Crawfordsville Weekly Journal, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 1 April 1898 — Page 7

By JEANNETTE H. WALWOETH.

[Copyright, 1S97. by the Author.]

CHAPTER XIII.

While tho firo burned Stroug Martin mused. Outside a pelting, persisting rain was falling No gleam of sunshine had illumined tins gray lichen crowned roof ol' Ins cabin all that day Through his uncurtained, shutterless windows he could see the ram dropping in trans lucent beads trom the black, decaying shingles that overlapped the rod as for bidding, shaggy eyebrows overlap the withered cheek of old age.

Tho cliffs that clasped Neck or Nothing 111 an everlasting embrace had long since shut out the last pallid ray of the twilight which still lingered on the upper plane like a belated wraith.

In front of Strong's hermitage stretched the dun expanso of the river, racing seaward with a resistless energy that beat the pale green crests of the willows ou its margin until they slavered in chilled contact with the rushing waters —soundless, sullen waters in these war begirt days I No peaceful passenger packet to churn them with the boisterous whirl of huge paddle wheels, no white winged pleasure craft cleaving the current with shining prow in friendly contest of speed.

Instead an occasional transport." dark with swarming masses of blue coated soldiery, being conveyed from ono strategic point to another, or recurrent gunboat, its dingy .sides pierced by forbidding portholes, stealing warilypast, with lookout alert upon tho bridge, descrying in every lender givey crown of water, willow or cottonwood a possible sliarsphooter or ambushed guerrilla.

For nearly a year now the din of tumult had been piercing tho silence of Neck or Nothing with distance dulled reverberations, causing its lonely tenant to wince under a sense of his own sluggish insignificance in a world where every man hud a destiny of one sort or another t- carvo out for himself.

Every man but himself. His attitude toward the world that had misjudged him was one of morose resentment toward the question which had set his country aflame—ono of supine indifference outwardly.

Seth had just delivered himself of the latest war news, and both men were pondering it with knitted brows and lips tight shut.

Seth, gentle, anxious eyed, accepting all thing as directed by some mysteri-

Setti had Jtiut delivered himself of the latest tear news. oas potency whose decrees were not tn be questioned Strong sullen, resentful, rebellious, wretched.

As he sat there opposite Seth, with his elbows supported by his luiees, his ,loug hair tumbling riotously about his forehead, toying with a pair of clumsy tongs which Vulcan might have designed in ponderous mood, there was a pathetic suggestion of wasted force about him.

His form, which had broadened and strengthened under the open air agencies of cropmaking and deer hunting, had tho sinewy grace of a young athlete's.

Seth, never erect, but grown still rounder shouldered and more slouching as the years bent him earthward under their unyielding demand for his best, looked old and careworn by contrast.

His gentlo blue eyes were fixed wistfully upon tho young giant sulking on tho other side of tho hearth from him. Several times his lips parted, as if he were growing weary waiting for Strong to speak the words ho ought to speak, but as often ho closed them again patiently.

Ho was a man of infinite patience, but even Setli's patience had its limitations. which were reached suddenly at last.

Strong slowly lifted the heavy tongs,

rmado

a lunge at the glowing logs that sent a shower of red gold sparks flying merrily up the black throated chimney, and replacing the tongs against the whitewashed jamb thrust his hands in his pockets, stretched his legs to their utmost capacity and asked with an ostentatious yawn "How does sis get on teaching Miss Chambliss high art?"

Seth flung his rough hands out with an impatient gesture. "Very well, reckon. They seem to like each other. Are together nearly all tho time siueo Ran went iuto the ar my. Then, with a nervous catch in his gentle voice, "You don't think of going inter it at all, 1 jedge, Stroug.

Without altering his position Stroug removed his eyes from the dancing sparks to Setli's anxious face. Some of the sparks seemed to have been insnared in their somber depths, they glowed with such intense fire as he slowly ground out his reply between his clinched teeth. "Go into it? No, I'll be if I do!'

For a second of reflective silence Seth smoothed tho creased kneecaps of his jean trousers with his long freckled hands. Then his courage came back to him. "The Martins ain cuttin a very good tigger in this row nohow, and it

ain't perticularly creditablo to us, seeing howmauyof us there is—men Martins, 1 mean Tho old man is out of the question The niggers are so upset they don't know whether they be staudin on their heads er ou their heels, and he's just holiliu himself in readiness to stampede em all, mules and niggers, over 011 to the Macon hills as soon as Vicksburg falls, which it is p'ison sure to do in my estimation Ami he needs all the help 1 can give him whilo we stay here or if we skedaddle. We're jus' waitni for the gov'tier to give the word, and the gov ner he's just waitin to hear from some army friend he's wrote to fur advice ou the situation. And Char lie, he's .such a delicate chap that ma would .lust fret herself plum' crazy it' he was to list. And so"—

Stroug split the seuteuco in twain with an unpleasant laugh "And so, as 1 am not needed anywhere in particular, and no ono is at all likely to fret themselves 'plum' crazy' if 1 were to be picked oil' by a Yankee bullet or snuffed out by camp fever, you came down this afternoon to urge my enlistment.

Seth looked at him with sorrowful rebuke. "You air as raw these days. Strong, as a piece of liver I reckon it comes of not being quite satisfied with yourself But you needn cut up rough with nio. God knows, and so do yon. Strong Mar tin that nothin ou tho top of tins green earth would please me better than to lie foot loose right now, when there's so much mau'swork to be done. I don 'r suppose you are quite ready yet to toll me to my fact that I am a liar and a coward, are you?"

He had taken tight hold of his coat lapels with his wrinkled, freckled hands, as if feeling tho necessity for strong personal restraint. His lean, stooping figure was uplifted defiantly. All the temper ho could possibly command on such short notice flashed from his protruding blue eyes.

Strong laughed as he leaned over and passed a soothing hand over his brother's baggy kneed trousers. "Save your ammunition for the enemy, buddy Seth. I wasn't flinging at you. I don't think any of the Marrifis are cowards, and you are tho pluckiest Martin of the whole tribe. But, Seth Martin," seizing tho tongs and giving another savage lunge at the fire, "this is not the Martins' fight. It is Adricn Strong's fight, curse him, and it is Randal Chambliss' fight. It is a light for and about tho nigger. And the only ones concerned in it are those who o\sn the nigger and those who don't want him to be owned. It is not your fight, it is not father's nor mine. If every black skin in the universe was freed tomorrow, it would be better for you and the rest of the Martins.

Seth laughed incredulously. "Mebbe so, but as they ain't never goin to be free 1 reckon us Martins will just have to bother long with 'em like we've been doin, father and sou, since tho year one. I don't much fancy that trip over to tho Macon hills. It won't be no play work movin all the hands and tho work stock back -10 miles from tho river, to say nothin of the sheep and eattlo It might a-b'en a easy job in the days of father A bra in and Isaac and Jacob, but it will be somethin of an andertukiu for the old man and me. "Suppose the negroes won't go?" "Wou'tgo!" Seth roared. "Well, I reckon we don't expect, to waste 110 time consul tin their wishes ou the subject. The plan of the campaign is already mapped our. We are just waitin for the word go from the gov'tier. Fa will lead the van with the men and tho mules, and 1 will be rearguard to the women and children and cattle. You see the gov'ner wants em all rr.n back to the hills before he starts out himself. "Starts out. where to?" "To join the army and Adrien. "I thought he was a Union man?" "So he was. So he was. He wanted to save the Union. You know he. did. do man Strong is true grit to the backbone. Don't you mind his speech at the big ratification meotiu? How ho begged 'em a linos' with the tears in his eyes not to do nothin that couldn't be undone? How he warned 'em they was playing with a sword that could cut two ways? Don't you reeollec", Strong, when the ord'nance of seeesh was passed an everybody was a-whoopin an ahollerin an grabbin for blue cockades, how the ole man's head dropped till his white beard touched the bottom button on his vest? 1 wa.s a-lookin square at him, and I eoald almos' a-swore, Strong, that 1 saw the water a-standin in his ole eyes.'' "Perhaps yon did. Tho governor is rather emotional, and he was a Union man all the way through," said Strong coldly. "You make me feel like I had took a drink of ice water when I wasn't thirsty, Strong. Well, Union man or no, the gov'ner is gettin ready to go out himself." "Go out where?" "To the front, or wherever there's fightin to do. He says he can't sit in the chimbly corner sucking his thuni's while other nun are taking their chances for the bullets. Oh, I tell you there ain't no discount on ole man Strong.

Stroug winced and involuntarily moved iarther away from the chimney corner. Presently ho broke out passionately: "It is a shame. Tho whole thing is an infernal mistake. Making butchers out ol' men who wouldn't harm a hair on a dog's back if left to their own devices. Now, if the army was made up exclusively of such sneaks as Adrien Strong, the country could survive its loss. "Adrien Strong don't pass for a sneak in Virginia, whero the fightin is hottest.

Perhaps not." Strong looked so ugly as he snarled out those two words that Seth forbore communicating tho laudatory rumors that were afloat in tho neighborhood abo.t Adrien Strong.

Silence tell between tho two men.

Setli's mission had failed, lie would wait and take his supper of black coffee and fried bacon with Strong, then climb the cliff and go homo.

The darkness deepened within and without Old Viney came into tho room with a globeless kerosene lamp in her hand, placed it the middle of the table, flung a pine knot in the tire and hobbled slowly out again.

The insistent ram, made invisible by tho interior illumination of lamp and firelight, pattered dismally upon the hard beaten surface of the dooryard. The clock on the rough pine shell' over the fireplace gave a premonitory cluck and struck seven.

Viney made a second grand entree, laden down with plates and cups and saucers, which she arranged upon the table with considerable clatter and no taste whatever She was hobbling slowly toward tho door once more when something caused her to lift her turbaued head and to stand still in an alert attitude of surprised attention. "I yhers w'eels," sho said, turning automatically toward tho two men ou the hearth. "Wheels!'

They laughed incredulously. No one ever sought Neck or Nothing on wheels under the brightest sunlit skies. Who should be groping thither in this storm drenched darkness? "You km snicker s'long as yon aint got no maimers, but 1 yhers 'em all de 6ame Dey done stop.

Sho hobbled to tho front door and flung it open with assertive violence, sending a yellow band of light athwart the wet beaten walk batsveen tho cabin and the still. "She is right. Hail Columbia! Who can it be?" said Seth, rising quickly in his astonishment.

Strong lifted himself more deliberately. Not even the unprecedented possibility of visitors to Neck or Nothing on this inclement evening could stir him beyond the point of looking behind tho Cioor for his umbrella and lifting his lantern from tho floor with a tentative swing to decide if there was any oil in it. Then he joined Seth and Viney in the open doorway.

Wliat they saw was a close buttoned, mud bespattered carryall, between the shafts of which stood a steaming, weary beast of burden with dejected, down dropped head and dripping harness.

What they heard was the sound of voices parleying behind the wet curtains—women's voices, young voices which stimulated tho curiosity of the two men without enlightening them. "I suppose we've got to see it through," said Strong, and he plunged resolutely out into the rain, closely followed by Seth. A few strides brought them to tha stile, against whose outer steps the carriage was drawn closely for the convenience of the travelers.

A child's fretful protest against broken slumber, a woman's querulous response, a cheerful gurgle of encouragement, a lifted curtain and a. boundless surprise.

,4Well!"

..fV-.'*.-.

'Pon honor!" "Strong Martin!" Mamie Colyer!" Of course the jvornan was the first to grow coherent. "If it were not so excessively damp on this stile, I should feel impelled to sit right down on this platform until I got the better of my feelings. Annabel, Ann, my dear, where do you supposo we have fetched up finally?"

A white, tired face, pretty but peevish, had been thrust from between the parted curtains. To it Miss Colyer had addressed herself. "At Mr. Martin's, haven't we? You told that awful imbecile to take us to Mr. Martin's." "En 1 done it," said the "awful imbecile" in stolid resentment. "Them thar is bol'e of 'em Misterses Martin. "There is no denying that," said Strong, with such a bright ring to his voice that Seth glanced away from the phenomenon of their lady visitors to stare at Strong in fresh bewilderment.

He had no clew to Strong's one love secret. Mamie Colyer's uarno and her bold championship of his cause were too sacred for idle comment. "And your mother will take two badly wrecked women and a famished child in for the night?" Mamie was demanding eagerly, looking down upon them from the stile, with her skirts gathered closely about her trim ankles in preparation for descent. "My mother lives three miles from here," said Strong, holding out his hand to assist her.

She drew back with a frightened gasp. "Goodness! Anna, do you hear that?" "I '".on't hear anything but this cross, ugly boy crying for something to eat. Adrien, I shall certainly go crazy if yoa don't shut up.1

Mamie sprang resolutely to the ground. "Lead the way, Mr. Martin. We cannot spend the night on this stile. Driver, fetch in Mrs. Strong's bags and boxes.''

Strong had already tucked her cold little hand in his arm and turned his face toward the cabin. It was good to have her there. Her sweet, strong face, seen only dimly as yet by tho light of his lantern, was unchanged. Her power of lifting tho burdens from other shoulders was in full force yet. He scarcely gave a thought to the mystery of her companion's name. "Isn't this just too funny?" She cuddled a trifle closer to him. "Don't be selfish, yon are carrying two-thirds of that umbrella over your own shoulders and one-third over mine. "Pardon mo."

He immediately shifted tho entire protection to her, by which time they had reached the cabin door, where old Viney stood looking at them in severe surprise. "Your dragon?" whispered Mamie. "My housekeeper. Placate her if you do not care to starve to death before morning," said Strong, laughing light heartedly. "Oh. I've trot used to starvation and

every other conceivable horror sinco 1 started out on this awful trip. I don't mind it for myself, but Annabel is so delicate and that boy of hers is such a young tiend, you know."

Ho did not "know," and ho did not care to know. They had passed by Yi-

A

ney and trained tho fireplace, where he was clumsily retarding Miss Colyer's efforts to get out of her wet waterproof and muddy little rubber shoos by awkward assistance, lie was quite content to leavo Seth to copo with tho pretty, white faced owner of that peevish voice and with the famished child whom Mamie had called "a young fiend. "How many mo' of you is they?" Viney asked, with sour inhospitality.

Miss Colyer turned a placid face upon her "Only two more of us, auntia Young Mrs. Adrien Strong and her littlo boy. I promise you we will all bo as good «.s gold if you don't turn us out into thti storm again."

And into this area of speechless surprise Seth surged at that moment, his crimsoned face and hatless head environed by the flying fists and gyrat ing heels of the young fiend, whoso disgust for these nocturnal proceedings was boundless and outspoken.

CHAPTER XIV.

"And you?" The professor's daughter suddenly passed from recitative, slightly tinged with apology, to a challenging tone, which made Stroug Martin's heart thump heavily against his ribs.

Overawing Seth by an assumption of reckless indifference was ono thing. Seth was slow and receptive. Satisfying Mamie Colyer in the matter of his own dubious inertia quite another. Mamie was both fiery and exacting.

His cheeks flamed hotly, but his lips refused to frame the inadequate apologies which he knew would bring that laughing scorn Into her bright eyes which had once been the terror of tho whole college crew His sullen silence irritated her She had been alono with him now for nearly two hours. Viney'a crabbed hospitality had culminated in preparing the one bedroom of Neck or Nothing for the white faced, peevish young mother and her tempestuous offspring.

Annabel and the bay were sleeping, intwined so closely in each other's arms that their pretty slumber flushed cheeks touched, blending their soft roundness into one curving profile.

Seth had long ago climbed the cliff and gone home, promising to "fetch sissy over first thing in tho morning.

He had been an open mouthed sharer with Strong in Miss Colyer's explanation of her errand. The recital had been, to his simple, direct nature a revelation of astounding iniquity. Strong received it with contemptuous credulity To him nothing that went to prove the darling of Sans Souci a fraud was difficult of acceptance.

In her own graphic stylo Mamie had told them of Adrien's marriage during his college terui to a daughter of the woman from whom he rented a room. "Good people, .lust as good as gold. Annabel is a tool about him. Most women are fools about somebody, 1 suppose. The silliest part of tho whole performance was thc-ir giving their conpent to keep this marriage a secret until Adrien took the helm at home. I fancy he underrated his grandfather's constitution. Bah! But that poor little simpleton, nodding vigorously toward the sleeping apartment, "cared for nothing in life so long as Adrien Stroug came to see her tolerably regularly and was decent to her and the boy Now, however, that this rumpus has separated them things have come to an awful pass, and I just-forced Annabel to assert herself and claim her rights. "You know she only has her mother's business for a support, and now the bonnet business don't amount to much. Her brother, littlo Fred Welsh, is in the army. Only 10 years old. Think of it! Father is in it, too, fighting in Virginia. This with a proud uplifting of her head. "Dear mo, 1 hope he isn'tfaring any worse than we are at home— no flour, no coffee, no sugar, lots of patriotism, sweetened with glorious anticipation. Dry diet, though. And, as 1 tell Annabel, when sho lias got to a pass when she can't even keep her boy properly shod, it is time sho was putting hnn whero ho belonged, in the affections of his grandmother and his great-grandfather I am going to leave them in that grand house we passed this afternoon. I really did not have tho courage to stop with Annabel looking so frou/.y and the boy acting like a young Comanche.

She summarized tho situation crisply with practical acceptance of the inevitable. "Of course wo must expect a scene, but I prefer daylight for a pitched battle always.

It was then that Seth suggested Liza. Liza was the saving clause in the Martin family. No affair involving tact or sensibility could bo carried to an effective climax without her supervision.

Both of the men regarded the resolute face of Annabel's littlo champion anxiously. She looked supremely self reliant and adequate, but would sho prove adequate to "the madam?" "1 think I'll fetch our Liza. She's go'- a headpiece worth havin, and if there is anybody on this green fuwfuull

that can stand up to the madam when she mounts her high horse it is our girl Liza. "In union there is strength. Fetch our Liza, by all means, Mamie had said, with tragic eagerness, and Seth had gone away, promising faithfully to be back promptly in the morning with that potent damsel.

It was with a sense of infinite gratitude to destiny, which so rarely played him a kind trick, that Strong had mended tho lire, surreptitiously blown tho dust off the wooden mantelpiece with one blast from his powerful lungs and essayed a general betterment of his shabby sitting room whilo Mamie "took a peep" at her sleeping charges in tho still shabbier bedroom.

What a beatification the world had magically unuergouo for him! Even tho dismal pattering of tho rain on the grassless dooryard had suddenly grown musical The monotonous thud of the locust lieu e.-.es ag iiu!-t the closed wooden shut11 i.- i:ad lost their power to irritate. The sparks danced upward in the black throated chimney with fascinating scintillations. Neck or Nothing had been glorified by tho unexpected coming of a girl.

He soared in temporary superiority to all that was rasping and incongruous in his daily life. Tho silver lining to his cloud was beginning to show. Rose tinted possibilities began to float in dazzling multiplicity before his eyes. From this precarious exaltation of spirit. Lie was suddenly hurled by that challenging question, "And you?"

She looked at him with cool inflexibility, settled herself so far back in tho big splint bottomed rocking chair that only the small pointed toes of her well worn boots touched the sunken bricks of the hearth, folded her plump hands with the air of one prepared to listen long and attentively and said, "Well?" in a coaxing, encouraging tone.

But it is not easy to relax shame locked lips. Sho beat an impatient tattoo with one boot. "1 have told yon all about myself. Strong, all about darling old daddy, fighting like a hot headed boy, and ho 63 years old, all about tho closed college, every professor in tho army, all about Annabel's troubles, and now 1 think I am entitled to some return confidences. "1 have nothing to tell you." "Nothing to tell?" "Nothing." "Nothing to tell in theso stormy times, when just to bo a man is an extra privilege?" "Nothing." "What have you been doing since yon carried off the first honors at college?" "Nothing." ""What aro you going to do?" "Nothing." "Well!"

A volume in four letters. Ho did not look at her Ho knew just how full of scorn her bright, clear eyes were just then. He would have found it a pleasant relief ut that moment to have marched up to the mouth of a loaded cannon. A second later ho was grinding his teeth in impotent rage. His short hour of bliss was culminating in gloom and bitterness.

With a slight forward motion sho had sot tho heavy rocker in motion, and looking at him with concentrated interest said demurely: "Yon might take out a'contract to supply the army with turnips. Time no risk in that.

He grew white to tho very edge of his lips. Sho turned her bright, dry eyes from his tortured face to say in low tone confidence to the backlog: "And we need men so much right now. "Mamie!"

It was the cry of a wounded animal. He looked at her across the broken brick hearth, with all tho agony of his soul stamped ou his face. The hot light in her eyes was quenched in sudden tears. She flung out her hands with a passionate gesture.

How could you disappoint me so: You promised mo you would do groat, things for my sake, because 1 believed in you straight through. Your opportunity, such a golden ono, has come. What aro you doing with it? Rusting out, just rusting out, in ignoble ease, in disgraceful idleness. I never thought to have found you hero. Of course 1 supposed you were fighting, but you loved your ease bettor than you did my good opinion"— "Easel Good God!" "Yes, ease. Strong Martin Father my darling, delicate man of books, sleeping this moment, if ho ever does sleep theso awlul days, on a pile of straw, I supposo, with snakes and things crawling all over his blessed body Per haps he tramped all day long on an empty stomach too. They say our sol diers are all half starved to death But what do you care? And his shoes—father's, 1 mean. He made a picture of them in his last letter, for 'my diver sion,' ho wrote. It threw mo into hysterics. The letter was written on wall paper too. But I'd rather, ye-., ten thousand thousand times rather, have him tramp all over tho state of ir ginia without any shoes at all on h!.feet than to stay at home and have tin finger of scorn pointed at him Bl his dear old heart I 1 made him twe shirts out of tho parlor curtains la.week and sent them to him with sone socks I knitted for him. 1 do hope the will fit him—the shirts, I mean. I.a they did look dreadfully corkscrew, and perhaps, oh, perhaps, he'll get sho in one of those very shirts. But 1 don't care, I don't care, he's doing a man's part, while you"

A hot rush of tears rendered her next words unintelligible. Strong sprang from his chair and began tho circuit ol the room like a hunted thing seeking a point of egress. "1 am not worth one single tear from a good woman's eyes, he said, stopping in front of her and speaking in a stifled voice.

From behind Miss Colyer's damp handkerchief assent camo with cruel nromDtness.

"I know you aro not. Of course yarn aro not. But 1 told you a woman had ta make a fool of herself about somoboU'i." "1 will enlist tomorrow."

What for.'" Sho emerged into view suddenly., with recovered composure. "Because you want mo to. "That is an excellent motive. Struagtt it did not move you to enlist earlier u» tho action. "Mamie, will you hold your scorn ir hand a tew moments.' It cuts like whiplash. I want to say a few words-in* self defense. "Well. lie did not sit down. With his hanf?srloideii beinnit mm no stoon in irons oilier, resolved tor tins ono time only to vindicate his altltuoo words. "I don't think 1 am a coward. Perhaps 1 deceive myself, but I am no* sympathy with tins thing. 1 think is an accursed mistake from boguitiiny to end. "You are a Union man?" Sho looked at him horror, recoiling as from some visible reptile. "1 am I repeat, tho wholo thing is* an infernal mistake, according to anyr?-. way of thinking. Alter awhile thcrw will be more men to hold my vn wa Just, now our people aro lutoxicated. they are dashing themselves to pieces1 on a rock hidden from sight by the lugW tide of frenzied emotion. They are fight ing like heroes, but hopelessly, lor are, idea. A starved child wrestling with well fed giant. "But all this has no bearing on my personal attitude. This is tho slave* owner's fight. I am nothing but tho son of a slave driver. 1 had hoped to sheel some luster on a name hat had bcens dimmed by centuries of low service, but not by donning a gay uniform ane£. slashing my way into fame its a warrior. All my soul went out in direction of tho learned professions. "Perhaps tho idea of a Martin dispensing justice from tho judge's benchallured me with its novelty. Tho Martins had been groveling so long. Justice, the administration of even handed'justice, is alluring to tho fancy of out* who has suffered keenly from injustice. "1 know, I know. Don't let us opeLV that wound."

,w-..-.••••

Sho nodded her head quickly. "I was willing to forego every indnl--: ?ence, almost every necessity, for tho aieans of purchasing books. I was going to be a great lawyer Nothing short Df tho topmost round on the legal ladier was to have satisfied my ambition. I had no help, but 1 did not mind that. Destiny's spitelul mood lasts long I mi still at tho foot of tho ladder.

A low, dull reverberating sound penetrated tho cabin walls. "Listen! That is tho cannon atVicksburg. llow many men within its boleagured walls will Into the dust before its stubborn resistance is broken by sheer force of numbers? How many widows and orphans are manufactured every time that almost unheeded noisobreaks on our ears? Do you suppose every man fighting behind those ramparts went into this thing from a calm conviction of the righteousness of the cause? How many went into it under stress of physical excitement? Ilow many wero stung into it by tear of public opinion? "I have learned tonight how potent a factor the fear of scorn may become. 1 had no public until you came. No ono't* scorn mattered a rush. I was content to let them fight it out among themselves, did not believe that every man who wore a unilorm was a horo any mort

I a he

than I believed that every man who dir? not was a coward But I have come to look at things differently Where's tho use trying to stem- against the current when it is so much easier to drill, with it? "I have stood under pn 11y hot firotonight. Mamie. Your guns were heavily shotted, and before you camo 1 bad been trying to convince my brother that this was no concern of ours "1 have been trying to convince myself that 1 was not needed mi either side—1, such a miserable failure, already forgotten by tho world. 1 could not fight for shivery. I did not want to fight against the men who owned slaves. But yon have' said things tonight tliats have made me long to court a bullet hole or saber thrust as a plea-ant relief. "1 may not be worthy to ,-tand side by side with tho professor, mv dear, but at least 1 shall no longer skulk in tho chimney corner My duty in this matter has not been quite clear, my path not well defined. You will havo tho credit of having armed two combatants—your father and your lover.

All the scorn was gone cur, of her face, leaving it white and sari. Sho lifted startled eyes to him, where lie stood close to her chair. Stern resolution was written in every line of his worn face. "I don't think 1 quito understand you, Stroug." "No?" "Do you menu to say that yon are going to do something tha 6 your conscience does not approve of simply because yon think want you to do it?"

TO BE CONTINUED.

The Journal Co., Printers. Leaders in Type Styles