The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1904-09-22
Mrs, HQrndOn S
PIucky Ride.
AN INCIDENT OF OUR REVO-
LUTIONARY WAR.

The cloud of war, which hung sui
lenly over the vicinity of Boston har-
Dor in 1775, had lifted it's folds and
rolled away with the evacuation OF
Howes army, to settle grimly around
Manhattan bay in the spring of 1776.
Amid the picturesque hills and wales
of eastern Connecticut, Thomas Harm
don-whose ancestor two generations
back had migrated from. the Massa-
chusetts Bay Colony and purchased a
thousand acres in this region, which
he bequeathed to his descendants
had reared on his patiimony a plain
substantial dwelling after the fashion
of the period-now known as ''colo-
nial.'
He had brought his young bride
here year previous to "the shot by
the farmers of Lexington that sounded
round the world
ERE spring had passed, that ringing
call for men
Went through our little state from hill
to glen;
Old Put had sounded out the bold re-
frain,
And Trumbull called. who never called
in vain.
So the young farmer fastened to the
strife;
Left the spring work, and left his
faithful wife,
Kissed the young babe, their first and
newborn child,
Soothed the young mother with his
accents nlild,
Shouliered his gun and vanished DER
the hill,
drill.
He counted that the rules of war
would yield,
Ere his departure to the distant field,
A respite brief, passing days re-
priove
Ing leave"
The young wife of Thomas Harndon
had cheerfully borne her weeks Of
loneliness sustained by the same Spar
tan faith and courage that animated
the other mothers of the Revolution
who kept watch and ward" in lonely
farm houses all through the colonies,
and toiled and spun, with faith and
heroism fully equal to that of their
husbands. Thus passed the days for
Mabel Harndon, busy with her house
hold cares and the spinning and weav-
fng of the cloth for her husbands gar
ments; while tender thoughts went
into the warp and wool as the shuttle
flew.
On & glorious day in June, Mabel,
her thoughts on the absent one, sat by
her window, sewing on the garment
she was Fastening to complete, in an
ticipatiOn of her husbands brief re-
turn-beforc his southwark march to
join in the military operations, now
eliminating about New York.
Her attention was divided betW cen
her work and the care of her baby.
that lay cooling at it's feet, in the era
die by her side. The monotony of the
long afternoon was unbroken, save by
the MARBLE of the birds outside, as
they industriously fed their young, IN
til the quiet was broken by the sharp
click of horses hoofs on the road
way. Her heart gave one great throb.
and then stood still, as she saw he
wore the nondescript uniform Of the
Colonial army. Balancing between
hope and fear, she bade him welcome
Declining her hospitality without dis
mounting, the messenger took from
beneath the lining of his hat crum-
pied paper on which her husband had
hastily scrubbed few lines. Quick
ly explaining his mission, as a bearer
of dispatches to Governor Trumbull.
he disappeared on the road that led to
Lebanon, where was located and still
stands today the home and famous
"war office" of the one governor loyal
to the colonial cause during the Revo-
lution-Wasnington's chief civil coun-
sellor and sclf-constituted commissary
to the Colonial forces.
He. by his energy and forethought.