Claib had brought two letters from the office, one for Mrs. Worthington

from Hugh, and one for Alice from Irving Stanley. This last had been

long delayed, and as she broke the seal a little nervously, reading that

his trip to Europe had been deferred on account of the illness of his

sister's governess, but that he was going on board the ship that day,

July tenth, and that his sister was there with him and the governess, "A

modest, sweet-faced body," he wrote, "who looks very girl-like from the

fact that her soft, brown hair is worn short in her neck."

Alice had a tolerably clear insight into Irving Stanley's character, and

immediately her mind conjured up visions of what might be the result of

a sea voyage and months of intimate companionship with that sweet-faced

governess, "who wore her soft, brown hair short in her neck."

"I hope it may be so," she thought; and folding up her letter, she was

about going out to the rustic seat beneath a tall maple where Mug sat,

whispering over the primer she was trying so hard to read, when a cry

from Mrs. Worthington arrested her attention and brought her at once to

the side of the half-fainting woman.

"What is it?" Alice asked, in much alarm, and Mrs. Worthington replied:

"Oh, Hugh, Hugh, my boy! he's enlisted, joined the army! I shall never

see him again!"

Could Hugh have seen Alice then he would not for a moment have doubted

the nature of her feelings toward himself. She did not cry out, nor

faint, but her face turned white as the dress she wore, while her hands

pressed so tightly together, that her long, taper nails left the impress

in her flesh.

"God keep him from danger and death," she murmured; then, winding her

arms around the stricken mother, she wiped her tears away; and to her

moaning cry that she was left alone, replied: "Let me be your child till

he returns, or, if he never does--"

She could get no further, for the very idea was overwhelming, and

sinking down beside Hugh's mother, she laid her head on her lap, and

wept bitterly. Alas, that scenes like this should be so common in our

once happy land, but so it is. Mothers start with terror and grow faint

over the boy just enlisted for the war; then follow him with prayers

and yearning love to the distant battlefield; then wait and watch for

tidings from him; and then too often read with streaming eyes and hearts

swelling with agony, the fatal message which says their boy is dead.

It was a sad day at Spring Bank when first the news of Hugh's enlistment

came, sadder even than when 'Lina died, for Hugh seemed as really dead

as if they all had heard the hissing shell or whizzing ball which was to

bear his young life away. It was nearly two months since he left home,

and he could find no trace of Adah, though searching faithfully for her,

in conjunction with Murdock and Dr. Richards, both of whom had joined

him in New York.




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