The advocate., 1895-06-26

They break their manacles, to wear the name
OF freedom, craven on an heavier chain.
-CoLERIDGE
Nathaniel Stone had found great difference be-
tween the labor of the past summer and that which
had been required of him in the summers past.
Els pride had been so far Vanquished by necessity
that he had first accepted the assistance of his wife
as deld-hand, and had at last begun to require it
rs her duty; yet, even then, he sorely missed the
services of Sydney who had been something more
than q lsborer; had been an intelligence as well as
human machine. But not once had Nathaniel Stone
had the slightest misgiving that, in driving away
his son and thus deprVing himself of useful assist
ance on the farm, he was noble martyr to sub
inae principle that he was denying himself ease in
order to be loyal to "the grand old Commonwealth.
Mrs. Stone did not entertain the same view of her
husband's conduct and rising rebellion at home
somewhat distracted his attention from the late re.
belion against the Commonwealth. More than
once since Sydneys return from exile she had de-
cared:
Nathaniel, your unnatural conduct will yet make
nie despise you Most men would be proud of such
son as Sydney even if he should be so 'disoyal
that nobody in the Commonwealth would feel safe
IA stealing anybody else's farm. 1t has only been
few years since was living here on this farm with
sydney and in constant danger from the people who
called goW rebel disloyaP to your king. And
now I am living here deprived of the companion
ship Of Syney because you call him REBEL 'disoya'
To something OF other you call 'the grand old Com
lnonWealth Am l never to see any pleasure In
the world because of this nonsense about 'disloy-
atty TO somebody or other that ought to be knocked
on the headS tell you, Nathaniel, shall despse
you il you do not get to be man again and quit
being fool"
But Nathaniel" only looked upon these speeches
as part Of bis martydom, and took greater credit to
himself accordingly, for bis devotion to 'the grand
old Commonwealth" What this "grsnd old Com
monWealth" was he could not have told In
deed, Mrs. Stones persistence in demanding an OK.
planation Of "what it looked like" was one of his
greatest exasperations. "What is it? Is it the
land Or the people9 Or is it the governor, and the
iN8s, and the sheriff. What is this thing you are
M cgAp to that you treat your own son as an en-
Mrs. Stone could get no answer but "that it
pot intended that women should understand
tNa thiDgS' and her retort would be, "Nor any
be blse that has any sense"
Bt even Mrs. Stone did not know that ever since
,he Inquest upon the body of HotchkiSs, Nathaniel
Stone had been treasuring secret, and undergoing
"a inward struggle between his duty to protect the
Smmonwealth and his duty to save his son from the
sjlews for crime he had not committed. Sydney
stones father was one Of the only two persons on
Sfh who could explain how the warning note to
anay came to be found at the scene of the crime.
hs other witness had his ,own reasons for silence,
a 10 far Nathaniel Stone bad been silent, too, al
houab the time for SydneyS trial was near at hand.
1ney was disloysl and was likely to remain So.
Was it loyal mans duty to aid him to escape the
IA ment for one crime which he deserved for an
sGhstY
Had Che old man been given to conscientious self
xamlnatIon he would have discovered that the mo-
qs of hg unnatural conduct was not loyalty to Che