The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-11-29
WHOLE No. 2,181

my mother used to make me say my
prayers for father every night and she
would try to join in them and hide hel
tears.
1t was in the Spring of the third yeal
| met BIZ Shelby. We were all happy
then, because my father had got a fur
Tough for week, and he had been
staying at home with US, and bidding
Us to hope and have faith in the end.
| did not know it then, but | see @r.aW
that he must have come home secretly
for he wore no uniform, and stayed in
the house most of the time, only seeing
many men who came to see him. |
| suppose he was recruiting; and my
! Uncle Albert had been with us, too.
He lived in North Carolina, and one
morning at dawn he rode up to the
door with some twenty men, stout fell
lows, all going North. North Carolina
men they were; tarheelers, you call
them only there is no turpentine up
N our mountains, nor any of the kind
Of men you call tarheelers.
And ! remember the morning that
they came my father told me I might
play about the mill all | liked, but
was not to leave it; and if any man
passed by | was not to tell him that we
had any one with US -; for there were
rebels spies about by this time, and
they knew my father was a Union man
and many houses had been burned
down on IIolston and the French
Broad, though the rebels had never
come up to our little place.
Well, all these men with Uncle Al
bert, came into our house in the early
morning for they had come over the
mountain from Carolina in the night,
and We're on their way North to join
the Unions armies. They knew that
they could stop for a hiding place in
pretty much every house in our part OF
the country: but it was not safe to
travel down in the valley by daylight
and they were waiting in cur house till
| the evening before they started of
| again. | don't suppose excepting at
weddings or funerals) there had been
SO many men in our hall since the old
carved staircase had been brought from
Norfolk, after the war and | remem-
Der my father told them the story OF
this, as they sat about the great log
fire, drinking apple-jack and the old
flag with its thirteen stars was brought
down ard lay across the table, and
they fell 10 admirlng it, for they had
not seen the like in three years.
Our great hall used to have the fire.
place on the further side, filling up all
that end of the room and the famous
staircase ran up as you entered and
around the chimney-place were all the
guns and rifles the family had ever
owned, good or bad, hung on antlers
and bears claws and the fiat stones OF
the floor were covered with skins. And
my father had been reading the Bible
and morning prayers longer than usual,
for it was q Saturday; and there the
men were sitting about the fire. Now
a big log fire is all very well in the
early dawn, even of a May morning
in our country wood is rubbish and
on that day, l remember, the highest
forests of the mountains were all sill
vered with the frozen fog. And a
beautiful thing this frozen fog in the
early sunrise, especially with the rich,
pink glow Of the Towering laurel down
below. But, as the sun came higher
and shone down to us in the valley it
grew very warm, and after smoking
many dozens Of corncob pipes and
telling all the stories they knew, and
how the war was going on, most of the
men scattered about in various places
and went to sicep-some in the hall,
some in the bedrooms, and some even
in the barn-for they had been up all
night, coming over the mountains from
Carolina. 1t was then my father told
me might 90 out and play around the
mill. And I left him sitting with my
mother, she no longer now in tears.
1t was a long time since the mill had
done any grinding, and already the
wheel was getting a little messy and
soft with the rot. | turned on the
brook once or twice over the wheel,
pushing the slide well out, just to see
how the fall would go, and to keep the
lilies in the waterway from dropping
(and it was well | had the habit of this
for these lilies and long grasses saved
a mans life, as you shall see,) and
then l sat, looking across the valley,
which was SO sweet, just then, with the
May morning.
The frozen fog had been summed off
the mountains long before this but
the rosy glow of the laurel was deeper
and more rich than ever. | was look
ing down the road towards Tennessee !;
| believe they had a Waterman on the
other side of the house, the Carolina
side but no one expected any danger
from the North, and one good nights
ridewould take my uncle and his friends
well OF, almost into Western Virginia,
where they would be safe.
l was growing sleepy, with the
first feeling Of the Summer, and my
eyes b;inked once or twice, and when
| opened them a horscman stood be-
side M, with heavy spurs, SLOUGH