Litchfield enquirer., 1879-12-04

fronted the south, and it was just too nice to go off and leave So Dick and set down there, and didn't say much for a good while just looked at the sky and the hills and woods It was about such night for moonlight as it is out there now, only there want no snow. Well, while we'd been ridin' I'd been tellin' Dick about my life, and what a rough time I'd had, and all that; and she'd said just the best things to me about it, and told me how sorry she was for me, and so on; and sittin' there on the'porch, we got to talkln the matter over agaln; and finally, the first l knowed, I'd said it-just asked her to marry me- fair and square Well, you just ought to "a seen her, stranger She was sttin' in kind O low chair, and the moon was a-shinin' right square into her face, so that could see her just as plain as day. She sat right still and trembled and just looked right down at her feet, and that made her eyelashes come clear down on to her cheeks. And she's got the longest and cleanest-cu eyelashes I ever see. We'll, she never said word for more'n five minutes. Lord, it seemed like young eternity to me |! And then she looked up, and her eyes was brim full O tears. She didn't really cry, you know but just had her eyes full O tears ready to fall and tremblin' like, there in the moon- light; and she looked at me for minute, and thenishe says. -and her voice kind O shook Little when she talked, Why, George 1!
 
 got to know me so well that she just called me George without thinkin'.) ''m nothIn' but a little girl, and you are man grown. never thought you come to see me because you wanted to marry me, but only because you liked me, just as liked you.' Now want that great speech to make to feller? Oh well, 1 took it all back, told her to play never sad it, and all that but somehow, after that night, she always seemed different It just 1 raI oLo ipfo oil in one night.
 ''It was long time afore l ever said any thing more to her about it. In fact, don't know as ever would "a said anything about it again, if she hadn't "a give me chance to. 1 used to go up there, just the same, and go ridin' with her, and all hat,-and we used to talk just the same, only about that. But night, 1 was sittin' alone out op the porch, where Pd been smokin' with the old man, and the first thing 1 knew she come and l kneeled right down afore me, and put both her hands into mine, and she says, George, l never answered that question you asked me so long ago. You haven't forgot it, have you? I've been thinkin' it all over, ever since, and 1 know now that I've loved yo1 all the time. 1 don't quite see how it is that you should love me; but know you do, or you wouldn't say so and so I've come to say yes. Well, stranger, may be you know little how | right there, on that old porch, begun little heaven below for me and Dick, and it haint let up yet, and we've seen some pretty rough times too, since then"
 He paused suddenly, bending forward and listening intently; then, with slight nod, he said ''That's all right. I was just waiting for us to strike bad joint on this grade. But Jack is up to it." He then resumed:
 '"This was along in the fall The old man l lT,;ryo for I ;p3 f,,o reckon 1 was good for about ten thousand tthem times and we never set no time to be married. But along in the winter had a hard run O luck. First went on a note for fel- Ter, and he broke, and 1 had 10 make it up. It was for someth1n over six thousand, and it run me pretty close to make the raise. That was when 1 sold Kit. Lord, but did hate to see her go. Then, after that one Sunday night, when went up to see Dick, the stable got atire, and burned up pretty much all 1 had left. Then in the spring the war broke out, and 1 always was a-blowin' round, talkin' just what 1 thought, no matter who heard, till i- nallY it got too hot to hold me in that region any longer and so l sold out Inost O what I'd got left. and skipped out between two days, and got off to the North. I didn't get a chance to see Dick afore left Of course we all expected the thing d be all over in few months any how, and then thought Dick and med be all right again. So come up here to Jackson, and pretty soon enlisted in the l Michigan Cavalry, and went south again. For | about year we was with ifaeck over on the Mississippi. but after while 1 got transferred l to Burnside's division, when he was over in East Tennessee after. the Rebs, and went with him up to Knoxville, and you see when I got there 1 was on my old stampin' ground. Lord, 1 never thought I'd come back to the old town 1 that kind O way.
 oil ffo, I tbn yi,,3 about Dick, and when got back to the vile ] was going to go right to work to hunt her up. But you see old Longstreet got after us, got in below us, you know, and shut off our | grub and it took about as good as we'd got in the shop to hold things level for while Pretty soon, we got whack at the old devil down at Fort Sanders, and we just everlast- ingly cleaned him out That let up the siege and we went back into Knoxville, and part of us boys was detailed to guard the city. While the seigc was gon on things had been runnn' pretty loose all over town, and they looked kind O rough; so, along about the middle O January, was put ln charge of | squad O men and teams to tidy up the city.
 All this time 1 hadn't heard a word from Dick or kDowed thing of her. You see, here | it was nlore'n two years and half since I'd see her. But bless your soul,, stranger. don't you think was afraid she had gone back on l lle-uOt nuCu lndt dlDL SIyle. 1Ou sec when a woman does as Dick didtha night out on the porch, she aint sagoin' to give up and take the first feller that comes along. Oh, 1 know there's plenty O men-and women, toO for that matter-that says they will but such folks haint never known such a woman as Dick.
 1 Well, one day I was out with my men | cleaTin' up, and rode into back yard-I | was on horseback-where there was big pile O chips, kind O all scattered round got oil | my horse and went to the oack door and 1 knocked. A woman come to see who was there and told her that if she didn't take care O them chips 1 should have to, and if she'd gotta rake,i I'd help her get lem into shape; and we talked away there while. She was kind O sassy some O them Reb l women was just old business in goin' for the boys and givin' fits gen'ally. So 1 stood there | talkin' with the old lady, and kind O devilin' her little, and the door swung open little more. and l saw there was another woman ID 1 the room. saw her dress right through the crack between the door and the frame. l didn't think much of it in particular, though always did somehow feel little kind O red in the face aud sink-hearted like, when I'd see woman that 1.couldn't get fair enough sight at to tell what she looked like, especially if she was about Dicks size.
 ''While me and the old woman was talkin' l there, this other woman somehow edged out, little by little, till the first I knowed looked 1 up, and as sure as shootin', stranger, there stood Dick! She was little taller than when saw her last, and looked pale and tired and | anxious like, just as though she was a-watch- in and a-watchin' for something to come, and l was all tuckered out 'watin' for it. .t
 Il tell you, it was about as much as want 1 ed to do to stand still, for about minute. knowed her as soon as got my eye on her, but she didn't know me, fer sure. You see I'd changed since she saw me last. I'd been | drinkin' right along, and wasred in the face. and had a full beard, -lI always shaved, as | am now, in the old days,-so it want no won dor she didn't know me. But I just stopped short on nay racket with the old woman, and looked Diek,right squareihthe eye. I couldn't stand it no longer. and | just says. tDickH and them There it is again, stranger! You see. when "a fellow is taikin' about such. things as these, there aint no words good enough to