Litchfield enquirer., 1875-10-07

E thinking of the old graveyard on Prince ton hill, where the sod that covered hel
 little dead brother had been heavily weighed down with large stones piled ul on it, to keep the wolves from their ..hun ger sacrilege." as the parson called it;and she shuddered all over. You see she wa, kind O tuckered out with all her hard work through the summer, and nursin them two big young oneB beside. And then, she'd got narvous, and felt as though she'd oHght to have seen Tom afore She'd somehow got fancy q suppose. il was partly that she'd neglected him fol his babies; but told her over and over that takin' care of his babies was the same as takin' care of hims aud if people didn't show their love a-workin; for each other, I didn't see how they could,
 And then the Injuns, who lived all round Princeton in them days, come into her head. and she thought some cross fellow might come out of the woods and steal her horse and leave her right there torget homes she could- But just then she remembered her aunt Nixon she was named for. and how, when the Injuns came to Roxbury, close by Boston, and surrounded her house, and she all alone in it, she put the great oak bars up agin the door, and turned the big brass kettle over her baby to keep it from the arrows, and fired her husbands gun out of the winder till she druv them of. '.Katy, she said, says she I'm big as aunt Nixon; let me see, if the Injuns come, if can't be as brave." We'll, the baby was proper good and was sort O quiesed down by the cold air and jOlting. and in three honrs she got to Worcester, and the fust man she see in the street was John Hutchings, that sailed shipmate with Tom Mariner. He'd just got back from his third voyage that year, for he did nothin' else but go to sea, and bad news he had brought. Them Britishers had boarded the sloop on the fast voyage out and carried of Tom with their press-gang. He was just such strong fellow as they wanted, and they fixed on him right away and nobody could stop 1t. But his mate had his sea- chest and his back pay and his British bounty. which, wicked as they were to take him, they had sent to his wife. and even asked if he had one.
 John Hutchings said Katy never said nothin', only looked very white and kim der clutched the baby, till he told her what Tom said about wanting to get back to her, and how he fought the men that took him, and how he hoped to get home afore the little fellow came; then she cried right out, "Oh, Tom, Toml" and fell right of her horse.
 Well, he got her up somehow to her cousins, and she had samp and milk and baked beans and cherry bounce, that re- vived her up, and then she started tc come home all that lonesome path through the woods. She got back as ait was falling dark, and she come inter the kitchen where I was settin', most like Q ghost. She'd put up.the horse and given him some hay and some Oats.l and sent the the school-ma' 'am's brother tO water him, afore she said anything. Then she took the baby that had stayed to hum. and give him drink. He was all undrest and ready to go to bed. So when he dropped off we woke the other one, Rumus, it was, ana pnt his night-gown on him, and warm co nlsb shthtlsa 1ong fTds mada hini sIeepy1 and he soon went of. Then when they both were in the big cradle she begun to talk, and she said, A EaS 7 ,
 "Tom has been carried of for Brit ishee; but she never cried bit. asked her what she was goin' to do.
 Write to Washington and Boston to- night, and send Jerome"-that was the school-ma' 'am's brOther--''down to Wor- cester tomorrow with the letter.
 But the pony will be tired after to- day." says I.
 He can go on Brown Bill" says she. You see she'd been thinking it over, all the way back, and got her mind clear.
 Well, give her cup of tea as sweet and strong and hot as l could make il, and then, as l couldn't do nothing more for her, put on my things and went home across lots. Oh! afore went, she took out Toms pay, which was in g canvass bag in his chest, and which John Hutch 1ngs was glad enough to hand over so safe to her, and told me to put 1t away m the cupboard. asked her how much it was. and she said she didn't know, and. I sat down and counted it for her, and ft come to more'n fifty dollars, all in gold and sil- yer. He was proper smart to work. was Tom; but she want . bit glad over it. She said it seemed like the price of Toms blood; life, s'pose she meant.
 Jerome, when he came back from Wor- cester brought the news that war was de- clared between England and us, because they would have press-gangs and search warrants, vnd steal men out of our ships 10 man theirs, and we wouldn't bear it no longer.
 Oh, how worked up we was! Miss Mar iuer. Toms mother, used to come over with her knittin'-work and bIg patch.bag on mail days to see Katy and the children, and hope for some news of Tom. By'm- by letter did come. He was we'll had his pay reg1ar, and was watching his chance to get away; then nothif' more comes for months and months. Katy Ianaged the farm somehow. and the neighbOrs would get her hay in for her and do her plowin,, and she did the rest. Everything she sot her hand to did we'll, and everything grew. especially the child ren, and the oleander, that she thought sight of. She used to say, 'As long as that lives. Tom lives" and I've seen her many time hold her babies up to it. as soon as they took notice, and tell them their father sent it to their mother.
 Well, s'pose young thing like you don't remember when Decatur captured the Macedonian. That was British man. of-war, and one of the prisoners turned out to be . shipmate of Tom, carried of at the same time Tom vas, from the Live ly Peggy. He turned up, and he'd come out of his way. clear up to Princeton, to tell Katy about her husband. He said that Tom vent on shore in boat, in the Mediterranean Sea, and was caught by an Algerine Pirate who was watching the harboR for captives. He being an Ameri- can was not protected by the British flag, which was powerful enough to steal him but not to save him from the pirates. There was nobody to pay ransom for him, and John didn't know . bit what had be- come of him. ~44 zes
 Poor Katyl She had kep' up brave till then, but now she clear broke down. She was sick for week; didn't eat nothin' nor take no notice; but she didn't cry none, at least when anybody was round. wish she had. It would have eased her of some. 4...,... ...-..I..
 The shipmate brought her some more back pay, all in golden guineas, and Katy managed not to spend it, but to keep 1t agin the time when Tom should come back, though she was clear discouraged and never smiled for ever so long. Even ings, she'd take her boys up in her lap and talk to them about their father. and they sort of supported her. She took real comfort in those young ones and Crad-