Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-05-23

Sedwick to drop them for her, and when hoe
ing time came, she and Susan hoed It, while
Seuwlck did the best he could at pulling
weeds, and Bess ran actively and r0selessly
ABOUT, picking up angle worms ami treading
on the hills.
The season wore round thus, and still the
interchangeable industry of Mrs. Riley kept ap-
pearances very much as they were. The COW
shed had several extra windows perhaps, not
lett by the carpenter, and the COW herself
showeda hide of hair that pointed several DIFF
lerent ways, but appearances were, if the
truth was known, not 50 much against Mrs
klieyS management after all. Said COW and
COW shed had never been kept in state of
perfect repair. The hens and turkeys always
TOOK care OF themselves, and of course they
looked as well as ever. The old horse, habit
ually light in flesh, may have betrayed his
rios Il trlt1e palmer, and possibly the pig was a
shaving less fat; but let nothing be said about
tribes where the only wonder is that the wo-
man, left by her husband and three sons
should keep her family together at all, and,
much more, cultivate her farm. When con-
Scription goes through our towns and cities,
sweeping every able. bodied man away, we
shall see how many women there are like
her.
with all this outdoor labor, Sue Riley did
not so far forget the ''shop" as to justify the
taking down Of the old shingle:
doors & SHUs MAD & MENDED HER"
When customers came and left work before
they knew that John was gone, she continued
TO do 1t, and did it SO well that they kept on
bringing, and the good woman had all she
could do with her cobbling and farming to-
gether, you may be sure.
Meantime she was kept informed tolerably
well Of the movements of her husband and
boys, for though all of them were but inditf'er-
erent writer's, she depended on Susan to de-
cipher the letters when they came, for not
word could she read of good or bad writing
yet they made up in frequency and pth what
they lacked in penmanship and rhetoric.
Their regiments did duty most of the year in
western Virginia. The Rieys had enlisted in
two regiments, the father and youngest son
IN one, and John and James in the other, and
1t Jared with them about alike.
In October letter came from John, bear
ing IN rustic but touching phrase bad news
mingled with good
CAMP CREME RIDGE, Sep Twenty.
Deer Mother "A Crate battles ben fit &
wev beat but mother that amt all the 49th got
cut up wustn wee did & fathers ded | donno
nu!her what'll becum poor little pat fur they
say hess wounded tn but | cant git leeve to go
see INN u weer ordird to march to morrer at
o'clock with 3 days rashunS & God help us
coodnt ye cum mother to find pat & leeve Sue
long with the chl4drun mother wars terri
bic thing anyhow but father dyd in the thick
OF the tito jist as mabbe God bless We mother
cum il ye can JimS well and sends love. Your
son JoHN.
There was enough of natural affection in
that rough Riley family: deep, genuine, down
right lore. 1t one member possessed it more
than any of the rest it was the mother.
Bluntly and coarsely as she always talked,
and hard featured as she was to look upon,
no poetess ever had a richer vein of human
sentiment than Mrs. Riley, and Florence
Nightingale herself could not handle case
The news of her husbands death came with
sudden stroke that almost felled her to the
floor. But she bore up till her work was done
that day, aud let the younger eyes shed the
tears.
"Why don't you cry, mother?' said little
BeSs, who was sobbing with Susan and Sed-
wick over grief she could not understand;
but the pale, thin lips of the mother did not
move.
In the middle of that night, long after sleep
had stolen over the children's sorrow, Susan
was awakened by grOan. She started up,
and found her mother sitting in the bed,
white, in the harvest moon that shone through
the one window, as a shrouded corpse.
Light a candle, Susan" she heard her
whisper, and then the terrified girl obeyed
and inquired, hurriedly, of her if she should
bring the camphor or heat some water. Mrs
Riley shook her head and said, family, Get
the Testament and read"
Susan got the book and asked where she
should read.
mo matter much. Open somewhere in the
middle"
And kneeling by the bed, with the candle in
her hand, the younger daughter read with
trembling voice and simple, unlearned en-
phasis, LET not your heart be troubled; We
believe in God believe lso in Me. In my
Fathers house are many mansions; if it were
not so | would have told you. l go to pre-
pare place for you
A low, faint cry from the bosom of the suf-
fering woman, and the girls voice was
drowned in the stormy, convulsive sobs that
shook the mex: instant through the strong
frame of Mrs. Riley, as if they would rend it
asunder.
The deep waters were loosed, and boarded
tears of half a life time seemed now to How
forth in one gush of irresistible sorrow. BY
and by the paroxysm passed. and she rose
from her face breathing long, deep breaths, as
if sweet sense of relief had come over her,
and lying down on her pillow, said softly,
''Good Lord, Thy will be done! Put the
book by, Susan, and-go to bed"
And the still hours of that moonlight night
rolled on to the day, and the unconscious chill
dren, unawakened, dreamed their happy
dreams, and the oldest daughter, sad, aston
ished but weary, went to sleep again before
the cock-crow; but of all within that poor
log hut after midnight passed, the mothers
sleep was the sweetest.
Hardly had the toling women gathered her
fall crop. Few hands made heavy work, and
it was slow and weary business indeed, to go
over the two acres hill by hill till all was DONE
The bulk of the harvest, however, was gath
cred in Gas good yield as could be expected)
when Johns Letter came. And the very next
day, leaving as good directions as she could
to Susan. and charging the younger children
to mind her, with a promise not to be gone
very long, Mrs. Riley was on her way to
Green Ridge, to find her wounded drummer
boy. The feelings of the wife that had SO
fiercely struggled well nigh to breaking her
heart, for her recent loss, were now subdued
and tranquil, as conscious that the old rela-
tionship had passed away with the husbands
ebbing blood to linger only in the silence OF
his grave, and all the mother awoke within
her as she turned from the dead to the living.
She was some nearer to her destination
when the cars left her at Shannon Dale Ter
minus, a village with seven houses. How to
get conveyance for the rest of the way was
the next question. Not even cart or oxen
could she find. At length an Unlocking negro
came along, to whom she applied for informa-