-yacht of the Northerner.
During the preceding winter, Captain Passford, his wife and son, had visited most of the islands of the Atlantic; but the health of Miss Florry was considerably impaired, and the doctors would not permit her to make this sea-voyage, but recommended her to keep quiet in some southern locality.

She had therefore passed the winter at Glenfield, which was the name of Homer Passford's plantation.

On his return from this long cruise, the owner of the Bellevite obtained his first news that war existed between the North and the South from the pilot.