Year: 1873

! properly sGUQlSQ ana &ppl1e0S Ene'


might be fraught with happiness t,


mankind. How slight jostle or jar a


a dinner party might make the post


prandial eloquenoe of garrulous senilitJ


satisfactory to itself, yet harmless tc


others. How a more intimate knowl


edge of anatomy introduced into th,
| domestic circle might make home
| tolerable, at least, if not happy. How


Iong-suffering husband, under the
pretence of a coniugaI earess, might 80
unhook his wife's condyloid process as
to allow the flow of expostulation, critl-
cism or denunciation to go 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 I returned to
the commander-in-clief, but found after
one or two leading questions, that she
was rather inclined to resent his reap
pearance on the stage. Her reminiscent
ces here were chiefly social and local
and more or less favored with Perkins.
| We go back as far as the revolutionary
epoch-or rather her impressions of
that epoch when it was still fresh IN the
public mind. And here I came upon an
incident, purely personal and local, but
withal so novel, weird, and uncanny,
that for a while, 1 fear, it quite dis
placed G. W. in my mind and tinged the
autumnal fields beyond with a red that
was not of the sumach. I do not re-
member to have read of il IN the books.
I do not know that it is entirely auther-
tic. It was attested to me by mother
and daughter as an uncontradieted
tradition. r ..-.. .......


In the little field beyond, where the
plough still turns up musket-balls and
cartridge-boxes, took place one of those
irregular sIzirmishes between the mill
tiamen and Knyphausen's straggiers
that made the retreat historical. A
Hessian soldier, wounded in both legs
and utterly helpless, dragged himself to
the cover OF a 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 a faint voice asked for water.
She re6urned to the house, as if to COM
ply with his request, but mounting
chair took from the chimney a 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, ed the musket, 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 and butter in her guile
less little fingers, pointed out the result
of her simple, unsophisticated effort.
The Hessian was decently buried, but L
could not find out what became of the
little girl. Nobody seemed to remem-
Der. 1 trust that in after years she was
happily married-that no Jersey love
lace attempted to trife with q 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 favor 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 Hessian afro
city. ......... .... ...


They had their financial panics even
in Jersey In the old days. She remem-
bered when Dr. White married your
cousin Mary, or was it Susan yes, 1t
was Susan she remembers that your
uncle Harry brought In an armful of
bank notes-paper money, you know
and threw them IL 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 as
high as 800, Everybody kept gold and
silver in a stocking, or in a chaney "
vase like that. You never used money
to buy anything. When Josiah went to
Springfield to buy anything he took a
cartload of things with him to exchange.
That yeIIer picture-frame was paid
for in greenings. But then people
knew Just what they had they
didn't fritter their substance away
in unchristrian trifes like yoHr
| father, Eliza Jane, who doesn't know
! that there Is a God who will smite him
| hip aud high-for vengeance IS mine,
and those that believe IN me-but here,
| singularly enough, the inferior maxilla-
ries gave out and her jaw dropped. Il
noticed that her giddy daughter Of
eighty-hve was sitting near her, but
| do not pretend to connect this fact wi h
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
field, IN june, she saw the snow still on
!