The National tribune., 1897-08-19

seen I was brought to a realization of this
fact as l looked at Wood, when we sat to-
gether in silence beneath the great tree
where we had taken shelter, waiting for the
| friendly mantle of darkness to shield our
movements.
/ And L suppose my own appearance was
no more prepossessing than his. The miser-
able garments he wore did not cover his
nakedDess. His face was begrimed with
dirt almost set in the skin. He had become
| thin and emaciated with fever. and had a
rayeuous appetite; his eyes were sunken in
his head and seemed to have the wild, un-
natural glare Of madman, which, at times,
almost made me shudder. The poor fell
lows pitiable appearance, as he sat there
despOndently and lonaingly gazing down on
the beautiful valley below, was such as to
! appeal 10 heart of stone. Yet l knew
! that it was unsafe for us to go to house,
and we agreed not to be seen by human
! being if We could avoid it, / felt certain
/ that ii we should meet any one, our appear
ance would at once betray US.
we were In q country where we could not
| expect TO find friend, unless, possibly,
/ 1t might be the negroes, of whom, as class,
we knew but very little. We were so weak,
and the mental strain and long ng-continued
anxiety in which we had lived from day to
day had had the effect OF making u.s. may
| say, foolishly suspicious and limid of every
thing. We were startled at every sudden
noise. and crouched like sneaking wolves
from the sight of man.
As sat there and beheld the sun receding
behind the hills in the west, it's long, re-
! splendent rays lighting up the beautiful
valley below rs, which seemed to smile in
peace and plenty, could but think how
<l,a
creatures happy and contented beings, and
now much they on their part had done to
make themselves miserable. Why was
miserable, forsaken, hungry outcast, shun-
ning the sight of my fellow beings in q
| civilized, ~ Christian ~ land which the
Creator had blessed with all the comforts
necessary to the happiness of man? l
| could not help comparing our condition to
that OF Christian in . Bunyan's Pilgrims
| Progress" who, on his way to the Celestial
City, came into the Valley and Shadow of
Death We were not, it is true, like Chris
| tam, IN land Of deserts and drouih.n
neither did we meet "hObgoblins, satyrs,
and dragons" yet we were beset by equally
disaereeable enemies, and our condition was
one of unutterable sery." We were not
| outlaws; we had done no crime, unless try
ing to serve our country was a crime. /
sometimes wondered, like Job of old, why
| my affections were so great
But rcpining does a fellow no good and l
have sometimes half questioned whether
mans power of thought, reason, memory,
and reflection really is so much of an advan-
| tage to him over the rest of the animal cre-
alton, after ALL If man had not these facul-
ties he would not. at least, borrow trouble
for the morrow, neither would he have the
| tv ri,a fa l.;
feiow-man, and turn that which an all-wise
Creator made a paradise into place of tor
| ture and punishment.
While in the midst of these unpleasant
thoughts Mark broke The long silence by
raising his head and saying:
| "Alf, it is time for us TO 60"
Our journey that night took us through a
corntield, where We pulled a few ears of corn
and chewed it as We went along. / remem-
/ ber ii was very hard and made my laws
very tired, but it helped to quiet nay gnaw-
ing hunger. 1t was much better than
| nothing. After a toiisome nights Journey.
guided by the stars and over a very rough
country, in which we entirely avoided roads,
| we again secreted ourselves as the s,reaks of
gray began to appear in the east and, after
| scraping up pile of leaves, laid down for
the day.
! hCH VIC aNohe; latc III the afternoon, we
found that our feet were SO bruised and sore,
and that we were otherwise so lame, and
withal so weak from hunger that it taxed
our endurance to the utmost to take sim
gle step. We each took from our pockets
an ear Of corn, and after crunching and swal-
lowing what We could We put the rest in our
clothes and hobbled off, making but very
slow time for the next mile or So II was
la the month Of October, and the nights
were pretty cool, which, in our poorly clad
condition, compelled us to keep moving all
the time to keep comfortably warm
The next morning came, aud still we had
not reached the river. Again we hid our
selves and slept through The day. When
night came aud we tried to walk we found
our feet in such deplorable condition that
it did not seem possible for us to go farther
They were blistercd, CALLED, and SO feserish
and swollen that it seemed as if they would
burst with very pain at every step.
To be eOniinued.l
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