The Crisis, Volume 6

were just skeletons with the skin stretched over them. One had a bad sore on his flank, and was lame. They were pulling a rattle-trap farm wagon with a buckled wheel.

h those last dreary days of November, wretched families, which a year since had been in health and prosperity, came to the city, beggars, with the wrecks of their homes. The history of that hideous pilgrimage across a state has never been written. Still they came by the hundred, those families. Some brought little corpses to be buried. The father of one, hale and strong when they st

ay to Springfield the road was lined with remains of articles once dear-a child's doll

thes, and take them to the crowded place of detention. Christmas was drawing nea

en. Another general had come to St. Louis to take charge of the

for the refugees. A council of citizens was called at headquarters, a

people from their homes, Secession sympathizers should be made to su

d. Sixty prominent "disloyalists" were to be chosen

s. Colonel Carvel was sure to be there, and Mr. Catherwood and Mr. Russell and Mr. James, and Mr. Worington the lawyer. Mrs. Addison Colfax lived for days in a fermented state of excitement which she declared would break her down; and which, despite her many cares and worries, gave

in a state of frenzy now? How does that relieve me? It makes it an absolute certainty t

ginia and Mammy Easter and Ned were left in the big house. Rosetta and Uncle Ben and Jackson had been h

was gone. He was observed night and day by Federal detectives. Virginia strove to amuse him, to conceal her anxiety as she watched him. Well she knew that but for her he would long

xchanging uproarious jests with Ned and Jackson. The Captain had always carried under his arm a shapeless bundle which he would confide to Ned with a knowing wink. And then the house would be lighted from top to bottom, and Mr. Rus

ouse. Virginia pictured him this year at Mrs. Brice's little table, and wondered whether he would miss them

. A man's figure muffled in a greatcoat slanting carefully across the street caught their eyes. Virginia

"do you think h

on so,

Are you go

Jin

ll take away

on they

d in your room. It -it was mother's. I could not bear

tressed, but he spo

ust as it is." Then he added, strangel

ed, who was cook and housema

to see folks,

stood in the windy vestibule, confronting the deputy. Virginia's first impulse

Colonel

am. Will y

brown eye which paid its tribute to Virginia. He did not appear to relish the dut

fifty dollars for the benefit of the destitute families which the Rebels have driven from their homes. In default of payment w

he General that the articles may be seized. That I will not, while in

n, hysterics, frenzy. He had even heard men and women whose sons and brothers were in the army of secession proclaim their loyalty to the Union. But this dignity

ghtfully pulled his goatee, and laughed gently. "Lordy, we have

ber to March, is sometimes quiet. Then the hot winds come up from the Gulf, and sleet melts, and windows are opened.

United States Police, pulled up at the curb in front of Mr. Carvel's house. Eugenie, watching at the window across the s

mbo, amply filling its place. Her lips protruded, and an expre

lonel Carve

ll as me." An embarrassed silence, and

Colonel

for you come? You done come heah to rifle, an' to loot, an' to steal, an' to seize what ain't your'n. You come heah when young Marse ain't to home

by this unexpected resistance. Mammy Easter looked so dangerous that it

mistres

as unfortunate

ting with indignation. "Who is you to co

am

mmy backed out of the door a

noise about?" The torre

carry away all yo' pa's blongin's. I jes' to

on the threshold. He cau

ithin, and st

rshal, ma'am, to seize personal property t

it back. "I do not see how I am to prevent yo

t tell you how sorry I am.

ill the man hesitated. "What a

do likewise. Then he entered the chill drawing-ro

f the great chandelier, with its cut-glass crystals, he whistled. Then

ny stool, and ran his fingers over the keys. They seemed to Virginia,

e alone, would Virginia quietly take them out and play them over to the Colonel, as he sat dreaming in the window with his cigar, -dreaming of a field on the borders of a wood, of a young girl who held his hand, and sang them

e van for a truck. Virginia stirred. For the

" Her words were the essence of endearment. And yet, while she pronounced them,

legs. Virginia went back into the

lse you could take? Some

e a ne

ur father. And there ain't noth

They took the rosewood what-not, but Virginia snatched the songs before the men could touch them, and held them in her arms. They seized the mahogany velvet-bottomed chairs, her uncle's

was the embodied wreck of her happiness. Ned closed the blinds once more,