Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-10-01
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1 THE BARLOW BLOCKADE. 6
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* A Recruiting Incident. &
A Recruiting I Incident.

warrior was absorbed III dreams OF
future greatness and did not hear her.
He went to bed in the musty spare
chamber, which was chilly and damp
in the April season just beginning, to
dream that he was again lying in a
tent, waiting the sound of the reveille
and preparing for long days march;
and that or the rest on goose feathers
proved to be particularly soothing.
for the sun was we'll up In the sky
when he woke the next morning.
There was strong smell of smoke
in the air. Conscience-st lest
his wife should have been trying to
build the kitchen fire herself, a task
which she generally left for him.
Billy rose hastily from his downy
couch, and prepared to make a hasty
toilet. To his astonishment, the chair
on which he had deposited his clothes
was empty Every other chair was
empty. Not garment was to be
seen in the room. Everything except
the furniture had disappeared. More
and more bewildered, as he took in
the situation, Billy proceeded to the
door. 1t was lOcked-on the outside.
Applying his eye to the keyhole he
could see the key in the lock. Mys-
terry piled on mystery. In a state of
mind too complicated to describe he
fell to bawling like frightened boy:
"Motherl mother! Come let me
out! What does this mean?"
NJ ,yor1ov oh, 1,oov5 60, 1,,o ~,
were sound, and the noise he made
shook the house. Her light, firm
step soon came creaking up the stairs
to pause outside the door.
"Was you a.callin' of me, William?"
said she in a tone of dangerous soft
ness.
"Why. yes, mother! Somethin's
happened. All my clothes is gone
aud I'm locked in. What does it
mean?"
"Means you're where you're goin'
to stay for WHILE" returned Mrs.
Barlow, with decision. ''I've locked
You in myself, an you amt a'conin'
out till you give me your word you'll
say nothin' more about enlistin'. You
can promise now, an' I'll let you
out"
The habits of thirty years are not to
be broken down in moment, and her
husbands instructive impulse was to
surrender. If the two of them had
been face to face, there is no reason
to suppose that he could have held
out. But all inch or two of pine
board stretched between them. Eliza
Barlow could not see through it and
watch the limp figure slowly stiffening
to a soldierly straightness and firm
ness, as he said, after brief pause,
and with an accent of reproach which
somehow filed her with a momentary
pang of shame
'T sha'n't make no such promise,
now or never. You can't keep me
here forever. Where's my clothes,
'Liza?"
"You haven't got any,"
Haven't got any?" gasped the
astonished Billy.
"No. I've burnt 'em, every stitch
you owned. Look out of your window
and you'll see the ashes Of 'em in the
back yard"
II guess you set round in rags and
dirt that blankets heaven to, when
you was soldering. 1 hain't for
gotten it, if you have. You 20 way
from the door and I'll slide in your
breakfast on tray. I amt goin' to
starve you. But you can't come out
till you've give me your word. We
can have war right here at home, so
long as you're hankering after it,"
"War?"
eyes, William. 'Twon't go so fur
as hand-to-hand fghtin', mebbe, but
I'll see that you get all the blockade
you can tend to without goin' to
Cuba"
The key turned in the lock, and a
tin tray set forth with corn bread and
coffee was thrust in. Billy listened
as he ate to the sound of her brisk
coming and going about her house
hold duties down stairs, with curious
idea working in his shallow brain.
No prisoner of state ever accepted
his situation with more not le spirit,
and as the day wore on, Billy sat at
the window scanning the road towards
the village as if expecting a squad Of
cavalry to. come pelting onward in a
cloud of dust to his rescue. Alas,
none appeared! Mrs. Barlow pro-
vided frugal dinner, still lighter
supper. She was rather surprised at
the obduracy with which her captive
held out against her, and yet she went
to bed in her own room on the opposite
side of the landing with smile playing
round her lips as she said to herself
"Another day of it will fix him.
He'll have to give in"
But at the end of another day he
was still unconquered 1t had grown
very dull and wearisome in the low
ceiled room, which had not so much
as picture on the wall to relieve its
dreariness. Billy took exercise by
pacing up and down in his blanket.
1t seemed to him more dignified not
to handy words with his wife. So he
maintained stately silence when she
demanded, as she brought in his
meals, "Ain't you about tired O. bein'
fool, William?" which alarmed and
then nettled her. The heroine who
cried "Scissors!' with her last breath
was woman after Eliza Barlow's own
heart. She never had abandoned a
position when she once had taken it
mp, and this time serious question
was involved, for, with his suddenly
developed strength of mind and pur.
pose, she did not doubt that if he es.
capped he would carry ont his object OF
enlisting. That he might be rejected
because he was what the neighbors
called "a little fetched" never oc-
CURED to her, and it seemed to her