Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-01-27
From the New York Independent.
THE HARD TIMES.
what Aunt Hester Says of Them.

There is perfect furor of enthusiasm in
our ward The ladies are doing wonders and
miracles in the way of work for the soldiers, !"
said Miss Pauline, settling her flounces grace
fully about the ottoman.
My Aunt Hester gave little, quick laugh
the tone of which l understood, though Miss
Pauline, did not. looked up at her, but she
was quietly intent on her knittng-it was
thick, heavy sock, ribbed all the way to the
foot
"Such sacrifices as our ladies do make-it
is Unprecedented Miss Pauline proceeded to
say. Pauline inherited some French blood,
which might, perhaps, account for what my
little sister Rose called her "excLdmtiouS way"
"Y IS, replied, hesitatingly, 'the girls of
Carthage to be sure cut off their hair for bow
strings, but that wasn't much. I've often
wished had an excuse to cut off mine, it is so
much trouble to dress it,"
ooh, DEAR" said Miss Pauline, in dismay,
"that would be a sacrifice" She wore hers in
long, picturesque, jetty curls.
eve doubtless make as great sacrifices as
any woman ever did in the cause of freedom
giving up our friends to 90 to the battle
field" added,
you don't know what you are talking
about girls here broke in Aunt Hester,
brusquely. Sacrifices % she exclaimed con
temptuously, looking at Miss Pauline's feath-
ers as she spoke, 81 should think you'd know
better, Julia"
did know better, but was partly tr*ing to
fall in politely with Paulne's way Of talking,
and partly thinking of cousin Lewis, who went
in the company that started last week.
said nothing, however
"My father was among the men that fought
for the old eagle first OF all, said Aunt Hes
ter my mother kept us little ones alive
there were seven oil us-On a little meal a little
rye, and little Indian, Tor months and we
were just as hungry, and l don't know but
hungrier, when we had eaten our bit OF bread,
than we were before, though my teeth used to
long to bite into something We would chew
bark and gum and bits OF straw to keep our
teeth in practice, and then we went to the
woods for checkerberry leaves, and sometimes
we had berries. One day we got no dinner
and faint clamor had assailed mothers ears
for an hour OF two. Ii grew stronger, until
at last we all got round her and took hold Of
her dress and yeIledi just like pack of hungry
wolves suppose. My mother laid down her
work-She, too, 'sewed for the soldiers, yes
and Aunt Hester dropped her work in her lap,
and looked as though she saw a great way off
land she woye the cloth and she spun the
flax, and she raised the flax that it was made
OF, and every needleiul Of thread it was sewed
with. There was old John Moens, who was mt
very bright and he didn't 20 a soldering with
the rest, and he used to 60 about and swingle
out the flax. Well, as | was saying mother
laid down the linen garment she was making,
('American manufacture mind you,) and
looking very cheerfully at u.s. lose up. Come
children said she, Il am going to show you
something Little Eben took hold of one of
her hands and of the other the rest follow
ed after She led us across the moving out
to the rye field.
Just look here, children she said, 'it won't
be many weeks and there will be bushels and
bushels Of ripe grain here, and then we shall
send 1t OIL 10 the mill, and the meal will come
home, and we'll have us much bread as we
can eat Then she began to sing a little
hymn to herself p 'or woman she hadn't
eaten a mouthtul that day, and her heart
ached in her Tor her children, but we didn' t
know it then, and we caught her cheerful way
as the hill tops one by one catch the sunlight
after q tempest. People talk of hard times
nowadays-poOr things Why, how much
are the msn who have gone out OF this city
missed in the way of business / grant you
that some few women feel it, but they are
taken care of by the resi-. In the days I've
been telling you of, there weren't men enough
left to raise the crops or to harvest them
when they were raised, and the women had
to do it-some with little babies, most all with
lllll6 W TAKE care VI 10 Keep from
starving; no factories no stores, or shops, or
markets when you got out of Boston no men
but the infirm ones left behind and the soldiers
suffering for clothes-coudn't make up a box
and send it to them on the cars any time you
see. My father said when CORVALLIS surren
dered his men were all dressed splendidly
even to the common soldiers with their red
coats and powdered hair and as they passed
through our lines, half of our men barefoot
and their clothes bunch of rags about them,
he heard them mutter between their cenched
teeth, TO be obliged to submit to such scoun-
drels 1t was more than they could bear, he
said, and the old lady laughed triumphantlv.
as though she saw it in panorama. After a
little pause she went on "Such qossdmeT
girls as we have now-bah They can't even
stay alone in the house of an evening when
there's nothing on earth to be afraid of but
the dark Their grandmothers endured and
accomplished ten times over enough to kill
them outright. don't know but this war is
sent to put some resolution into the ladies. as
well as to shake some conceit out of the lords.
we are all of such noble blood in these days
there are no men and women, | believe!
you are too satirical. Miss Hester" said
our caller, rising "but must go to the ward
rooms good morning" and she passed grace
fully out.
Aunt Hester rose too and went into her own
room, which opened out of the parlor In q
minute heard her reading aloud to herself
The door being ajar | caught these words
ut is no hard matter for many to be shu
up in the hands of few and with the Goo
OF heaven it is all one, to deliver with grea
multitude or small company for the victor,
OF battle standeth not in the multitude of
host; but strength cometh from heaven The,
come against us in much pride and iniquity t
destroy us and our wives and children, and t
spoll US but we fight for our lives and on
laws"
Providence, /.
From the National IntelIIeenccr. Jan. %.
Lntcrc.tIum IEelIr. ~ 49,.