Year: 1870




In the second year of the late civil war.
was married, and went to live with M,
husband III small village on the Hudson
some nifty or sixty miles from New York
The house We occupied was a large ramb-
hng mansion, of considerable antiquity TO,
this country, and stood a little apart IRON
the rest of the village, surrounded 10y
broad fields, and commanding a glorious
view OF the river and the hills of the High.
lands Ii had been built before the Revo.
luton, by my husbands great-gr father.
and though destitute OF many IN. Odern i'm.
provements, was still a comfortable and
pleasant residence.


My husband was lawyer, and large
real estate owner in the neighborhood, and,
at the period of which write, was greatly
perpleXed, like many persons in the North.
by the perilous state of the times. and es-
pecially about the safe investment of his
funds, AS the suspension of specie pay
ments, the great rise in gold, and the mill
tary disasters in Virginia, made it almost
impossible to tell where it would be safe
to deposit or to use one money in apy
large amount.


In the course of his transactions in real
estate, 1t happened, one day, that he re.
ceivsd what was for us then large sum,
about ten thousand dollars, which he had
brought nome and placed in my charge,
telling me at the same time he should have
to be absent during the evening, attending
to some business on the other side of the
river, and shoul! not be at bone till about
midnight.


You can place the money in the safe
dear, he said, as be gave it to me, ''and
tomorrow Twill try and find some way to
invest it securely"


So saying, he stepped into the buggy,
which was standing at the door, and drove
away, taking with him our hired man Silas,
and leaving me with no one in the house
but Dinah, an old colored woman, who full
filled in our modest household the func-
tions of maid-of-all work, as she had long
done In the family of my parents, who on
my marriage, had yielded her to me as q
valuable part of my dover.


Dlnah was indeed a character. She was
tall and very stout, weighing she never
would tell how much, more than TWO hum
dred pounds. She was very black, and as
lazy as she was black. do not think any
one could move more deliberately than Di-
nah did, that Is, to move at all And, by
wonderful dispensation, she seemed to
feel that, whatever her fault might be, she
was strong on the point of locomotion. For
when she had been moving with ponder
ous slowness, almost maddening to a per-
son OF ordinary quickness, one of her fav-
orite expressions was, "Well, Miss Lille,
what shall fly onto next?" How she ac-
complished all she did, the brownies only
know. We used sometimes almost to
tremble when there was any special hurry
about our domestic arrangements, and vet
Dinah always managed to bring affairs to q
contamination just when a minute more
would have ruined everything; and with
undistnrbe6 front, would slowly enunciate,
well, misses, what shall fly onto next?"


1t was nearly dark when my husband
departed, and, after giving my order to
Dfnah, or rather my suggestions, / left her
and made the tour of the house, to see
that all was safe and properly locked up.
This duty attended to, went to my bed
room, intending to pass the TIME in read
ing till my husband should return.


1t was very large room on the ground
floor, with two French windows opening
on a veranda- Ths windows we're draped
with long, yellow .silk curtains, between
which the moonlight family entered, dim
med by the shadow Of the roof of the
piazza, and partly intercepted by the
fringe of woodbine which hung from il.
My bed stood with its foot toward the win
dows, and with its head about half yard
from the wall. 1t was an old-fashioned
structure, hung with yellow silk like the
windows, but / slept with the hangings
drawn back, and fastened to the head
board The bed was so large that no one
ever thought of moving it, except in those
seasons of household panic called house
rlo ho a1 <>f
four men was called into requisition to
draw 1t into the middle of the room. SO
elaborately carved was it that it went by
the name of Westminster Abbey in the
family. At one end of tie room, ut no
great distance from the bed, was large
safe. built In the huge chimney of the
mansion, with door high enough for a
person to enter standing upright. Here
was accustomed to place, every evening,
our silver plate, on shelves which extend
ed around the sides, on which were also
We're placed boxes containing papers and
other valuables. Opposite the foot of the
bedstead, between the windows, was
a mirror, running from the
floor almost to the ceiling. Like all
the other furniture in the room, it was old
and handsome. How many happy scenes
it had reflected in the hundred years i. had
stood there


The night was exceedingly hot, and /
therefore, left the windows open, eough /
drew the curtains before i seated n self at
tie table in the centre of the room. light
ed with candles, and began to read, In Or
der to pass the heavy time before the re-
turn OF my husband.


After awhile, heard the clock strike 9,
at which hour Dinah always went to bed.
Her chamber was In the attic, the third
story of the house. Remembering some
household matter about which L wished to
speak to her, started hurriedly up, and
went into the entry to intercept her. before
she got up stairs. / had to wait about a
minute before she came, and our colloquy
continued three or four minutes more.


When I returned to my bedroom, was
somewhat tired, resolved to go to bed,
as, at that late hour in the country, 1t was
quite certain that no visitors would call,
and NV husband could let himself In with
the latch-key, which he always carried. /
thought, however, / would Try to keep
awake by reading, and accordingly placed 6
LIGHT stand and the candles at the head of
nav bed. l then closed and fastened the
windows, undressed, and got into bed. The
kew of the safe, 1 placed, as usual, under
my pillcv. -,


Alter reading perhaps half an hour, i
grew weary of the book, and quietly laying
il down. remained for some minuses medi,
tating With my eyes fixed on the mirror
opposite the foot of the bed, in which
could see myself reflected, together with
the yellow curtains behind NV head.
was thinking, not unnaturally, how pretty