Read "Two Little Confederates" by Thomas Nelson Page online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
As time went by the condition of things at Oakland changed -- as it did / everywhere else. The boys' mother, like all the other ladies of the / country, was so devoted to the cause that she gave to the soldiers / until there was nothing left. After that there was a failure of the / crops, and the immediate necessities of the family and the hands on / the place were great.
There was no sugar nor coffee nor tea. These luxuries had been given / up long before. An attempt was made to manufacture sugar out of the / sorghum, or sugar-cane, which was now being cultivated as an / experiment; but it proved unsuccessful, and molasses made from the / cane was the only sweetening. The boys, however, never liked anything / sweetened with molasses, so they gave up everything that had molasses / in it. Sassafras tea was tried as a substitute for tea, and a drink / made out of parched corn and wheat, of burnt sweet potato and other / things, in the place of coffee; but none of them were fit to drink -- at / least so the boys thought. The wheat crop proved a failure; but the / corn turned out very fine, and the boys learned to live on corn bread, / as there was no wheat bread.