"Your aunt is not very well, for the hardships of the war have worn upon her. Except Uncle Jerry and Aunty Chloe, the cook, all our negroes have left us, or been taken by the government to work on fortifications, and my wife and Gerty have to do most of the housework," replied Uncle Homer very gloomily; and it was plain to Christy that the mansion at Glenfield was not what it had been in former years.