St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1864-11-17

men sprnpg up the bank, the long foh
sounded, men. few, % atY,s ; It was a
battle. t{s;f,l Y..........,,.,.~,:., g,
,e. puss. she want dead 81 married, 81
gope away from the very roof that
young st. Ciead, had lain, :, i'll under
years before I dare 4 say she; has
grown some but she was a little. thing
yet aud. IT, she. had looked, won,aniy
when. she was a. Child, ahe;iiooked
strangely childlike now she was a vo:
man. T.. There is an expression, Of coun-
natural to some woman, that is
always childlikc !; and curiouslx enough
it 50 often accompanies as to almost
mean: patience and meekness Under
great calamity. -; - ,:
"A little earlier than St. Cloud and
Dana were talking Of her Piss sat in
Che low doorway Of the farmhouse sew
Ing. Short, low dropping ,curls clus-
terins asaiost her fathtly-crimsoned
cheek, and deep oatsurling l.shes firing
ed the bluc-veined eyelids:r AS she
now and then cast ezpectant..yet shrink
ing glapces down tie path, her, eyes
had the serious brightness Of = startled
child. Puss wasn't thinking of the
impending. battle; Living in a, very
secluded and ,by-place, she caught only
vague rumors. OF it. She thought. OF
the war sometimes often perhaps; ); but
she was full Of her own troubles, poor
Puss! and the conflict off yonder' had
not yet deadened with its roar the
clamor Of this other-a vital one, too,
in her own home. Her home plain
and bare enough one, but owing what
comfort it had TO- her: little hands, that
never ceased trying to brighten it.
never wearicd of j. caring for the o'd
man, whose sole housekeeper she had
been since her mother died, more than
ten years how. She was older than St
Cloud thought. -. .%,is
He had called Burbank broken with
drink who" he knew him; but there
had been vitality enough lett in him to
drug through these years since, getting
.iots broSth and worse with drink, and
leading Puss such lite as is not easily
described. ,>.--. ..-.
She never murnured though, and
when her mothers relatives would have
removed her from his control, she ul-
ways said in her little quiet, unanswer-
able way, II promised mother, you
know, aud he's all I've got besides"
and staid.
Burbank was afraid of her leaving
him and after one Of these scenes used
to hang aboat her in pitiful kind Of
gratitude, that: half maudlin as it was
used to make her heart overflow with
loving tenderness toward him.
!, She should never be sorry, that she
should not, for staying with her old
father She'd get her reward some of
these days; and one night he told her
what it was to be.
There was bold, bad, toatse man
with whom Burbank had of late form
ed drunken intimacy. That he led her
father into even deeper excesses than
he Would seek himself Piss was very
sure, and aside from his natural repul-
siveness, that hade him hateful to her.
She shuddered at his very presence,
but endured till her father commanded
her. to receive him as hef fut6fe hus-
band. This sho utterly refused to do !;
but, emboldened by the old mans en-.
couragement, and the girls hell fless-
ness, the rufian continued to perseeate
her with his loathesome suit. Po>r
Puss Her. mothers friends had gone
away from that part Of the country !;
she and her fathet lived very isolated
lives, and she had nobody but God and
herself to look: to for protection from
this danger-this outage, which Bur-
bank in his drunken dotage was capa-
bic of perpetrating. ...>.. :
Suddenly, as she sat sewing, she
heard the approaching voices Of her
father and this man, who was always
with him now, and shrank within the
house. The two sat down to the meal
that waited them, and Puss, after wait.
ing upon them, rctreated to the window
and resumed, her sewing, bctrayine no
consciousness OF having heard Mallory 5
coarse flattery. While they were eat
ing the first sullen boom of the attack:
ing cannon sounded, and the two men
started up. ,azs*ii III ;tS 4so&. :