The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-09-09

or nothing, has smashed the telegraph
WIRE for that night. And before that
dispatch ever reached Wilmington the
navy agent was in the ofing in the Sea
Maid, ~ ~, g
"But perhaps the duplicate cot
through?" No, breathless reader. the
duplicate did not get through. The du-
plicate was taken by Faucon in the
mo. saw it. last week in Or.
Lieber's hands in Washington. Well,
all I know is that, if the duplicate had
got through, the Confederate Govern
ment would have had in March o chance
at 1921 muskets, which, as it was.
never left Belgium. So much for my
treading into that blessed piece of wire
on the shelf of the cedar closet, up
stairs.
"What was the bit of wire?''
Well, it was not telegraph wire. IF it
had been, it would have broken when it
was not wanted to. Don't you know
what it was? Go up in your own cedar
closets, and step about in the dark, and
see what brings up about your ankles.
Julia, poor child, cried her eyes ont
about it. When got well, enough to
get up, and as soon as I could talk and
plan with her, she brought down seven
of these old things Belmontes, simplex
eliptics and horrors without g. name
and she made a pile of them in the bed
room, and asked me, in the most peni.
tent way, what she should do whit them.
'sYou can't burn them" she said:
sc fire won't touch them. If you bury.
| them in the garden they come up at the
! second raking. IF you give them to the
servants they say sThank-e, missus,'
and throw them in the back passage.
If you give them to the poor, they
throw them into the street in front, and
do not say 'Thank-e.' Sarah sent sew
enteen over to the sword factory, and
the foreman swore at the boy and told
him he would fog him within an inch
OF his life if he brought any more of his
sauce there; and so-and So" sobbed
the poor child, ct just rolled up these
wretched things, and put them in the
cedar closet, hoping, you know, that
some day the Government would want
something, andwould advertise for them.
You know what a good thing made out
of the bottle corks."
In fact, she had sold our bottle corks
for 81 ,216 of the first issue. We after
ward bought two umbrellas and cork
screw with the money.
Well, I did not scold Julia. It was
certainly no fault of hers that was
walking on the lower shelf of her cedar
closet. I told her to make parcel of
the things, and the first time we went to
ride L hove the whole shapeless heap
into the river, without saying mass for
them.
But let no man think, or no woman,
that this was the end of the troubles.
AS I look back on that winter, and on
the spring Of 1855, it seems to me only
the beginning T got out on clutches at
last I had the office transferred to my
house, so that Lafarge and Hepburn
could work there at night and communi-
cate with me when could not go out !;
but mornings I hobbled up to the de-
partment, and sat with the chief, and
took his orders. All me! shall I soon
forget that damp winter morning, when
we all had such hope at the Office? One
or two of the army fellows looked in at
the window as they ran past, and we
knew that they felt well; and, though I
would not ask Old Wick-as we nick
named the chief-what was in the wind,
knew the time had come, and that the
lion meant to break the net this time.
I made an excuse to go home earlier than
usual rode down to the house in the
| Majors ambulance, I remember, and
hoped in to surprise Julia with the
good news, only to find that the whole
house was in quiet uproar. which shows
that something bad has happened of a
sudden. - -.
"What is it, Chloe?' said I, as the
old wench rushed by me with bucket
of water. .s.........
"Poor MI. George, I 'fraid he's dead,
sah."
And there he really was, dear, hand
some, bright George Schaff-the delight
of all the incest girls of Richmond; he
lay there on Aunt Eunice's bed on the
ground floor, where they had brought
him in. He was not dead, and he did
not die. He is making cotton in Texas
now. But he looked mighty near like
it then. The deep cut in his head was
the worst I ever had seen, and the blow
confused everything. When McGregor
got round he said it was not hopeless !;
butw were turned out of the room, and,
with one thing and another, he got the
boy out Of the swoon, and it proved his
| head was not broken.
No, but poor George swears to this
day it was better it had been, if it could
only have been broken in the right way,
and on the right field. For that even
ing we heard that everything had gone
wrong in the surprise. There we had
been waiting for one of those early fogs,
and at last the fog had come. And Jubal
EARLY had that morning pushed out
every man he had that could stand, and
they lay hid for three mortal hours,
within I don't know how near the picket
line at Fort Powhatan, only waiting for
! the shot which John Streight's party
was to fire at Wilson's wharf, as soon as
somebody on our left center advanced
in force on the enemy's line above Tur-
key island, sire tching across to Nanse-
mond. I am not in the War Depart
ment, and I forget whether he was to
advance en- barbette or by echelon of in
fantry. But he was to advance some-
how, and he knew how : and when he
advanced, as you see, that other man