Morning journal and courier., 1894-01-13
CHARITY ATIELD.

CHARITY AFIELD.
 Ten years had passed North and south the shadows of hate and strife lay close upon 6 shuddering laEd. Because few cunning leaders had go willed, 6 million Americans, thoee wearing the blue under the old standard, those wearing the gray under a new, sought like frepzled beasts each others lives. North and south the strength and light had gone, perhaps nsv- or to return, from out million happy homss; and at Maple Hill, the trembling hearts of Grsndms Hull, of Mary, now . swest-eysd laes of fifteen, and of faithful Jane and Josh, were ceaselessiy qutverine in dire expectancy from every ar-born1 thrilling echo of the dreadful conflict; fo, somswh in it's thick and heat was thu only son of Grandma Hull.
 Along the blackened war fields Sher l mans oonquering hosts had fought iron Chicamaugs to Atlanta and beyond. Th' cruel sacrifice of Atlanta had been made
 Intoxicated with victory. onward swep | Some thousands of Federal troops hat been turned back to battle with the rsv | and reckless Hood and his heroic band, 8 l with luokless valor they assaulted straaeti
 northern bases of supplies, and, barefoote'
 and starving, were now msnaoing the cit, of Nashville.
 Another wild November night had come
 Train loads of northern troops, chiefly o
 6sld artillery commands, had been sum
 moned to the beleagured city from Chatta
 noogs. Here horses, guns, caissons, linn
 packed roof high in the scant freight car
 ready for being hurried forward. The in
 sxorabls order to the half clad, half. fed
 march-exhauated mon had been: "Rid
 on the car roefs-or fall off" Standin
 knee deep in the freezing mud, beaten on,
 stung by bitter storm of snow and slest
 both officers and men were in Q ssvsz,
 mood almost of ferocity and mutiny. | War takes no heed of breaking hearts l and Richard Hull's was one. Half frozen desolate, desperate, he tramped his guards mans beat beside the laden train until tn signal for its departure. That very hou Jeff Dean, soldier in the Massachusstt Thirty ninth, had shown him letter iron ! Squire Slater. It had Ruardedly, but stil
 surely, said that when Dick Hull's mothe | and slater were dead, aud Maple Hill solt | for debt, and in the hauds of strangers doubtless Dick Hull would never care t.
 see Maple Valley again.
 There are moments in lives when th human soul first knows the awful prison l ment of utter loneliness and despair Such a one was this to the boy-soldis there. But in this very moment oam that infinite saving consciousness of tn human peril of others. A thousand refu gees, ground between the teeth of war ant the victims of soul-sickening indfgnities ! were huddled in and about the railws, l station. A mau and @ woman crept shiv ! sripgly from these to here Dick trampst
 his beat. They begged of him piteousl,
 the mereiful privilege of passage toward
 the north and their friends on that train Something in the woman's manner, tn,
 mans voice, and even in their skulkin,
 ways, swept host of tender recollection
 upon the soldiers memory. He knev | where there were two grim old cannon il
 the very car he was guarding. Unds these was bit of spare room on which h,
 himself had set store. But there ar | greater heroisms than on the field of bat
 tle. In there among the blackened howit zeers, at the risk of oourt-msrtial, the re fugees were smugelsd, and fortiAcatio, l of tsrpsulins, water buckets and cam1 kettles built about them, lending them t
 friends and safety; while Richard Hull
 with numbing limbs and bursting heart upon the icy car roof, like q soldier tru did battle with the night and storm.