The palmetto herald. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1864-1864, 1864-06-09

Of course / had my revenge Tor tnls
inpertinence but that is neither here
nG there.
Late one afternoon the old man-his
name was James Weston-came hurried
" home with a troubled face.
s.Somehow," he said, ''it has been
found ont that you are here, and they
hsye threatened to burn the house over
nv head for giving you shelter, and to
~ Won forth hwitlls psy.s =.
had always expected to bediscoyered
sooner or later, and the old mans COM
munication did not startle me. y
Gan we have to do, then" said, is
to leave at once"
ssThat is easier said than done, he re-
plied. "Pickets are every where, and
It will be impossible to get away"
But I thought differently, and so after
a time, with many tears, the father and
daughter determined to attempt with me
to reach our lines. How much it cost
them to abandon their home and all the
precious belongings, to turn their faces
toward strange land and people, only
those who have suffered as they have
rdbne can ever know; but life was more
than estate, and that was in peril every
hour they remained.
That night we stole out under star
less sky, and with such light effects as
we could carry, set our faces Northward.
Patrols were all round us, but ] lodged
them all, how l can not tell. For days
we travelled on, following unfrequented
roads, sleeping often in forests and fields,
telling such tales as we could to avoid
detection; and at last, foot sore, weary.
with poor Jane half wild with fever,
reached the Tennessee, crossed over in
scow found ready to-our hands, and in
the midst of the thunder storm, that roll
ed with the noise Of thousand guns
along the heights of Lookout, came into
Chattanooga.
There, very soon, kindly hands sooth-
ed our WEAKNESS, nursed Jane into health,
and rubbed from our lives all the CRIME
and pain of our long journey. Then, one
day, said to Jane,
ave are under the old flag now, darl-
ing; am ready. to become its defender
again; shall we be married?"
!, with a blush she said Yes; and week
after we stood up before chaplain, and
with tough General Thomas looking on
% ray witness, were married; the flag
hanging over, US, its stars seeming to
shine down royal benediction upon our
union.
] Thus it was that the scratch OF nail
got me a wife, and as fair and sweet
wife as any soldier ever won.
Three months ago, when Sherman
dashed into the heart of Mississippi put
ting his hand on its veins and arteries,
and one day paid his compliments to the
town of Enterprise, l rode with others in
the van. Old James Westons house
found standing unmolested still, though
weeds were growing thrifty about its
door, and disorder appeared every where.
They told us rebel colonel occupied it
now as his own; but managed to save
itfrom destruction, thinking that perhaps
some day, when Mississippi is wholly re-
deemed, the rightful owner may return
and set up his altars afresh, with grand
children Of, the name of Smith prattiing
to him as the years grow Old.
r Already one ersndchild is his, tor last
week he wrote me from the home In
Vermont, where my dear ones abide,
IA fat, bouncing boy dropped into James
arms yesterday; and she says his name
Ia to be Enterprise Smith"
. Ay name is John Smith. But Enter
prise and a rusty nail gave me wife;
and it is only fair that my boy, Growing
in his mothers arms away up there IN
Vermont, should be called Enterprise