Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-26
The Cod Of Battles
BY ROBERT w. CHAMBERS
Copyright, 1898, by Robert w.
CRANBERRY
Illustrated by Dan. sayre Gr0es-
beck.

the tall oats motionless in the f1elC
and the sunlight sitting through the
corn. 1t was scarcely a moment: she
bent over her flour pan, wistful, sad
dened by the summer silence, think
ing OF her brother: then again she
raised her eyes to the window
1t was too sudden; she did not
scream. Had they dropped from the
sky, these men in blue-these tramp
ing, crowding creatures? The corn
was full of them, the pasture, the
~oad; they were in the garden, tear
ing tendrils from the vines, their great
shoes, plodding across the potato hills
and leveling it to waste of beaten
mould and green stuff. They passed.
hundreds, thousands-she could not
tell-she heard a harmony, subtle,
vast as winds at sea-a nameless
nTurmur that sweeps through brains
of marching men-the voiceless pro-
phecy of battle.
Breathless. spellbound, she moved
or tiptoe to the porch, one hand
pressed trembling across her lips.
The men IN blue covered the earth.
the world, her world, which stretched
from the orchard to Bensons Hill.
There was something on Benson's
Hill that she had never before seen.
1t looked like a brook in the sun
shine; it was a column Of infantry,
rifles slanting in the sun.
Somebody had been speaking to
her minute or two, and now she
looked down and saw a boy, slim,
sunburnt. His dusty uniform gilt
tered with yellow braid; he touched
his cap and fingered his sword hilt.
She looked at him listless, her hand
still pressed to her lips.
rs there a we'll near the house?"
he asked.
Something tugged gently at her
apron, and, ''show me the we'll
please" repeated the boy beside her
She started and turned trembling
to him, but he gravely motioned her
on, and she went, passing swiftly
under the trees to the vine-covered
well-curb.
He thanked her; she pointed at the
dipper and rope; but already blue
clad, red-faced soldiers were lowering
the bucket.
Soldiers passed in the sunshine.
She began to remember that her
brother, too, was a soldier, some
where out in the world; he had been
soldier for nearly a week, ever
since Jim Bemis had taken him to
Willow Corners to enlist She re-
membered that first night, how she
had been afraid to sleep in the house,
how at dusk she had gone into the
parlor to be near her mother Her
mother was dead, but her picture
hung in the parlor.
She began to watch the flags: she
saw regiment plunge into the tram
pied corn. but she knew it was not
her brothers because the trousers of
the men were scarlet and the caps
hung to the shoulders, tasselled and
: crimson. As she looked a belt of
flame encircled the forest and through
the outrushing smoke, the crash!
/ crash! crash Of rifles echoed across
the valley.
In the orchard the rattle of the
well bucket never ceased. A very
young officer sat on his horse, eating
an unripe apple and watching the
men around the we'll
The girl went into the kitchen,
reached up for her sunbonnet, dan
Cling on a peg, tied it under her chin,
and walked gravely into the orchard.
The very young officer wheeled in his
saddle and leaned toward her defer
entially as she came up.
Before she spoke she saw that it
was the same officer who had asked
her about the well; she had not no
ticed he was so young.
II am sorry" he said--and as he
spoke he removed his CAPT am very
sorry that we have trampled your
garden. If you are loyal the govern
ment will indemnify you"
She spoke, scarcely hearing her own
voice: 1T is not that-I am loyal-it
Is only 1 wish to ask you where by
brothers regiment-where the Sixteth
Maryland is?'
THE 60th Maryland-oh-wh it's
In, Kings Brigade, Wolcotts divi-
sion; l. think it's yonder." He point
ed toward the beechwoods.
"Yonder? Where they are firing?"
Again the cannon Numbered and
the ground shook under her. She
saw him nod. smiling family.
But around the house the last of
the troops had passed; she could
see them, not yet far away, moving
UP among the fields toward the
ridges where the sun burned on the
bronzing scrub-oak thickets.
She stood moment watching the
yellow dust hanging motionless In
the rear of the disappearing coll
umn. Beyond Benson's Hill a bugle
blew family; distant rifle shots
sounded along the ridge; then, sill
ence crept through the sunlit mead
ows, across the leveled corn, across
dead stalks and stems. silence that
spread like shadow.
Tor she lay. flung face down, hands
pressed to her ears. But silence en-
tered with her, sitting the sob in
her throat.
When she raised her head it was
dusk. She sat up, peering fearfully
into the darkness, and she heard the
clock ticking in the kitchen and rus
tie of vines on the porch.
When she had sat silent little
while dreaming over the sins OF a
blameless life, there ca n, to her,
peace, so sudden, so psrfect. that she
could not understand. How shoul1
She know peace? Wat thought of
the past might bring comfort? She
could just remember her mother
that was all. AS for her fe Their, re
had died as he had lived snarling
drunkard. and her be ,ther? A lank,
blue-eyed boy, dissipated. unwhole-
some, already cursed VITA his fathers