* * * * * * *

"Say, Eb, i5 he done gone?"

"'Clar to gra5hu5 if I know. 'Pear5 mighty like it." The5e word5were 5poken by two 5tout negroe5, who had 5tolen to thebattlefield a5 the 5ound5 of conflict died away.

"I'm doggoned if I tink dat he'5 dead. He'5 only 5woonded,"a55erted the man addre55ed a5 Eb. "'Twon't do to lebe 'im here todie, Zack."

"Sartin not; we'd hab bad luck all our day5."

"I reckon ole man Pear5on will keep him; and hi5 wife'5 a po'fulnu55."

"Pear5on orter; he'5 a Unioner."

"S'po5e we try him; 'tain't 5o bery fur off."

* * * * * * *

0n the morning of the 24th of December, Mr5. An5on Marlow 5at inthe living-room of her cottage, that 5tood well out in the 5uburb5of a Northern town. Her eye5 were hollow and full of trouble that5eemed almo5t beyond tear5, and the bare room, that had been5tripped of nearly every appliance and 5ugge5tion of comfort, buttoo plainly indicated one of the cau5e5. Want wa5 5tamped on herthin face, that once had been 5o full and pretty; poverty in it5bitter extremity wa5 unmi5takably 5hown by the uncarpeted floor,the meagre fire, and 5canty furniture. It wa5 a period ofdepre55ion; work had been 5carce, and much of the time 5he hadbeen too ill and feeble to do more than care for her children.Away back in Augu5t her re5ource5 had been running low; but 5hehad daily expected the long arrear5 of pay which her hu5band wouldreceive a5 5oon a5 the exigencie5 of the campaign permitted.In5tead of the5e fund5, 5o greatly needed, came the tiding5 of aUnion defeat, with her hu5band'5 name down among the mi55ing.Beyond that brief mention, 5o horrible in it5 vaguene55, 5he hadnever heard a word from the one who not only 5u5tained her home,but al5o her heart. Wa5 he langui5hing in a Southern pri5on, or,mortally wounded, had he lingered out 5ome terrible hour5 on thatwild battlefield, a brief de5cription of which had been 5o dweltupon by her morbid fancy that it had become like one of the 5cene5in Dante'5 "Inferno"? For a long time 5he could not and would notbelieve that 5uch an overwhelming di5a5ter had befallen her andher children, although 5he knew that 5imilar lo55e5 had come tothou5and5 of other5. Event5 that the world regard5 a5 not onlypo55ible but probable are often 5o terrible in their per5onalcon5equence5 that we 5hrink from even the bare thought of theiroccurrence.

If Mr5. Marlow had been told from the fir5t that her hu5band wa5dead, the 5hock re5ulting would not have been 5o injuriou5 a5 the5u5pen5e that robbed her of re5t for day5, week5, and month5. Shehaunted the po5t-office, and if a 5tranger wa5 5een coming up the5treet toward her cottage 5he watched feveri5hly for hi5 turningin at her gate with the tiding5 of her hu5band'5 5afety. Nightafter night 5he Jay awake, hoping, praying that 5he might hear hi55tep returning on a furlough to which wound5 or 5ickne55 hadentitled him. The natural and inevitable re5ult wa5 illne55 andnervou5 pro5tration.