Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-08-10


In breaking open the door and re-
leasing the horses torch had caught
| the straw in stall and the confiagra-
| ton ensued
The handful of soldiers who had
been left upon the premises went
about gathering up the camp equip
age, which had been badly scattered
| in the melee, and caring for the
wounded comrades who had been left
behind in the general pursuit of the
| Americans. Jane ordered these
carried into the house, and made cots
| for them in the wide hall, turning
| the residence into a temporary hos
pitfalls
She, had just finished breakfast
when an orderly arrived with a note
| from Bessemer, filed with grateful
| appreciation of her hospitality to
him and his men, and with regret that
it should have caused her to be the
victim of an unmannerly invasion by
horde of ruthless desperadoes, upon
whose trail he End his soldiers were
| then hot.
Jane thought it a most mannerly
note, and if some of the sentences
were so fulsome as to almost draw
| from her a smile, she was vet
accustomed to such gallantries, hav-
ing spent two winters in Charleston
with her mothers Hugenot relatives,
mingling in that polite society whose
daily conversation was a shower OF
bouquets; though, indeed, sometimes
the bouquets were made of flowers
which pricked.
She could not but contrast Besse-
mer's polished Difference with Worth
ington's more abrupt ways. What
had her stepmother so often termed
| Godfrey rude boor? And she,
Jane, had ever come to his defense;
yet what thanks did she get? He
would have roasted her alive in her
fathers house without a qualm in
order that he and his lawless band
might slaughter those who were her
| guests.
The next few days.. after Bessemer
had sent to take away his wounded
and she had no longer their care to
occupy her, were lonely ones for
Jane. She was tempted to follow the
advice her stepmother had given her
before leaving home and send for
some of her girl friends to keep her
company, but the mail brought her
such unfayorable news of her father
condition that she had little heart
for the entertainment of guests, and,
moreover, the war had either
estranged or separated from her
| those whom she liked best.
Even her own Aunt Susannah, to
| whom her heart turned more warmly
than to any of her other relatives
and whose affection for herself she
could not doubt, had vowed never to
step her foot within her brother-in-
laws's door as long as his Tory wife
was it's mistress. This rupture was
brought about by one of those caustic
speeches for which James stepmothe1
had no little reputation in the neigh
borhood.
Jane knew her aunt too well not
to realize that she would keep her
word; but if she would not come to
Jane, at least Jane might go to her
SO one morning she ordered the car
riage and set out for her Uncle
Elijah's in no little state, for, though
her stepmother had taken the gilded
coach with its painted panels and its
six black horses to Charleston that
she might impress her royalist
friends there and overawe her hus
bands first wife's relatives, yet the
equipage in which Jane set forth
with its maroon cushions and its two
negroes on the box seat in their
white-and-maroon livery made an at
tractive appearance.
The sunlight flashed on its polished
lamps and turned into gold such Oh
the hair of its fair occupant as couiC
be seen under her beribboned bon
net. On the front seat facing hel
sat Aunt Rachel and Nanny Anne
Jane, always a kind and considerate
mistress. had not the heart to make
visit to their. old home without
taking with her as many of her Uncle
Elijah's former retainers as she
could. Neither of the men upon the
box seat was regular Ellery coach
man. One was Gabriel and the Other
was Absalom, who had been he1
Uncle Eliiah's footman until the re
verses came.
The faces of the darlies beameC
with satisfaction, except that o.
James black nanny, who resented
having her drive with her mistres.
shared by Aunt Rachel. In truth, M
little jealousy existed between thu
| two old women, and their mistress
! affection was the bone of contention
The day was as brilliant, as bril-
liant could be-filled, indeed. witt
that sparkling brilliance never seel
t save after hard storm, for tn,
. night before there had been anothe
of those South Carolina tempest
which, having its birth in the sea
augmented its force as it sweep
across the marshes and threshed it
| self out among the woods.
The two stout gray horses had al
: they could do TO draw fhe Donderou