Year: 1873

might DC irGuglt with happiness 70


mankind. How slight iostle or jar at


dinner party might make The post


prandial eloquence of garrulous senility


satisfactory to itself, yet harmless TO


others. How moro intimate knowl-
( edge Of anatomy introduced into the
domestic circle might make a home


tolerable, at least, il not happy. How
q long-sufering husband, under the
pretence Of coniugal caress, might 20
unhook his wife's condyloid process as
to allow the flow of expostnlation, critl.
cism or denunciation to 90 on with graft
fication to her and perfect immunity to
himself.


/ But this was not getting back to
George Washington and the early strug-
giles Of the republic. So | returned TO
the commander-in.chief, but found after
one or two leading questions, that she
was rather inclined to resent his reap
/ pearance on the stage. Her reminiscen.
ces here were chiefly social and local
and more or less favored with Perkins
! We 90 back ss far as the revolutionary
epoch---Or rather her impressions of
that epoch when it was still fresh in the
public mind And here / came upon an
incident, purely personal and local, but
withal 20 novel, weird, and uncanuy,
that for a while, fear, it quite dis.
placed G. W. in my mind and tinged the
autumnal fields beyond with q red that
was not Of the sumacl ] DO not re.
member to have read OF it III the books.
7 do not know that it is entirely auther-
tic. 1t was attested to me by mother
and daughter as an uuoontradioted
tradition.


/ In the little field beyond, where the
plough still turns up musket-balls and
cartridge-boZes, took place one Of those
irregular skirmishes between the mill
tiamen and Knyphausen's stragglers
that made the retreat historical. A
Hessian soldier, wounded in both ;eg5
and utterly helpless, dragged himself to
the cover Of hazel cOpse and lay there
hidden for two days. On the third day,
maddened by thirst, he managed to
creep to the rail-fence of an adjoining
farmhouse, but found himself unable
to mount it or pass through. There was
no one in the house but little girl of
six or seven years. He called to her,
and in q faint voice asked for water.
She returned to the house, as if to com.
ply with his request, hut mounting a
chair took from the chimney heavily
loaded Queen Anne musket, and
going to the door, took deliberate aim
at the helpless intruder and fired. The
man fell back dead without groan.
She repla cd the muskot, and returning
to the fence, covered the body with
boughs and leaves until it was hidden.
Two or three days after she related the
occurance in a careless casual way, and
leading the way to the fence, with a
piece of bread aud butter in her guile
less little fingers, pointed out the eresult
Of her simple, unsophisticated effort.
The Hessian was decently buried, but |
could not find out what became Of the
little girl. Nobody seemed to remem-
ber. l trust that in after years she was
happily married-that no Jersey love-
lace attempted to triAe with a heart
whose impulses were so prompt and
whose purposes were so sincere. They
did not seem to know if she had mar
ried or not. Yet it does no seem proba
BILE that such simplicity of conception,
frankness of expression and deftness of
execution were lost to posterity or that
they failed in their time and season TO
give flavor to the domestic felicity of
the period. Beyond this, the story per.
haps has little value, except as an Offset
t. the usual anecdotes of Hessisn afro
city.


They had their financial panic- even
in Jersey in the old days. She remem-
bered when DR.. White married YOUR
cousin Mary, or was it Susan yes, it
was Susan she remembers that your
uncle Harry brought in an armfui OF
bank notes-paper money, you know
and threw them in the corner, saying
they were no good to anybody, She re-
membered playing with them, and CIV
ing them to your aunt Anna no, child
it was your own mOthOr, bless your
heart. Some Of them Was marked ss
high as 500. Everybody kept gold and
silver in a stocking, or in "chaney
vase like that. You never used money
to buy anything. When Josiah went to
Springfield to buy anything he took
cartload of things with him to exchange.
That yeller pictureframe was paid
for in greetings. But then people
knew just what they had; they
didn't fritter their substance away
in unchristrian trihes like your
father, Eliza Jane, who doesn't know
that there is God who will smite him
hip aud high-for vengeance is mine,
and those that believe in me-but mere,
singularly enough, the inferior mazilla-
ries gave out and her jaw dropped. Il
noticed that her giddy daughter of
eighty-fve was sitting near her, but l
do not pretend to connect this fact with
the arrested flow of personal disclosure.)


Howbeit when she recovered her speech
again it appeared that she was complain
ing OF the weather.


The seasons had changed very much
since your father went to sea. The
winters used to be terrible in those
days, When she went over to Spring