Crawfordsville Weekly Journal, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 8 April 1898 — Page 7

Bj JEANNETTE H. WALWOBTH.

[Copyright, 1897, by the Author.]

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Evidently sue ma not understand, him. Ho would not enlighten her Poor little one, he would not by one feather's weight add to her sorrows or her anxieties. He smiled wistfully down into her upturned face and answered evasively: "Conscience generally does get worsted in a hand to hand combat with love, don't you think? I simply mean that I am going to do battle for my principles. I am going out to take my chances of being shot at along with countless better men, perhaps a few worse ones.

She leaned back wearily in her big chair and closed her eyes. Tears were crowding hot and fast under their lids. "1 don't know what to say or what to unsay it seems so wicked l'or you to keep all your strength and health and vigorous young manhood shut away from the world in this way—but, Strong, Strong"—

She stood up swiftly and stretched both hands toward him with the look of a terrified child in her eye. "Mamie! My dear 1 What is it?" "If anything should happen to you?" "You will respect me—dear. "If anything should happen to you— 1 would bo your murderer. And tho world—oh, Strong, tho world would bo bo horribly empty.

He held her in his arms a moment, just long enough to press his lips reverently upon her shining hair. That was all. Then ho stood back, holding her small trembling hands in a tight clasp. "1 had not meant to say anything to you until 1 could look you and tho professor squarely in the face. Everything in flio future is veiled bv a black cloud of uncertainty. Wo willbido our time, my sweet, and I will grow strong, knowing that you believe in me."

She swayed, closed her eyes, clung to him for a brief second of childlike: abandonment, and then asserted her oustomary self possession with a pathetic little smile. "I have grown so absurdly weak all of a sudden. It must be because I am so tired. Wo won't talk any more tonight Goodnight, Strong." Then, as if in concession to the pleading in his eyes—"dear Strong," she whispered it into his lovo lit eyes and fluttered away from him as softly as a swallow on the wing.

Charlie. They done pick out the primes' ones in the lot for to go looks litner for his bed." "Hold your gab, Suzanne. Send Vi ney hero and tell her to fetch my va A lise."

that I nussed you and my Suzanne at the samo time, and w'en yon was a little chap you always call mo mammy same as her Don go, son. That all 1 ask. "Put all of my clothes in my valise, Viney And see here. Do your best by those ladies in there until they get away They will go after breakfast. As for you—takeali there is in tho pantry I've nothing else to bequeath you."

The faintest streak of light was brightening the gray eastern skies when, with his valise in his hand, Strong opened the front door of his cabin and began tho toilsome ascent of the cliff on foot

CHAPTER XV.

In those tempest driven times tho unusual was the usual, and to it was awarded an unquestioning acquiescence born of stoical resolve therefore Strong Martin should not have been jostled out of all sense of his own identity by the crowding events whose initial note bad been struck when Mamie Colyer miraculously descended upon Keck or Nothing

Pacing the rounds of a huge sycamore tree that marked the limits of his second day's march from Sans Souci, ho found it almost impossible to believe that only SO hours of time and as many miles of space lay between him and tho cabin hearth across which he and she had "come to an understanding."

Tho querulous clamor of innumerable frogs, to whom life in the slimy fastnesses of a bramble fringed bayou near by seemed suddenly grown unbearable, did not tend to enliven his reverie. Both time and spot, a starless night and unpeopled space, were prolific of gloomy suggestion, and not even tho careful recalling of every kind word spoken by Mamie and tenderly reproduced by memory could render him even temporarily oblivious of the present that was full of menace.

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As tho bedroom door closed behind her tho opposito one, leading into the kitchcn, opened abruptly, and black Suzanne stood before him, quivering with repressed excitement. "Is you heard the news?" "What news?"

Impenetrable darkness surrounded him. Overhead, when th3 night wind sti: red tTw branches of tho sycamore tree with its fitful breath, an occasional star became visible, glimmering coldly and nnsympathetieally upon him from a sky that seemed immeasurably far removed. A rod or two away, invisible but audible, his tired horse crunched the supper of corn and oats flung locsely on the ground before him and stamped his feet in irritated protest against the swarming mosquitoes. Other sounds none.

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He turned upon her in irritation. Her low, intense voice had snapped in twain the golden thread of a blessed reverie. "Up to the big housoeverything turn upside down. Mars Adr'en hurt. Ole marster goin to him. He goin to run the folks and the stock back from the river befo' he start. Folk b'en packin up ever since dark. Only tho ole folks and the cripples goin to bo lef' in the quarters. The men and the boys is goin first wid tho carnago horses and tho work stock. They gettin ready to start scon as daybreak. "lror where?" "Way over on tho Lakelock place. Marster say if freedom can tin cm there he'll give up. These is queer times sho'." "Who goes with thcml"1 "Ole Lb en Martin and your brother

Ho had been sent by his father ahead of the column to find a camping place for tho night. "Houses, if you ecu, but water must bo nigh at, hand, houses or no houses. Thar's 200 head of stock all told to be watciVl before we turn in to sleep tonight, boys. You can take Sandy 'long with you and send him back to pilot us. No use your eomiu back better save your horse. You'll have need of him.

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The shadow of a black cloud flitted across Suzanne's grave face. She made no motion to carry out his orders, just stood still, lacing her long, pallid lingers in and out, out and in. "Well?" savagely from Strong. "Is you a-gom?" "Yes." "And her—your sSvee'tbeart, nedding toward tho room suddenly converted into a guest chamber. "Suzanne, do as I tell you.

There was a new air of self assertion about him. It was as if ho had suddenly come into recognition of a self entitled to some respect. Suzanne turned and left the room puzzled and awed. By the time Viney arrived, amazed but deliberate, he was sealing the envelope which inclosed his hastily written explanation to Miss Colyer.

He looked up as his old nurse, panting with the unusual excitement of this midnight demand on her energies, came to a halt by his table. "•W at's this ver foolishness I hears from Suzanne? She says you goin out .. with the folks. "1 am going out with father and

Charlie." "Then you is goin into trouble, that's all I got to say. Hi, w'at you think black folks is str.dyin about to let tbeyeefl's be druv outer reach uv freedom w'en it's knockin at de do'? Times is gone by when ole Eben Martin and one uf his boys, nor two of 'em, nor tho whole lot, kin drive lnore'n 100 black folks plum' back inter tho swamp, lak so many header cattle. Folks is folks now, Strong Martin, and you kin climb yon clilT and go tell olo Eben Martin that ole Viney say so." "Father is simply carrying out Governor Strong's orders. And I am going to assist him to do so. "All right. He'll need j?6u, ole Eben

Martin will. He'll need all tho help you and a lot mo' lak you kin give him."

The look which accompanied these words was so sinister that Strong searched tho old crone's face anxiously. "What do you mean, Viney? Speak plainer, old woman."

I done said all I got to say. I wouldn' a-said that much if you wasn't goin lon:i. I can't seem to forgit somehow

Had the gift of prophecy been given to old Eben Martin? All this Strong had done. Found tho tenautless cabins of a deserted plantation, found the water course and sent Sandy back to meet and pilot tho advancing caravan that represented all the mobilized wealth of Sans Souci.

Alone ho had watched tho yellow sun sink lower and lower behind tho somber crowns of *ho cypresses that stood kuee deep in the dark waters of the bayou, leaving long trailing souvenirs of the dead day in swift fading bannerets of purple and gold. Then darkness, sudden, den-.e, uplifting.

To fight oil" a creeping sense of uneasiness, ho resolutely turned .his thoughts backward. Net very far, only to that moment of time when he had written his note to Mafnio Colyer, explaining his sudden ca to assist his father in moving Govern or Strong's possessions "beyond reach of danger" and telling her of his resolution to enlist.

That Icy The ucte h:u closet! a Ui2o lugubrious

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"Perhapsif lean fetch homo an arm less sleeve or a broken leg I may become more valuable or less valueless in yor.r eyes than I am now, even though the uniform 1 propose to don bo blue."

Then had come the parting with tho governor. When this day, that had just gono down in lurid magnificence, had been young and jocund, the governor had given his parting injunctions to Overseer Martin and taken leave of them all in his kindly, stately fashion. "You'll get these fellows out to Lakelock, Martin, and as soon as you have housed them pitch a corn crop. Never

fernally far back from anywhere that you couldn't get it to market if yon made it But go in for food crops. Keep them at work feeding themselves until this nonsenso has blown over and we'll settle back on tho old footing 1 am glad Strong is going with you. Don't shove the ox teams too hard."

At which home thrust Strong had winced. The recollection of it brought, the hot blood to his chceks. Ho had no! cared to remind his father flint a hort Binuie would nave teen cnarlie interference in an altercation between his brother and himself, for he was going into this fight himself as soon as he should have helped locate the colony on Lakelock, and he did not care to submit his own motives to tho chilling influences of discussion. "Tomorrow night my duties as a slave driver will end—and then I, too, shall enter the lists.

With a violent start ho camo back into tho present. Why did he not bear eome sound from tho looked for caravan? Could that imbecile Sandy havo misdirected it? He was unwilling to tax his horse for the return ride. He would need its services indefinitely into the future. The suspense grew unendurable. He walked swiftly toward his horsa His hand was upon tho tethering rope. He stood still in tho darkness, listening. If no sound from the advancing caravan was to bo detected above tho clamor cf tho frogs and the shrill voices of countless insect rovers of tho night, ho would turn tho tired brute's head toward the mystery and ride to its solution.

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Liza had scolded him in a whisper, standing on tiptoe to kiss him goodbv She had called him tho hermit pessimist and credited his"heavy heartedness to habitual morbidness. She had promised him, with a quaint nod of her small, wise head, to "see that matter of Adrieu's wil'o and boy properly attended to," and sho had comforted liim immensely concerning Mamie Colyer. saying sapient ly:

We lonely v. omen will have to colonize for self protect ion. After all of you go away, Selh will bo the only white man within a radius of 20 miles. Poor old Seth! I will have to teach Mamie how to weave. Amy is getting on splendidly. Eight yards yesterday. 1 intend to keep Miss Colyer with us until her father or you come for her. Dear me, what a lot of heroes wo arc turning off cur reels 1"

And sho had laughed while the others wore weeping. Yes, decidedly, Liza was just tho sort of woman one wanted aboat in an emergency. Tho madam, white and tragic, had stood, as if turned to stone, holding back tho trailing tendrils ol a madeira, vino with one long, jeweled hand, as sho gazed in dry eyed consternation at the slowly moving column headed by her fatlier-iu-law. Rebecca, rotund, plebeian, sincere, had voiced her misery loudly and shrieked adjurations and counsel after them until thev were hidden. Liza alone had stood inscrutably smiling, bright eyed and composed.

Forward, in reverie, to the long tedious night, wJicn, favored by tho darkness, they had launched their fleet of flats and swiftly placed tho rushing wa

Ho did detect another sound. Vague and uncertain at first, then definitely hurrying feet bearing down upon tlie spot where ho stood cloaked in darkness. A panting souud, as of an animal soro pressed and terrified, then out of tho blackncss about him a siuglo figure emerged. It was a woman's. He called out in sharp surprise: "Who is it and where are ths rest?" "It's me, Suzanne."

Her voice was husky with h-?r speed or with terror. lie could not readily decide which. Sho came to a sudden halt so close to him that, in spite of the unlifting darkness, he could se? her tall form swaying backward and forward to the rhythm of a horrible chant. "Ikncwit. Ikncwit. You was fools All fools. Mammy tried to warn you, but you wouldn't be warned. Now where is they? Ask God A'mighty And where will you be if you don't mount that horse and gallop for your life: Ask do good Lord that too. I come here to give yya a las' chance for your life. Mammy tol me, come what come, 1 worn't never to forgit that sho nus.-xd you and mo in her arms at the vc'y samo time. Sho say I worn't to let a hair of your he::d come to harm. You was a fool to como along with them that was tryin to drivo tho folks back outer reach of freedom. They ain't po' quartcr folks no longer, thcy's men aiid worn cn, and you can't, drive em in herds no longer. They don't want to be driv back to Lakelock, whar freedom can't find 'em, and they ain't goin to bo. Good

Lord, jus' look at him standin as still as if he wro turned to stone. Go, Strong Martin!,-. If life is sweot to yon, I go." I

Ha laid his strong hands on her swaying shoulders and forced her into a semblance of composure. "Stop your idiotic howling and tell mo in plain English what you are shrieking at mc, if vou don't want me to choke it out of ycu. Whero are the peopie?''

tors of tho Mississippi river between themselves and home. Captained and piloted by four resolute spirits of tho, freedom's land. He laughed at'em and dominant race, manned and propelled tol 'em ho worn't to be scared by no by sullenly acquicscent slaves, standing niggers livin he was goin to work em confused on tho borderland between on Gov'ner Strong's place till he were bondage and liberty, tho fleet crossed tho swift "current and touched the farther bank, reluctantly moving backward, still backward—who knew? Perhaps forever out of reach of the angel

of liberty, whose beckoning hand they had discerned as yet but dimly upon' the horizon of their futuro.

Suzanne's voice, dropped to its usual slow monotone. Her arms were imprisoned in an iron grip. She nodded her head in the direction from which she had come. I "Eack yonder. Buryin 'em." "Buryin who?" I ."Ole man Eben and Charlie Martin.

His strong hands fell away from her 6houlders. She could hear him choke with the sudden rush of terrified emotion. He reeled like a drunken man and leaned against his saddle to keep from falling at her feet. "Do you mean—do you mean

The sentence refused to be completed. Suzanne did it for him. "Tho people have killed 'em. They tol ole Eben he mus' let 'em turn back

and co down the river to where the eunDuats was helpm black folks to get to

ordered to take 'em back home. Then he never laughed no more. They didn't shoot. They done it quick and quiet With ax helves and hoo handles. Dan Bludsoo is a-leadin em now, and they—

Hush, I hears 'em coin in now. "Hell hounusl 1 will ride to meet tliem I"

CHAPTER

minjl about cotton. Tho placo is so in-, of plaited palmetto gyrated swiftly.

Then tho wliito haired old aristocrat had ridden away from them as gayly as a troubadour going to do battle for the guerdon of a lady's lovo, shifting all responsibility for the weli being of his slaves upon Eben Martin's well paid shoulders.

How Strong had envied that old man of tho privileged class riding away to enroll his name among tho as nirants for military renown 1 "Tho old man seemsreal glad to go," said Eben, looking after tho slender, stooping form reflectively, "and yit I'm slio' his heart worn't in this tiling at the fust of it. I s'pose he feels like he mus' go in fur his country, right or wrong. 1 reckon it's somcthiu, like if you or Seth was to git into a quarrel with an outsider and Charlie there was to stan off till he inquired inter the merits pf the ease. I think it'd be mo'' lak my boy Charlie to pitch in and light for his brothers fust and then talk about it later on. Hey, Charlie?"

XVI.

"One small boy's head to bo hatted, and live women, each owning two hands, normally furnished with five fingers apieco, all engaged on it. How many fingers all laboring for you, Dren? Thero is a sum in addition.

Liza Martin held up one hand On its index linger a small unfinished hat

Tho boy to whom that intrieato matlio matical problem had just been submitted brought au ancient hobbyhorse to an abrupt halt and precipitately dismounted, tho better to criticise the unfinished hat.

A moment of reflective silence. With his pink palmed hands folded behind his back and his yellow curled head poised judicially he delivered himself adversely, "My hat that did float away on the duck pond was a nicer hat than that." "I know it was, you small ingrato. That was tho work of a professional." She pulled him nearer to her by o.uo rosy ear. "And, Dren, now that hats aro worth their weight in gold, you must become more circumspect. You should never havo let it float away. But, Dren, I gavo you a sum in arithmetic to do, and you have not done it.

How many lingers havo worked on this hat of yours? Como, now, I will help you a little. "Mamie Colyer brought tho palmetto from the woods, Mother Martin cured it, Grandmother Strong split it into nico lit tlo narrow strips, your mother plaited it, and here I am sewing it into shapo. You ought to feel tremendously important, Dren." "I do," said the boy, promptly appropriating her homage. "I don't doubt it." Liza laughed and stooped for a fresh coil of tho plaited palmetto. "\rou seo, we expect great things of you, Dren. You are all the man we have about to protect us when Seth is out in tho fields. But how about that sum? How many hands all working for 3'on'r" "Twelvo, said Adrien laboriously. "Twelvel You must be counting in your own, Dren, and they don't count for much at anything yet awhile. Yon aro wrong, Dren. You generally are wrong.''

The boy received this cutting sunimary of his own inadequacy with composuro. He was mere deeply interested in the work .Li7.a had resumed than in his own possible shortcomings. "Is that going to be a hat or a cap?"

A hat.''

"With brim and a blue ribbon band?" "A brim certain IT. A blue ribbon band! Dren, you are exacting. "I think my grandmother can give me a blue ribbon band. My grandmoth er can give me everything I want. Slio gets everything out of the big chest in the hall up stairs. My grandmother has everything. Don't you think so too?" "Evidently you approve of your grand mother, Dren." "She is better than my other grand ma was. She says 1 look like my papa, and sometimes sho cries into tho l.ig chest. My papa is a soldier. Ho don't como to seo mamma ny more. My grandfather is a soldier too. I am gentlemau. I am not a soldier." "Everybody is that who is worth calling 'man' nowadays, my boy." "Then Seth is a coward?" "Seth is a hero Selh is a martyr. Seth has to stay at home to feed small boys, who let their hats get away from them cn duel: ponds, and good for nothing women, who can neither fight nor hoo corn.'' "Then arc- you good fyr nothing,

LiwiV" "Ye?-, emphatically." Then, with a rippling laugh: "Dren, you aro deliciously entertaining. What would wo do without our one small gentleman?"

There was a dash of triumph in her voice. She had kept the faith. Sho had promised Strong to "see that ali'air of Adrieu's wife and boy properly attended to." She was nko keeping that other I promise about Mamie Colyer. Her whispered farewell to Strong, "Sheshall not leave me until her father or her lev claims her, had assumed tho aspect of a solemn obligation, and tho professor's daughter had become a valued member of that little colony of heroic women who tilled tho big house at Sans Souci with an ati:1'.sphere of cheerful effort and brave endurance, without which its dcsclr.tc '. t::t:s wculd have been given over to drrpair.

But tattler aurt lever still tarried— tarried through tho signless days when hope, finding nothing to feed upon sickened ami died tarried through the short gray days of a bomber winter, when tho uugathcred crops of Sans Souci, missing tho harvester's hand, whit-1 oned and fell earthward, as unearcd for as tho winter's snow tarried throneh spring's re::tu-rection days, when the birds sang Resurgena and built their nests in the apple troos that shed their blossoms ovee the tangled flower boils, in Gabriella's neglected garden tarried through tho long, hot summer hours, when tho women applied themselves to inventive work and Seth grew more stooping with each day's labor over tho growing vegetables that must bo served on the madam's table, lie had promised to tako good caro of all these women, and, with the patient watchfulness of a faithful dog, he was doifig it. Into the inner temple,of their anxieties and their emotions he could not enter, even with the sandled feet of reverence, but that neither by day nor Ly night physical harm should como to them he had! sworn, and ho, too, was keeping the faith, carrying about with him the smoldering lircs of his thwarted ambitions, chiding himself for tho mean envy that would leap up fiercely in his heart whenever ho thought of "the rest of the fellows.

Liza was "solid comfort" to him in those days. She would come out to him I where ho was hoeing tho cabbages or watering the asparagus bed to "talk over things," their chief topic being

Adrieu's affairs. How queerly it had all turned out' Annabel Simmers, tho daughter of a

Sliinglcton milliner, reigning almost supreme at Sans Souci I Liza accounted for it sagaciously: "After all, Sctli, it was tho general condition of affairs that made my task so easy. Do you suppose if 1 had walked up to old Mrs. Strong during peace times, with Adrien just off on onoof his pleasure jaunts, and presented Annabel and that boy with the very samo evidence, sho would even havo heard me to the end?" "No, sir," said Seth, drawing the hone briskly across the edge of his hoe. "Not sho. But it was all so entirely different. Tho governor just gone

Adrien reported wounded, everything that was startling and incredible be como everyday, happenings, tho boy 60 appealingly beautiful and Annabel so conspicuously in a decline that tin milliner sido of tho house will soon be eliminated, tho madam so desolate and the old houso so empty—really, tho affair adjusted itself, Seth. Any goose could havo done iw nwvdi."

JLiza was thinking about all of this herself, sitting there on tho sunny sido gallery of the big house, where tho Lamarque roses clambered. Dren's modest' assertion that his grandmother could not do without liim had made her smilo and—remember. Sho was thinking of

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that morning, 12 months since it had dawned, when she, trembling with nervousness, had gone boldly into tho madam's presence and told her all thero was to tell her about Adrien's wifo and child. Ah, well, it had turned out all right for everybody but Amy Chambliss. "Poor Amy!" "Poor who?"

Sho had not known sho had sighed tho words audibly. She had forgotten all about Dren. Forgotten that ho was still standing thero "watching his hat grow," with his short legs planted far I apart, his tumbled yellow curls, softly moved by the wind that filtered through tho rose trellis, lying in shining masses on his shoulders, a beautiful specimen of tho young aristocrat, whose plebeian strain was strangely and mercifully hidden so far from sight.

Adrien was not given to long sileuco himself, and distinctly disapproved of them in any ono upon whom ho was for the time being dependent for his entertainment. "My grandmother says my father used to l'ido 'Stonewall Jackson,' nodding toward tho tailless, eyeless and mancless hobbyhorse, "but ho wasn't called 'Stonewall Jackson' then, llo was called'Tim.' Just plain 'Tim.' My grandmother says when tho men stop fighting and all of her people come back homo she is going to mako her carriage driver break a sure enough pony for mo —not a wooden horsa Her carriage driver is Undo Dolbcar, only thero ain't any horses hero now.'' "Y'ou aro a fortunate boy, Dren.

What would you do without your grandmother?" said Liza, placing tho hat crown softly on top of the shining yellow curls. .O-' "What would my grandmother do without me?" "You insufferable little egotist 1" "What is an e—a—what?" Then, oblivious of all etymological interests, "I see your mother coming up the walk. I What makes her puff so? My grandmother don't puff and get red in tho face when sho walks fast."

Mrs. Martin was in truth waddling' toward them at a pace fuller of vigor

every blessed child I've got was born. With gusty sobs and gaspings that shook her ample form tempestuousl}? Mrs. Martin gavo vent to her feelings. "If I only could have nursed 'em, my dear, and asked Eben to forgive every cross word 1 ever spoko or ugly look 1 givo him, I could stand it better. But tci go that way—oh, my God, that way." "Tho way that thousands aro going everyday in these blood soaked times." "Well, that ever I should live to see the day! Is the world turned e'eati inside out, Liza, or is it only mo—pooir old Beck Martin that's lost heir seuses?"

Liza stooped to kiss the plain re(5 face, smiling pitifully into tho teai dimmed blue eyes. "1 think it is the world, mother, not you, that is turned topsy turvy. Think of Mrs. Strong, and it will help you to bear it. Not ft word Irom tho governor since he left, nor from her sou since that rumor of his beu'« wounded. Now 1 must go to Mamie, it' 1 don't want that wholo piece of cloth ruined." "It is tho stripes." Mrs. Martin thought of "tho madam" and dried her eyes. "Mamio says if you hadn't been so ambitious to be stylish, with yourpurplo stripes in them lowells. it would a-gono right. Every stripe's a different." width, llero, tako my sunbonnet,. "Well, you see, mimniio," said Liza, tying tho ugly headgear over her shining brown hair, "that piece of cloth is for our own dresses, and I should like* it to bo distinguishable—slightly so— from Unclo Dolbear's jacket, and Mammy Lucy's petticoats. Thero, now, that's dono. Dren!" sho held up her coils of plaited palmetto, "if you dara touch tlieso wlnlo I am up at tho loom houso I will not take a stitch iu your hat for a whole week.

Dren waited prudently until tho heavy front gate had swung to behind her retreating form, then flung defiances after her. "But my mother will. "Your mother, indeed!"

Mother Martin reproached herself in^ stantancously for the contempt that hadl

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tlian grace. Sho suit her errand a lew feet in advance cf herself: "Mamio says, for pity's sake, come up to tho loomroom, Liza She's got that leeso in a perl'tc' mn&s, and I'm' that groi 1 can't help straighten it out. Seth will-its to put that warp in tho lcc.ii when ho coui^s in i'-r his dinner I'll swap work with you." "I am si itching on Dren's everlasting hat. This rough rheumatic fingers. Perhaps you can help Mrs. Strong be Iter. I "What is sho driving at today? must blow a little before I help any body."

She had seated herself and was loosening the strings to her calico suubonnet. Adrien watched her gravely and answered her question promptly. "Sho is cutting up tho parlor curtains, my grandmother is." "Cutting up the parlor curtain."': ... & 'To make shirts for tho soldiers.

Liza supplied this supplemental in formation, while rolling the- loose plait into a coil. "Not them yellow i-aiin dami cuv tains, Liza. "Yes." "Why, that stuff cost 1'$ a yard It's satin brocade. It would a lasted lifetime. And them big, bare windows!" "Your sympathies seem to be with-' the denuded windows, mother Mine go' out to the men who will have to wear tho scratchy stiff things, with on mem as'oig as wasnt-owis.' £hc might a-l.igun .n rise up .-tab.-.

Mrs. Martin wailed,.-." They

moreen,' would a b'en good eno::g!i." "All cut up into trousers—fearfully and wonderfully cut garments they are too. Look alter Dren, mother Ai.naia.-l is asleep and everybody else up to tin eyes in getting that box ready for Cn clo Dolbcar to tako out to Sessumsport tomorrow." "What's going on at Sesstimsport?" "Tomorrow is the day the women arc to meet at tho courthouse, you know, to make up all those gorgeous shirts. Won't they make our soldiers look like regiments ol marching sunflowers?"' "Oh, Lawd, Liza Martin, you can mako a joke out of everything. As foi me, 1 don't sec where the joke comes in.'

Sho plucked at tho milled rim of her big sunbonnet, bringing it farther for-1 ward over her distressed face. A choking sob and audiblo suiliiing camo Irom iLs deep calico recesses "Mother! This comes of your goii:e up to the old house. It just makes yon miserable. As long as we have, torn it all to pieces and consented to stay here with Mrs. fctrong until tho men connback you hail best not go thero at ail.' "1 expect you aro right, honey. You most generally are. But Eben and mc were very happy up yonder ill tho quarters. in the old overseer's house, where

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xttbtiitlt in ijraccful li&tlcusncxs. crept into her voice, but it "was exasperating to see that milliner's daughter riding rough shod over everything and. everybody, just because sho had come on tho scene at a time when tho madam was that dazed and miserable about the war and the niggers and Adrien and: everything that sho wouldn't a-turned a dog of Adrieu's out of tho house—no. not even if it hud took possession of tho best bed in the spare room. Not that tho spare room looked any too good now, with the carpet sent off for soldiers' blankets and the moreen curtains cut up into soldiers' pants. Oh, Lord, what times! There she goes now.

This in reference to a querulous caU that floated through the open windows of the big parlor

Adriei: 1" "Here I am, mnmnVa?*" In tho long aperture a delicate faco was framed, and Adnui Strong's wife

palmetto hurts your I through it toward the cane settee that stood winter and summer ou tho front gallery of Saus Souci. "Adrien, go ask Grandma Strong please not to havo the. chicken fried o.-r dinner today 1 am so tired of grease,'* she. said languidly. "1 want it lried," said Adrien, composedly preparing to mount his hoi.i hone again. Jili "You bad, bad liny, (id instantly

Sho subsided in graceful lisi)esssi":

iipou tho settee, arranging her draperies in graceful folds. Mrs. Martin eyed her sor.rly That silken wrapper had been one of "the madam's best. A wrapper that she had worn at Saratoga and Capo May and elsewhere in tho splendid days when people had. lived at all But what could Adrieu's mother do, when his wifo laid, been "dumped down" at her door, with just ono skimp black alpaca div.-s to bless herselt with? The girl did look prettyin that soft apple blossom gown. Ut course Adru had been gulled by herflow i:•-

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iKT mother. Oh, Lord, what looks men were, to be sure. ..

TO UK CON TIN OK 11

Costly l'hiylng Curd**.

A pack of cards recently sold iis Paris for $100 was manufactured in?ie. reign of Queen Anne of England, sovereign being represented by ""to queen of hearts and her husbe if. Prince George of Denmark, by the o£ the same suit. The queens ot cFamonds, clubs and spades were ic— tivcly Queen Anne Sophia of IXnmi: the crown princess of Prussia ft he uSEa of Frederick William I.) and Pnnc

Anna of Russia, afterward czarina, 'i ho knaves represent pf-iminent diplonrUa of the period. A fine Italian eopp"T» plate pack of cards of the fifteenth »vo:tury was lately sold in London for

Sacred Chinese Nanibnr.

Five is the great sacred Chinese number. There are 5 "irtues, 5 colors (yellow, white, green, red and black), 3 household gods, 5 planets (Satura, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury), r» ranka of nobility, 5 tastes, 5 cardinal points (tho middle, east, west, south, -inil north, respectively), and 5 tones.

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bill heads see ..... Tut.

Journal Co..