Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-04-21


quieter color, and proposed to proceed
forthwith to quench that particular
desire. The Popps severally and
singly held their breath, while Absalom
fetched these sentences, and, at the
| fnish broke into agitated APP
plause, for Absalom never before
had been known to attempt the de-
| livery of dozen words at a time,
seeming quite able to convey all he
wished to say in very meager me-
dunn, so that this lingual burst of his
| was something quite startling. In
deed, the effect was so electrical the
| vent-pipes of julius eloquence were
| Immediately opened and proceeded to
| flow. Absalom was eminently a per-
son of action and not of words; in
evidence of this he jumped up and
| proceeded down town, coming back
| presently a tall, sun-burned, ordinary
| looking individual, clad in civilians
| dress, with his uniform dangling over
his arm.
Very happy were Ether and he as
they went about the residence portion
of the town looking for purchaseable
home that day. They had been mar.
| ried five years, but this was their first
| lay together. Little wonder is it, then,
that they well nigh forgot the object Of
sheir quest and wandered away across
the river among the wood-pastures and
| lost the day and the whole world in
| listening TO their whispering hearts.
| By the next day they were somewhat
| more attentive to sublinary things,
\ which resulted in their finding cot
! tage exactly to their eye upon the brow
of wooded slope, looking down upon
the cool and glistening mill-pond, and
! beyond that to the town. This they
presently purchased; for while Absa-
| lom had been one of the most dashing
and lion-like soldiers, with the face of
his scarcely-kissed wife ever before
him, he had not been improvident, and
ere long they were snugly settled in
their breezy home. Absalom went inn
mediately into the superintendent of
Joels mills by the river, and with
the flight of sunny twelvemonth
| he might have been seen sitting upon
| the veranda of the cottage, like some
| gigantic unclassitied kind of moth that
had been wallowing in pollen, with
| little blinking Heater upon either knee.
That this subdued and purring person,
well-nigh eclipsed by the twins and
| corn-meal and flour, could have been
one of the livelicst and bravcst of SOL
diers in the Army of the Potomac
seemed in the face of appearances
| something doubtful. However, that
was his reputation; for though he meyer
could be inveigled into recounting his
own valorous deeds, there were those
who never tired of talking of his
bravery and daring. Among these
| testimonials it was told how, lying in
the trenches before Petersburg where
every moving object was i'll danger of
being riddled by the watchful foe, Alb
4 S,al0 fiNyn .t.iT1
| occasion, and leaping upon the breast
| work ran for half mile along its top
! in a rain of leaden hail and
! jumped again into the trenches,
rcmarking that he felt easier
after it! Again it was told that when
he was a Lieutenant his Captain was
wounded and left upon the field in one
of the charges before Richmond in
which the Federals were repulsed and
driven back into the trenches. Absa-
lom, discovering this, sprang upon the
breastwork, looked sharply where his
superior had probably fallen, and dart
dcad-strewn field. A blaze gushed
along the line of the foe. and he ran
forward into the teeth of a tempest.
His cap was shot from his head, his
sword and scabbard were carried away,
but he brought the fallen officer from
the field and laid him down in the
trenches and said never a word. Thou
sands of threats sent up cheer after
cheer for the brave deed, and the
sword he carried in his hand when he
came home to OpcnstOne was the
sword that his company gave him when
he was made Captain. Whether or
not these "reminiscences, for there
were others of a kindred nature, had
IL, 3
could not at this distance be fairly
passed upon. But certain it is that one
seeing this alert and herculean fellow
90 about his daily business, might not
unreasonably suppose him capable of
a deal of bravery. But in the hands of
the twins, or more correctly with the
twins in hand, he was as helpless as
one could well imagine. Ether for a
long time lowered about on such occa-
sions with kind of breathlcss trepida-
ton. seeming well nigh as solicitous
fog the safety of the father as for the
twins. For at sundry times those
doughty bits of humanity being en-
throned upon either of his knees, each
with one of his huge hands rayed out
behind its back. had blinked and
gurglcd and shot forward shifting their
heads together, and Absalom, in his
frantic efforts to save them, had ended
by letting them run through his fingers
upon the floor in musical
and tangled mess. For some mo-
mcnts thereafter he would have a
very wild expression, and for hours
would be seemingly weak and I'M
strung, and twice after similar mis-
haps he had rushed sweating from the
presence of the twins. However, in
the main he was happy; especially on
those occasions when sitting by Ether
upon the veranda, he held the twins
successfully. Here the Popps often
came singly and en- masse. Yeslit, an
exceedingly volatile and high-spirited
creature, quite comedy of outline and
feature, with rather moist, large
mouth that talked unutterably fast,
| n,A o,rnr n,,.l nr,o,, o,,,:A4oI n l;1tlo "a