The Portland daily press., 1895-06-08

the noncompatant parole-in Mr..
Thomas Gregory's vernacular, the .snn.
competent" oath.
Each settled the question in soma
fashion. The appointed day saw fine
stir in Bellsboro. All it's so long DESC
late streets were a-teem. The military
district embraced dozen counties. All
of them had sent out old men and maid
ems, boys in roundabouts, mothers in
widows weeds, to swell the motley
throng.
By twos by threes, by dozens. they
came in ramshackle buggies, in rusty
carriages. in rattling, Gathering, spring
less farm wagons, upon horseback. in
OK carts, very few on foot.
A various crew indeed, yet in one
particular curiously alike Whatever
the beast of burden, it was as i'll look
ing as Pharaoh's lean kline. The conn
try was not yet stripped of good stock,
but no man in it was mad enough to
ride or drive hoof of it to Bellsboro
1t was the era Of huge hoops long,
shapeless sacks and sky scraping bon
nets. A few women disported them
selves in fashion s full panoply, thereby
proclaiming that in their breasts van
ity outranked public spirit. For the
| most part gowns, whether of silk or
stuff or calico, were scant enough, faded
enough, to demonstrate that they had
come down from a more peaceful era.
A few very old men came in well
brushed broadcloth, black OF blue, with
frayed satin or velvet waistcoats and
red silk bandannas peeping out of the
tail pockets. Much the larger part of
the masculine element was clothed in
homespun-jeans coats either brown or
sleeps gray, with fax cloth trousers
above home cobbled shoes
For all that it was a moneyed crowd.
Thanks to the grapeviners, everybody
in the country had sold his tobacco or
wheat or pork at what seemed enormous
figures, unless indeed the seller in
sisted upon having gold. Then the price
shrunk NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. as much
as did his more complaisant neighbours
crisp greenbacks when he dropped into
one of the stores and was offered calico
at 30 cents the yard, shoes at $40 or
hat for $40.
That part, though, came later. The
first thing was to ask the way to head
quarters. The bystreet in front of them
was soon crowded full Of all sorts and
i'll conditions of horse and mule flesh.
Major Powell halted his buggy full
block away. Anne was beside him, NOV
ed to recantation, not by lesser love for
her cause, but by her mothers pleading
eyes as she said:
eve are under the lions paw, Anne
Don't make it worse for us. Think if
they should burn the house and take
you or your father away to prison!'
Think, too, of being able to go to
town and buy new clothes! I'm SO sick
of every old rag I've got I'd take 40
oaths to get better Ones" added her
elder sister Caroline, who could in no.
wise comprehend why Anne should
''make such a fuss" over merely sign.
ing document she need neither read
nor heed.
II the exact truth be told, Caroline
herself was delighted with the prospect.
She set to work at once remodeling
her most presentable gown, her mind
all one vaguely pleasant anticipatory
whlrl. Life without beaux to Miss Car
oline was utterly stale, though three
gallant Confederstes had each taken
away, presumably next his heart, her
picture as well as her promise to ''re-
member him." Che absent, if not al
ways wrong, are not available for firta-
tion, at least not with letters out of the
question. First and last, Miss Caroline
had heard O good deal of Colonel Grice
that he was rich, handsome, single
very we'll worth having. Besides, the
other officers might not be impossible.
In her own MIND Miss Caroline already
saw half a dozen of them her slaves,
giving SAVIOR ara sweetness to her dull
desert days. She had no patience with
Anne, who, Though her eyes were dry,
went about looking like two funerals, y
and declared she would wear to town
her gray homespun gown and old blue
sunbonnet
ltwa quite impossible, Caroline felt,
to be seen in such company. Go with
Anne she would not So it was settled
that Anne ard her father should make
the first essay. A little later Mrs. Pow
ell and Caroline would venture in the
family carriage. with black Harrison
for driver
Anne walked the stretch of messy
pavement tensely upright. There was
no tremor in the bare hand so lightly
laid upon her fathers arm. She came
into the crowded room, a quaint, pa
thetic figure of girlish grace. Fer gray
gown fel! in straight folds to her feet
that were covered with shoes of the
same stuff. No wild rose was pinker,
no lily more pearly white, than the face
shrouded in the faded blue bonnet In
its shade her gray eyes were black, and
the long ivory throat, rising out Of its
orlmped rattle, might have tempted love
himself to cling and nestle about it.
The office was not imposiag-a Bow,
modest room, once the parlor of dead
and gone citizen whose vacant dwell