The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1913-04-25
CHAPTER I.
The Battery Passes.

nc baANGIJ TdobGas
Outside, the softness Of an April
aight; the verdure of tree and lawn,
the climbing roses. already far ad'
Yanced IN that southern latitude,
sweetly silvered in the moonlight.
Within the great old house apparently
an equal calm.
Yet neither within nor without was
the night absolutely soundless Far
away to the southwark the cloudless
horizon, easily visible from the slight
eminence on which the house stood.
was marked by quivering flashes of
lurid light. From time to time. the
attentive ear might catch the roll. the
roar, the reyerberation Of heavy sound
like distant thunder-peals intermin-
gled with sharper detonations. The
flashes came from great guns, and the
rolling peals were the sound of the
cannon, the detonations explosions Of
the shells. There was the peace of
God in the heaven above; there were
the passions of men on the earth be-
meath.
Lights cleaned here and there, shin
ing through the twining rose foliage.
from the windows of the old house.
which stood far back from the street.
From a room on one side of the hall.
which opened from the broad pillared
portico of Colonial fashion, a hum Of
voices arose.
A group of women, with nervous
hands and anxious faces, working
while they talked, were picking lint,
tearing linen and cotton for bandages.
Their conversation was not the idle
chatter Of other days They told sad
stories of the death of lsings" How
Tom" and Charles" and Allen" and
Page" and Burton" had gone down
into the Valley of the Shadow OF
Death, whence they had not come
back. How this fort had been ham
mered yesterday. the other, the day
before. How So-and-So's wounds had
been ministered to- How Such-a-One's
needs had been relieved How the
enemy were drawing closer and clos.
er, and how they we're being held back
With courage, which, alas! by that
time was the courage OF despair And
much of their speech was of their
own kind, Of bereft women and father
less children. And ever as they talked,
the busy fingers flew.
Upstairs from one of the front
rooms the light shone dimly through !
a window partly covered by a half |
drawn Venetian blind. One standing !
at the side of the house and listening |
would have heard out of the chamber |
low meanings, muttered words from
feverish lips and delirious brain. The |
yet awful babble was
broken now and again by words of
and anguish. Soft hands
were laid on the burning brow of the
poor sufferer within, while a mothers
eyes dropped tears upon bloodstained
bandages and wasted frame.
And now the gentle wind which
swept softly through the trees bore
a sudden sharper, stranger sound
toward the old house in the garden
The tramp of a horse, the creak of
the faint jingling of arms and
sabers drew nearer and rose louder.
Sudden words of command punctured
The night. Here came battery, with.
1ut the rattle of drum or the blare
Of bugles, with no sound but it's own
galloping it rolled down the street
Lean, gaunt horses were ridden and
driven by leaner and gaunter men in
iusty, worn, ragged, tattered uniforms.
Only The highly polished brass guns
cleaned
bright in the moonlight.
The sewing women came out on the