The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1906-11-30

"HE house was colonial and stood
III high on the windy hill. / have
~ ridden past it at night when
the dark sayins lifted their
conical forms on the hillside by the de-
crepit orchards and the clouds Scudded
over the moon. 1t had two chimneys
that seemed to stand against the sky,
and l saw it once at night when one Of
those chimneys was on fire, which
caused my simple heart to beat fast in
those uneventful days. had heard my
grandfather say that the minutemen
stopped there on their march from
Worcester to Bunker Hill and were
fed with bread from out of the great
brick oven.
My grandfather told me another
thing which greatly awakened my Gu.
riosity. When the minutemen stopped
there on their march to meet the reg.
ulars" they We're i'll need of lead for
bullets. They carried with them molds
in which to make bullets, but they
could not obtain the lead
The good woman of the house was
named Overfcld, Farmer Overfield's
wife. She was called Mis- Overfield.
She had one daughter, Il 1.-THE. diminu-
tive, beautiful girl with large blue eyes
and lips winsome and red, of such sin
gular beauty that ones eyes could
hardly be diverted from following her
She was the 'prettiest girl in all the
country around" people used to say.
And she was as good as she was
pretty.
Her name was Annie-"sweet Annie
OTertield' some people named her.
When she saw that the minutemen
We're perplexed about lead she ap-
preached the captain and said:
Captain, could tell you where
there is lead if l had a mind to- But
what would father say if l should?'
Armies father came stalking in. in a
blue blouse, a New England guard,
ready for any duty.
Father, 1 know where there is lead.
May tell?'
Yes, girl, and the men shall have it
wherever it be. Where is it, Annie? l
have no lead else would have given
it up at once"
I'm the clock weights, father"
stop the clock"' cried the father.
ooh, Annie, it's a marvel you arew
The old clock, with an oak frame,
stood in the corner of the Giving
room" whose doors faced the parlor
and the kitchen. 1t had stood there for
Il generation. 1t was some eight feet
high and three broad in it's upper part
and two in its lower. 1t had brass
ornament on the top, and it licked so
loud rs to be heard in the upper rooms
at night. On its face We're figures of
the sun and moon. Annie's hand had
for several years wound the clock.
The great clock was stopped, the
heavy weights were removed, and the
minutemen carried them to the forge Of
Baldwin. the blacksmith. where they
were speedily melted and poured into
the molds.
The clock cleaner came to the house
on the hill. 1t was in the fall. He
said:
81 cannot regulate the clock now, but
l will be around again another year"
He went to Monmouth with the ar
my. He was gone three years. When
he came back the sylphlLke Annie was
somewhere none knew. She had been
gone two years.
Why had she gone? 1t was the old
tale. 4 common sailor from the prov
inces came to work one summer on
the farm. He received HIS pay in the
err he went Annie went too.
She had spent her evenings with the
sailor after the moving days by the
grindstone under the great maple trees.
He had sung to her English sailor