The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-12-25
ACROSS THE MERIDIAN.

Kortlandt drew his horse to a halt
as he breasted the brow of the hill land
lifted the cap from his head that he
might enjoy to the full the soft, deli
cious breeze. Perhaps only one who like
himself had newly come from the
crowded amphitheater of the lecture
room of a. medical college, and from
daily witness of mental and physical
! sufferings by the bed-sides of it's hos.
pital wards, could have felt, as he did
intensified by powerful contrast, the
stiffness, beauty and peace af what he
looked on.
It was the field CT one of the great
battles of the late war. ground made
holy by heroic blood-heroic, whether
the hearts which throbbed forth were
bursting with triumph or breaking with
defeat.
So thought the young physician as
his eyes wandered over the scene, dis
covering few marks to indicate that
once this valley had seethed with fire
and smoke and struggling human
forms, and the whole air had been a
shrek of agony and strife. Twenty
years had done their work, and ma
ture, which permits no desolation,
had sown thefurrowed land with grass
and blooming flowers, which swayed
and swung in the spring air as if in uni
son with the humming bees above
them. But as he dismounted and led
his horse down the hill he discovered
traces of the battle which had escaped
his eyes from above. Now and then
his horses hoof struck the rusty met
al of dismantled gun, buried beneath
it's brambles, and further on he found
mounds, marked here and there with
a wooden slab, its inscription effaced
by the rains of years.
AS Kortlandt rose from vain en-
deavor to deeipher one of these, a fig
ure appeared from the woods near by,
and after momentary pause of the
first surprise of seeing him, continued
steadily to advance along the path
which led within a few yards of his
side. The figure was that of woman,
poorly clad, but tall and graceful, and
moving with peculiar strength and
freedom of motion. Kortlandt wait
ed until she was near him and then
said:
II beg your pardon, but can you in
form me what graves are these?"
The woman stopped abruptly as
the tones of the clear northern voice
reached her, and suddenly turning up
ON him, her face until then concealed
beneath the brim of the coarse straw
hat which she wore. 1t was JilaSs of a
girl, brunette and brilliant, illumipat-
ed with pair of glowing eyes, which
now fixed themselves upon him.
"You must have come from very far
away not to know whose are the
graves that you are standing on" she
said, in d voice which did not owe it's
peculiar intonation to- the southern
dialect in which she spoke.
''You are right" he replied, sur
prised at her beauty and manner;
"my home is as far away as the SHOWS
of winter from these southern flow
ers."
A look of intense bitterness entered
the girls face. "You are from the
North" she said. Her eyes flashed.
81 will tell y ou whose are the graves
upon which you are treading. They
are those of the rebels whom you de-
feated," proudly; "they are those of
the martyrs, the heroes, who starved
and froze, who gave up home, family,
wealth and life in protection of their
rights and freedom and whom Won of
the North in your overpowering
strength of wealth and numbers con
quered and killed. Yonder upon the
hill are those of my father and moth
er-he killed by your bullets and she
by the agony of his death. And all
these are mine, mine since own the
sacred earth in which they rest. OH
that l possessed the power to protect
their resting place from the insult of
Yankees presence"
Kortlandt looked into the girls
flushed and flushing face in a very
maze of astonishment. But her con-
Guiding words aroused his anger, and
he drew himself up with the color
mounting to his brows. Controlling
himself with an effort he lifted his cap,
and, bowling, said with cold courtesy,
in singular contrast to her fire: ''That
being the case, mademoiselle, I shall
not linger to bid adieu. But permit
me to reassure you; you possess power
to protect yorr heroes resting place
in two-edged sword" and with an