Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1897-05-11
CAPThIN CLOSE
BY CAPTAIN CHARLES KING.
lCopyright. 1894, by J. 3. Lippircott Col
XII.

XII.
The Christmas holidays were coming
on at Walton Hall, where, sore stricken,
it's mistress lay lowering between life
and death. Two weeks had passed since
the eventful night of the arrests, and,
though no change had come over the
landscape, and days of sunshine were
few and far between, some odd altera-
tons had taken place in and around
the old homestead. Of these the most
remarkable was the appearance three
times day Of a: young officer in Yankee
uniform at the family board-a young
officer who often prolonged his visit
until late in the evening. Mr.. Isaac
Newton Lambert, though occupying his
tent in camp, had become otherwise an
inmates Of the Walton establishment,
for. unknown to the beloved invalid,
her her s d srg h yese actually "takins
Another boacder, who had come and
moved a modest BACHELOR kit into one
OF the upstairs rooms facing the east
and overlooking the little camp, was Mr..
Barton Potts. better known to all the
inmates as cousin Bart" Indeed, it
was due II great measure to his advice
and influence that Mr.. Lambert was adj
1nitted.} Impoverished as were the Wal
tons-Ain xdire need, as it turned out,
nowRthat the resolute woman who so
many years had managed the family
affairs was stricken down-nothing but
prompt action and the helping hands
of kinsfolk and friends stood between
them and starvation. Squire Potts
sold Man Potts." as he was generally
called-had urged on Mrs. Walton in
November the propriety Of her abandon
ing the place entirely and taking shell
ter for herself and her daughters under
his roof. Even though in desperate
need, she had declined-for one reason,
because that would bring Esther and
Walton Scroggs together again; for an
other, because she could not bear to
think o. the old home becoming the
:abiding-place of all the houseless, shift
less negroes in the neighborhood. She
had offered the house, garden and cot
ton-ields still remaining in her hands
to any purchaser at almost any price;
but who was there to invest in such
improbable estate at such time?
In the midst of these cares and
troubles, which she could share with
her daughters, were others which she
could not. She burst not let them
know on how slender thread her life
depended. That was one secret, held
as yet by their old family physician and
herself alone, because the knowledge
of it would bring such grief to 'the
girls" There was another, which she
prayed they might never know, because
ats very existence brought such grief
and shame to her; Floyd, her youngest
son, her darling, who had fought so
bravely by his brothers side through
the hottest battles of the war, had "ab-
jured the faith of his fathers,' as she
bitterly expressed it-had become init
mate with the federal officers and SOL
diers, instead of sticking closely to
reading law in the Office of her old
friend Judge Summers at Quitman.
And then, worse than all, she learned
through his own desperate letter that
he had enlisted in the cavalry. That
within week thereafter, repenting of
llis mad folly" he should have de-
serted the service and fed the country,
was in the poor stricken woman's eyes
no crime whatever. That he should
have enlisted, sworn to defend the flag
(which was to her the emblem of in
.solent triumph over the fallen fortunes
of the land she loved, the only land she
ever knew, the once happy, sunny
south-that was infamy.
Not until weeks after her boy had
aaken the step that made him fugitive
from justice did she learn, or begin to
Imagine the chain of circumstances
that led to it all. While occupying a
desk in the office of Summers & Todd.
attorneys and counselors at law, Floyd
also occupied a seat at the table of a
widowed relative who, left penniless
at the close of the war, had to struggle
hard to keep body and soul together.
The efforts of Judge Summers had been
sufficient to save the house in which she
"dwelt, and ''taking boarders' became
her vocation. But paying boardec":
were scarce, and even when her table
was crowded with homeless people her
pockets were often empty. When
Sweets squadron of the til U. S. cav
airy marched into town and took sta
ton there, the application of some of
the officers for "rations and quarters"
under her roof was ooldly declined.
They went to hotel, and suffered, as
they deserved, the pangs Of indigestion.
Later it TRANSFERRED that two of them
went to church, and this put an I'M
1ooked-for factor into the problem of
how to treat these conquering but un-
popular heroes. Rev. Mr.. Pickett, of St
Paul's might condone his Parishioners'
1efusalsao supplygthem with bodily food,