The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-04-20
Selected storm.
A Case OF Aphasia.

of men, but he made more preparations,
also. A keen, conservative insight, in
herited from canny Scotch ancestry,
enabled him to pierce the cheerful OPP.
tinism of the times, and beneath 1t he
foresaw disaster and defeat. A phrase
that was afterward on every b. dy's lips
was on his own from the beginning.
They have too many men," he said,
"and too much money"
So, while alive to the voice of duty, he
prepared for what he believed to be the
Inevitable. AT no little sacrifice he
turned the bulk of what he possesst d
into cash-into gold. Lands, houses,
stock and slaves all went. There were
many Southern planters who did this
thing, but none on nearly so large a
scale. When the transformation was
effected, he locked the great mass of
coin in an iron chest, studded with
round bolts, of pattern known as the
salamander " in those days, and beat
the key to fragments on an anvil. The
chest itself he hid secretly behind the
casing of the great hall chimney-piece,
and then marched off to war and his
home place never saw him again, for a
bullet at Missionary Ridge found its
billet in his hea art
The dead soldier had been glad in the
midst of his troubles that his family
was small. There were only two chill
dren, boy and girl-little things when
he went away, but they grew sturdily in
the tumuluous years that followt his
departure. The girl was called Anna,
the boy Will. To them the war was
one long stretch of keen excitement.
Their father, dead to the eternal frame
of things, lived wildly enough in their
recollection. They recalled each little
thing, his strange Announcements, the
tremor in his voice, how his stiff beard
brushed their lips when be kissed them
good. bye, and Will chafed bitterly that
he was not old enough to shoulder a
musket and 90, too. The homestead
had been left in the sacrifice, with
enough of the farm to support the little
family, and through the long, agonizing
years that came and went, Mrs. Alden
was spared at least one thought that
tortured many another soldiers wife.
With inexpressible thankfulness she
realized how wise her husband had
been in providing against the future,
and, come what might, she knew that
in the secret store behind the chimney
piece there was enough and more than
enough for all Often when she and
the children were sure they were quite
alone, they spoke of this, and as the
war drew near its close, began to form
vague plans for the future.
Then came the never-to- be-forgotten
time when the great living scythe of
Sherman's army moved its swath
through Georgia to the sea. The path
way of the destroying legions lay near
the Alden farm, and day by day, through
little " deadening" that interviewed,
they saw the onward sweep of vast
battalions, horse and foot, cannon and
tumbrel, and heard on every breeze the
rattle of the drums, the scream of flies,
and wild, wide echoes of the soldiers
songs. The little settlement was seized
with panic, for Iumors of plumber and
rapine had reached folks ears. Nor
were these fears without foundation,
for it was past denial that in that great
mass of men there were many who
took up arms for loot and not for war.
Such crimes, when known, were mer-
cilessly punished by the officers in COM
mand, but too often they were unde-
tected, and many foul deed was done
that never saw the light, and these
things, magnified by common report,
filled the whole section with terror and
apprehension.
On the evening of the fourth day,
when session in the line of march
had left the place in comparative quiet,
the household were grouped upon the
porch, peering anXiously toward the
road. 1t was growing dark, but sud-
denly, among the pines, they distin-
guished struggling body of men push
ing toward them. Something sinister
in their appearance, something wild
and lawless in their advance, quite diff
ferent from the ordered moveme nts of
the troops, told them that the dread ma
RAIDERS were at hand. At the right of
the mansion lay field of growing corn,
and toward this the little group fled pre-
cipitately. There, with a few negroes
who had remained faithful, they
crouched among the stalks and heard
the wells of the plunderers as they took
possession of the house. They heard
the clash of violently-opened doors, the
slam of shutters and the eager pound
ing of feet upon the stairs; lights
flashed from window to window, and
presently, above the other tumult, a
fusilade of musketry doomed duly
through the air.
How long they lay in the cornfeld
they never knew. 1t seemed to them
hours, but at last darkness and silence
assured them that the unwelcome visit
ors had departed, and they crept back.
AT the threshold of the hall Mrs. Alden
stopped with an irrepressible groan, for
there by the fireplace the wainscotng
had been wrenched apart, the treasure
cache gaped open, and the box was
gone. This shock fairly benumbed hel
senses, and she walked through the
ravaged house like one in dream. Al
the rear there were the visible marks OF
struggle. The trampled bushes, fence
torn down and benches overturned, al
bore witness that conflict of some
kind had taken place on the spot She
stepped aside, and her feet strucl
against body in the grass.
Jesus, marsterl" screamed one o.