THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE VilLMER COLLECTION 
 
 OF CIML WAR NOVELS 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 RICHARD H. WILMER, JR. 
 
KILMER COLLECT; 
 
THE 
 
 TEST OF LOYALTY, 
 
 B T 
 
 JAMES M. HIATT 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS: 
 
 MERRILL AND SMITH, PUBLISHERS. 
 18 64. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-four, 
 
 BY MERRILL & SMITH, 
 
 In the Clerk's oflBce of the District Court of the United States for the District 
 of Indiana. 
 
TO 
 
 WILLIAM M. FRENCH, 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S TRUE FRIEXE 
 
 AXD 
 
 LIBERAL PATRON IX HIS EARLY LITERARY EFFORTS, 
 
 THI3 vroaK 13 
 
 RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 602957 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It will bo remembered by many that, during the year 
 1S62, a number of soldiers belonging to the army of the 
 North-west deserted, and, returning to their homes, were 
 concealed by disaffected partisans. The hero of this story 
 has been selected from a score of these, personally known 
 to the author. 
 
 The idea of the work was suggested by a friend, who 
 conceived that such a production, showing, as it necessarily 
 must, the influence, for evil, exerted upon susceptible 
 young men in the army by certain political malcontents, 
 might be productive of good. 
 
 The statement that the majority of the characters wno 
 figure here are real, their names only being fictitious, is 
 scarcely necessary, as many of them will be readily re- 
 cognized. 
 
 The principal scene has been laid in and about thoHoosier 
 capital, for two reasons: first, because the author is 
 Hoosier, and is partial to Iloosierdom; second, be'^ause it 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 is mctc thfit the most gallant of the North-western States 
 should figure in the romance of the present period. She 
 certainly has as much claim to such notoriety as those 
 rebellious States, which have hung so coaspicuously hith- 
 erto, in the gallery of fiction. 
 
 If, in reading this story, any, who have heretofore been 
 blinded by the opaque goggles of party devotion, should 
 have their eyes opened to the great truth that Loyalty 
 admits of no ifs or buts; if any should be convinced that 
 it is the duty of every American to lay party, property, 
 life — all upon the altar of Freedom, then shall my highest 
 hopes be consummated. 
 
 To the members of the Metropolitan Literary Institute, 
 
 who, for eight years, have been to me both schoolmates 
 
 and teachers, are due my warmest thanks for many kind 
 
 sucrgestions. 
 
 The ArxnoR. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE ENLISTMENT. i^v - 
 
 '•Why, George, what is the matter? you look real blue. 
 Has anything unusual happened you? " said Dora Clinton 
 to her brother, unexpectedly confronting him, as he stood 
 on the old porch in front of his farm home, peering into his 
 face with solicitous inquisitiveness. 
 
 '^Nothing is the matter with me, Dora, but the country 1 
 the country ! — that's what I'm thinking about. To go, or 
 not to go — that's the question. Here's the corn to plant 
 and plow, the wheat soon to cut — aH the season's work 
 to do; no body here but father, if I leave— but— but, I 
 want to go and help whip the secesh. Nearly all the rest 
 of the boys are going, and I'd like right well to go with 
 them," and George stepped nervously about over the porch, 
 as though he were caged. Dora's quick eye did not fail 
 to discern his embarrassment, and she speedily addressed 
 herself to its removal. 
 
 " Is the season's work all that bothers you?" 
 '• Xot all, of course; but that's the most." 
 " Well, then, go, and if father can obtain no other help, 
 I'll turn out, myself. The mothers of seventy-six did farm 
 and shop work, while the fathers fought the battles of In- 
 dependence, and I can imitate them." 
 
 "Hurrah for you, Dora!— plenty of Clinton spirit about 
 you, but I don't know so well about the ability." 
 
8 TIIK TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 "Ah! don't trouble yourself about that. A woiikim can 
 do anything she puts her head to." 
 
 While Dora and George were thus engaged, their father, 
 a grny-haired veteran of the war of 1812, stood behind the 
 IVont door, which opened upon the porch, listening, Avon- 
 dcring, admiring; and upon the enunciation of Dora's last 
 > iitence he could not refrain from interrupting them. Step- 
 ping from his place-of concealment he addressed them: 
 
 "Children, I'm proud of you. The blood of Seventy- 
 six runs in your veins. The country is safe while such as 
 you are left." 
 
 "George, your father is old, but the danger of the Gov- 
 ernment makes him strong. If you want to fight for the 
 flag, go. The old man can take care of the farm." 
 
 Mr. Clinton's broken eloquence caught the ear of a cer- 
 tain very important indiviual of the feminine gender, whom 
 v«-e may now introduce to the reader as 3Irs. Clinton — an 
 old lad}', rather low in stature, stooped in form, with head 
 frosted, and encased in a enow-white, heavy frilled, linen 
 cap — eyes small, grey, twinkling, looking through a pair of 
 old fashioned spectacles — features sharj^'and angular. She 
 wears a plain, calico dress — old style — narrow cape and 
 large, checked apron with a pocket in it, which receptacle 
 contains a ball of knitting yarn, a thimble, and the bureau, 
 cupboard and smoke house keys. Her father was a Vir- 
 ginia Democrat — a fact she often alludes to with much 
 pride — and she is fond of telling how many handsome 
 young men she refused when she was young, because they 
 were not '-to her mind in politics. '^' She " liked Clinton, 
 because he vvas honest, industrious, good looking, but she 
 adored him because he was a Democrat." She is now — in 
 the commencement of the rebellion — of the opinion that 
 the South has done wi-on-^-. but thinks Lincoln to blame 
 
THE TEST OF LOTALTl'. 9 
 
 for the war "He oughfnt to let the South secede, but 
 ho hain't no right to use coercion," is an oft repeated say- 
 
 iu"- with her. „ , , i 
 
 The President has called for seTenty-five thousand vol- 
 unteers, and she has suffered no little uneasiness for fear 
 UourM ''will go and 'list." 
 
 Th^e reader may, therefore, imagine her feelings upon . 
 overhearing the old man's talk on the porch. 
 
 "Talkin' about sendin' George to ^ar, hey? exclaimed 
 the old lady, suddenly appearing in the midst of the com- 
 pany, and wiping the dust from her spectacles An 13 
 my only boy, who's allers been with me, except when ho 
 was to collecre, to be taken from me now in my ole days," 
 Oh, this horrid war, that might 'a been avoided as well as 
 not I It'll be the ruin of us all yet." 
 
 "But, mother," said George, "whether it might have 
 been avoided or not, it is now upon us, and if we don t do 
 our duty, the Government you always taught me to love 
 will be destroyed. Can't you see that? ' 
 
 "Bravely said, my boy," responded the father "Wife, 
 it is our duty to give our son to the country It has al- 
 ways blessed us, let us defend it. I'm as good a Demoera 
 as anybody; don't like Lincoln so very well; but it isn. 
 his Government any more than mine that's in danger 
 
 m- Clinton, notwithstanding her strong political pre- 
 judices, felt the force of these remarks, and, not so muct 
 . 'rom any conviction of duty as from the consciousness or her 
 „,bility to withstand the positive patriotic element with 
 which L had to contend, yielded a sort of a -'-t^ ^udg-g 
 ■ .onsent to George's enlistment. George did not fail to notice 
 ;h frnd it tended, in no small degree to chill the patriotic 
 rd r which enthused his soul, though it by no mea 
 weakened his desire to support his country m her hour of 
 
10 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 peril. Thinking to improve his own feelings, and, per- 
 haps, his mother's sentiments, he proposed to go immedi- 
 ately to Indianapolis, a distance of about three miles, and en- 
 ter the ranks of his country's defenders, which proposition was 
 accepted. A horse and vehicle were now brought out, and 
 due preparations made for George's departure. The whole 
 family accompauyed him. On his way to town, he took 
 what he thought might be his last look at all the famil- 
 iar haunts of his boyhood. The neighborhood church; the 
 school house and its forest play-ground; the woods he had 
 often strolled with his sister, in summer, in quest of wild 
 flowers, and ransacked in winter, with his boyish comrades, 
 in search of rabbits and coons, were the scenes of pleasures 
 and sports never to be forgotten. 
 
 He had heard his father speak of the imposing grandeur 
 of the mountain scenery of Virginia ; but this he had never 
 seen. To him there wa.s a beauty about the broad, level 
 landscapes, towering old forests, and wild, tangled copses 
 X)f Hoosierdom which could not be surpassed in any part 
 of the world. But his country had called him, and he had 
 resolved to separate himself from home with all its endeared 
 surroundings, and even to c^uit the loved society of parents 
 and sister in obedience to that call. 
 
 It was sad to leave, perhaps forever, the scenes and 
 friends of his childhood, but it was soul reviving to know 
 that he was to be numbered among those immortal patriots, 
 who to preserve the American Grovernment from the politi- 
 cal corruptions of the Nineteenth century were to baptize 
 it with their blood. Such were his reflections as he glided 
 swiftly over the level pike to the recruiting office. 
 
 But little was said by the family while on the road. All 
 were too deeply absorbed in the sad change that had come 
 ever a once peaceful and prosperous country, and the dis- 
 
^ THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 11 
 
 turbances it had caused in their social and domestic rela- 
 tions to talk freely. 
 
 If the reader had been with them, however, he might 
 have read in the clouded brow of the father, and the glist- 
 ening tears which stood in the eyes of the mother and sis- 
 ter, no less than in the ever-changing features of George, 
 something of the character of the feelings which occupied 
 each. 
 
 Having arrived at Indianapolis, George, accompanied by 
 his father, repaired immediately to a recruiting stand and 
 enlisted in a company composed largely of his old associates. 
 No sooner was the fact known, than his friends gathered 
 around him, warmly shaking his hand and rending the air 
 with cheers for *' George Clinton." 
 
 One after another came forward and remarked: " I knew 
 George was too brave to allow others to do his fighting." 
 
 Meantime, Mr. Clinton had been accosted and called 
 aside by 3Ir. Hardhead, Esq., a very successful criminal 
 lawyer, residing in the metropolis, and the following con- 
 versation occurred: 
 
 "Mr. Clinton, why do you encourage your son to enlist 
 in the Lincoln army? How does it come that so sound a 
 Democrat as you will have any part in this abolition war? 
 I'm astonished!" 
 
 " Astonished, that I should forget my party and stand 
 by my country in times like these? And I don't know so 
 well about its being and 'abolition war.' There's a good 
 deal that goes to show that the South's been getting ready 
 to rebel for several years. Any how, we've got to fight it 
 out or be nobody." 
 
 '• Clinton, havn't you been to some of the Republican war 
 meetings and listened to some of those Union shriekers who 
 denounce liberty of speech, and incite mobs to hunt down 
 
12 THE TEST OP LOYALTY. « 
 
 the few remaining Democrats who have back-bone enough 
 to express their opinion of this abolition crusade." 
 
 "Hardhead, what do you mean? Wasn't you a Douglas 
 man in 18G0? If you was, what makes you now go in 
 for the fire-eaters, when you know they were the worst ene- 
 mies Douglas had?" 
 
 Mr. Clinton was a man of moderate education, but was 
 very eloquent when he felt deeply ; and on this occasion he 
 was peculiarly so, in so much that Hardhead felt it difficult 
 to manage him. 
 
 '• AVell now, Mr. Clinton, if you must know it I will tell 
 you the secret. I never was a friend of Douglas after he 
 took the stand he did against the Administration on the 
 admission of Kansas into the Union with the Lecompton 
 Constitution. I only favored the Douglas ticket because- 
 the success of that ticket seemed to be the only hope of de- 
 feating the abolitionists. All this talk about popular sover- 
 eignty is humbug. The right of a territorial population to 
 regulate its own domestic institutions in its own way is a 
 Tery pretty thing to talk about, and it served our purpose 
 very well in the election of Buchanan in fifty-six; but 
 when yo'i come to test it, it is found to be impracticable 
 and unsafe." 
 
 " The true Democratic doctrine is undoubtedly that which 
 is laid down in the Breckenridge platform. The people of 
 all parts of the Union have an equal right to migrate to any 
 territory within the United States, taking with them their 
 property : and it is the duty of the Government to protect 
 them and their property to ihe full extent of its powers." 
 
 " Now it is for the equality of rights in the territories 
 that the South is fighting to day; and they ought to fight 
 for it. 
 
 " Hardhead, are you one of those who believe that it is 
 Vemuciatic to convert this Government into a negro pro- 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 13 
 
 tecting macliiiic, and by it to force slavery upon the people 
 in a territory, whether they are willing or not? And do 
 you go against the majority of the people controlling this 
 Government, just because that majority has said that slavery 
 is 'I ; o no further?" 
 '• No, I do not deny the right of the majority to govern, 
 but I deny its right to ojjpress the minority, xiccording 
 to the decision of the supreme court, slaves are property 
 any where within the United States; and no majority 
 las the right to interfere with tlie rights of property. No 
 jovernment is justifiable in encroaching upon the rights 
 of the people of one section that it may promote the inter- 
 ests of another. Our fathers rebelled against the British 
 'Government because it tried to render us subservient to the 
 interests of the people of England; and Jefi". Davis and the 
 people of the South have rebelled against this Government 
 because, tQ f^ivor the abolitionists, it aims to oppress slave- 
 holders. I know tha-t these Union shriekers tell us that 
 no overt act had been committ<3d; but the Southern people 
 told us long ago that they would consider the election of a 
 sectional candidate an overt act, and a just cause for seces- 
 sion. The warning has been fair, but the abolitionists 
 have not heeded it. They have brought the war upon 
 themselves and they may fight it out. For my part I will 
 have nothing to do with it; nor will any other true Dem- 
 ocrat. All I hope is that the South may give the Lincoln- 
 ites a sound thrashino;," 
 
 Hardhead continued thus delivering himself of the 
 most treasonable sentiments, growing more and more out- 
 rageous, until a crowd of excited soldiers hearing him, he 
 found it necessary to Sisek safety in the bosom of his 
 family. 
 
 Clinton's feelings, upon hearing Hardhead's disloyal 
 expressions, can not be described. He had previously 
 
14 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 placed the utmost confidence in Hardhead; had regarded 
 him as an able leader in the Democratic party, and a true 
 friend of Douglas; had voted for him in ISGO, honestly 
 believing that in so doing he was supporting the doctrine 
 of non-intervention; and now to hear him not only repu- 
 diating that doctrino, but expressing the strongest desires 
 that a wicked and causeless rebellion might sueeecd, was 
 something for which he was by no means prepared. Hard- 
 head had been his warm perefonal friend — had acted for 
 years as his attorney, and had always been true to him in 
 that capacity; and being very adhesive in his friendships, 
 he could not so readily condemn what he had just heard 
 as if it had come from some other source. 
 
 After all, he did not know but there might be something 
 in Hardhead's views; he (Clinton) had probably not inves- 
 tigated all the circumstances connected with the rebellion 
 as closely as he should. Hardhead certainly was a man 
 of more talent and information than himself; and as he 
 had always been a lover of free speech, his regard for 
 Hardhead was by no means lessened by the coercive de- 
 monstrations of the- soldiers toward him. Still Clinton 
 could not justify Hardhead's repudiation of the platform 
 on which he had run for Congress, nor the assertion that 
 the accession of a constitutionally elected president was, 
 in itself, a sufficient cause for secession. In short. Clinton 
 was completely confused, being strongly influenced on the 
 one hand by personal friendship and past political attach- 
 ment, and on the other by that love of country which had 
 been instilled into him from youth. 
 
 In this vibrating state of mind he sought his wife and 
 daughte-r, who had improved, or rather mis-improved the 
 lime occupied by George and his father in finding the re- 
 cruiting office, by paying a passing visit to the family of 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 15 
 
 Mr. Yenom, a very popular editor, who had just experi- 
 enced the terrors of ^^AhoUtion ride^^^ by being forced to 
 display the American flag from his office window, and take 
 the oath of allegiance. During this visit, the following 
 highly entertaining feminine discussion occurred between 
 Mrs, Clinton and Mrs. Venom: 
 
 "Mrs. Clinton, do I understand you to say that your 
 handsome son George, between whom and my daughtei 
 Volatile, there has always existed such a close intimacy, 
 has gone and enlisted in the Northern army?" 
 
 "Ye-es, of course. Why do you make so strange of it? 
 Didn't you think him brave enough to go to war?" 
 
 "Oh! my dear Mrs. Clinton; I can assure you that I 
 never for a moment doubted George's courage. He comes 
 of a brave stock. But I must say I am surprised that the 
 son of so good a Democrat as Ingram Clinton should take 
 any part in this Black Republican war." 
 
 "Well, Mrs. Venom, I dont want you to think that 
 I had art nor part in it. It was all fixed up atween 
 Dora, an George, an father, an among 'em afore I 
 knowed anything about it. An then George, he seemed so 
 bent on goin, an Father was so anxious to have him go, 
 that I thought I must consent. But, law me," and here 
 Mrs. Clinton drew a long sigh; "I tell you it didn't please 
 me a bit, so it didn't." 
 
 "If it had a been a war with some furrin nation, I 
 wouldn't a minded it. I'd a said, go George, and drive 
 the invaders from the country the forefathers fought, bled, 
 an died for. But it always seemed to me this war with 
 our Southern brothers might a been avoided." 
 
 "And so it might, Mrs. Clinton. In the first place the 
 Northern people need not have elected Lincoln. The 
 Southern people had always told us they would not submit 
 
16 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 to the election of an Abolitionist. And then after Lincoln 
 was elected, we might have preserved peace by agreeing to 
 the Crittenden Compromise, although that was hardly fair 
 for the South, and—" 
 
 "Now, Mrs. Venom, them's jist my sentiments, but I 
 hniut got the edocation to express 'em." 
 
 ••But that's not all, 31rs. Clinton. If Lincoln had Jet 
 the. South alone, and had not attempted coercion, the Bor- 
 der States would have stayed in the Union, and after a 
 v/hile the rebellous States would have come back." 
 
 '•That's my opinion, too, Mrs. Venom." 
 
 "Now, the truth is, Mrs. Clinton, the Black Republicans 
 are bent on the freedom of the negro, and they have 
 brought on this war to subjugate the South and emanci- 
 pate the slaves. But the South never can be whipped, and 
 this country never can have peace until the Democratic 
 party gets into the power again, and compromises the mat- 
 ter by giving the Southern people their rights." 
 
 "Now your'e talkin, Mrs. Venom. The Abolitioners 
 loves the nigger better nor they do the country. The 
 South '11 never submit, an the Dimocrats'll have to settle 
 the fuss after all. But;" and here Mrs. Clinton heaved 
 another deep sigh; "Greorge has gone an done it, I reckon, 
 by this time, an I spose there's no help for it. He's so 
 hot-blooded, an Father, he's not much better; an the 
 idee o' fightin for the Government, under the stares an 
 stripes, has sot 'em both crazy. The fact is, I'm beginin 
 to git uneasy for fear the ole man '11 jine the company too, 
 if he can. But then I spose he can't, can he?" 
 
 "0, no, Mrs. Clinton; no one over forty-five can enter 
 the service." 
 
 '•The thing goes specially hard with us now, Mrs. 
 Venom, because the most o' the corn crap's to be put in, 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 17 
 
 an there's nobody left to work but the ole man. Hands is 
 powerful scase, you know, an wages high. Dora, she 
 thinks as how she might do a right smart chance o' work 
 on the nwm; but, law, she's too spindle'n to stand any- 
 thing. She'll do big things, won't she? Why, she haint 
 Icon woth much in doin the work about the house sense 
 she went to boardin school. But she's all full o' hifallutin 
 notions now — talks about revolutionary mothers, the forti- 
 tude o' wimmen, what the country demands of our sex in 
 this tryin period, and all sich; but when it comes to the 
 tryal, I'm a thiukin she '11 wilt like a mornin glory of a 
 hot summer day." 
 
 "Yes, I should think Dora too delicate to do much out- 
 door work." 
 
 "Well, I was just a thinkin, Mrs. Venom, as I come up, 
 that I'd ax you somethin about a thing I hearn down 
 town." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 '"Why, some feller was a tellln another feller jist as we 
 stoped afore the Odd Feller's Hall, that the Union men had 
 made Mr. Venom hang out the American flag, an take the 
 oath of allegiance to the United States. How about 
 that?" 
 
 "Well, that is about true. You see husband is pretty 
 independent, and he came out in a leader the other morn- 
 ing, reviewing the course taken by the Black Bq^ublicans 
 in the last Congress, and showing that the Abolitionists 
 brought on the war. This so maddened the so-called 
 UnioB men, and the soldiers about town, that thay gath- 
 ered around the office and threatened to tear it to pieces if 
 husband did not display the flag and take the oath. Of 
 course he was vfilling to do that; but if anybody thinks he 
 2 
 
18 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 has clianged one whit from what he was, they are badly 
 mistaken. lie is still the same Iseariot Venom." 
 
 "Oh! is that the way of it? Why, I— but the door 
 bell rings." 
 
 "Dick! Dick! 3^011 lazy black rascal, where are you?" 
 
 "Ileah! heah ! Missus Venum, at your scrviss." 
 
 "Go to the front door and see who desires admission. 
 If it is that impudent Mrs. Loyal, tell her I am not at 
 home. Now do you hear?" 
 
 " Yes, missus; I heah." 
 
 "I expect its the ole man after me an Dora. I thought 
 I hearn ole Pats nicker jist afore the bell. Its about time 
 he should be here. Yes, it's him; I hearn him ask if I 
 was here. I've got a good one laid up for him for keepin 
 me here so long. I "11 lay anything he's been foolin away 
 his time talk'.ii ^ olitics with Hardhead, or some 0' them fel- 
 lers. Yes, it's him; here he is." 
 
 "Good evening, Mrs. Venom.'' 
 
 "Good evening, 3Ir. Clinton. Have a seat on the sofa, 
 and rest yourself; you must be tired." 
 
 "Thank you, Mrs. Venom, but I have no time to stay; 
 and if wife and Dora are ready, we will be off home imme- 
 diately. Our main help about the farm has gone to serve 
 his country, and the old man will have to stir now, or the 
 season's work will f;ill behind." 
 
 ^^So Mrs. Clinton has just been telling me; and I have 
 been wondering how — but here come Dora and Volatile, 
 looking unusually serious for them. Why, Dora has been 
 crying, and Volatile is pouting. Girls, is anything the 
 matter? Certainly, there is nothing wrong between ytu?" 
 
 "I don't know whetlier 3'ou call it wrong or not," said 
 Dora, "but whenever anybody speaks derisively of the 
 
THE TEST OP LOYALTY. 19 
 
 American Union, and shows sympathy with rebels, she, or 
 he, can no longer be a friend of mine. Volatile and I 
 have been out to Wallace Barracks in company with my 
 old friend, Ninnie Hardhead, and on our return, Ninnie 
 jind Volatile did nothing but slur the brave boys who have 
 so cheerfully stepped forward in this hour of their coun- 
 try's peril, to sustain the honor of the flag; and they shall 
 know from this time forward, that a gulf, as wide as the 
 difference between treason and patriotism, separates them 
 from me." 
 
 "Dear me! I wonder! Why, you must have been ta- 
 king lessons of Mrs. Loyal," said 3Irs, Venom. 
 
 "Why, daughter, you are excited. You speak too 
 bluntly. Remember we are in the house of our old 
 friends," said Mr. Clinton. 
 
 "Oh, that's jest like her," said Mrs. Clinton, "more of 
 her boardin school retric: wants to to let folks know what 
 she's larnt. I tell you, ole man, that garil be in the In- 
 sane Hospistle afore a year, without a chance." 
 
 "Been taking lessons of Mrs. Loyal — in the house of 
 old friends — will bo in the Insane Hospital. I am think- 
 ing others might learn valuable lessons of Mrs. Loyal. 
 Father, why didn't you say a den of secession vipers in- 
 stead of a house of friends; and as to the Insane Hospital, 
 give me that any time in preference to the doom that here- 
 after awaits traitors! " 
 
 "Wife! wife! let's be going. Things are getting pretty 
 hot here. Dora will cool dowR when she gets home. I 
 hope you will take no offence, Mrs. Venom. Dora will 
 apologize when she is at herself" 
 
 "Why, Father, what do you mean? I am at myself. 
 Loyalty to this Government is always sane. Treason is 
 the worst form of madness; and there are some here who 
 
20 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 will feel it before many years. You may depend upon it, 
 I shall never apologize to traitors while life remains, nor 
 cease denouncing those \\'ho would insult my country's 
 flafj, until I am cold in the grave. Father. I am ready to 
 go home, and will be glad to get there, but must seo 
 George first. Where is he?" 
 
 "I left him at the recruiting office. lie said he would 
 meet us at the New York Store, if there was any chance." 
 
 "Ole man, I am ready an anxshus to git home, or any 
 where else, where it 'ud be proper for me take that gal 
 down a notch or two. I '11 Inrn her how to take advantage 
 of the edccation wev'e sacrafiiced so much to give her, to 
 insult our friends and disgrace herself I '11 let her kiiovr 
 her mother knows somethin, if she didn't git no high 
 boardin school larnin when she was a gal. I'd like to 
 see George though, too." 
 
 Dora, to avoid any further dispute with her mother, 
 remained silent, fully determined, however, in her own 
 mind never to yield a single inch of the lofty, patriotic 
 ground she h:Kl taken. 
 
 All things being in readiness, the Aimily proceeded to 
 tlieir carriage and started home. Pa.^sing down jMain 
 street, they came to the locality where George had 
 promised to see them, and found him in waiting. He 
 told them he had enli.sted in the company of his choice, 
 but would not be mustered into the service for a day or 
 two, and he would spend that time at home. All were 
 rejoiced to hear this news. i>lrs. Clinton seemed particu- 
 larly pleased; and the significant twinklings of her little 
 grey eyes indicated that she had a special object in having 
 her son at home a little while before he was sworn in. 
 
 George took his seat in the carriage, and all proceeded 
 on their wav home. 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 21 
 
 Wonderful to say, Mrs. Clinton had not a word of re- 
 proof for Dora, even when the best opportunities were 
 offered. The truth is, she knew her daughter, and that 
 while she was the most obedient of daughters in all mat- 
 ters coming within the sphere of a mother's juri;.dictioa, 
 she was not the girl to compromise any right principle. 
 Mrs. Clinton desired to leave as favorable an impression 
 upon the mind of her friend^ Mrs. Yenom, as possible. 
 Hence she attempted to show her disapproval of Dora's 
 Union sentiments, and particularly her hostilit}' to tho 
 bold manner in which they were expressed, by making 
 threats of reprimands and punishments at the proper time 
 and place. But further than this mere display, she in- 
 tended nothing, and during the route from the city home, 
 no mention was made of what had passed at the house of 
 Mr. Venom. 
 
 And, as we have hitherto omitted it, let us here attempt 
 a description of Dora. 
 
 She is a genuine Hoosier girl, of medium height and full 
 form. Her features are strong but not coarse. Her com- 
 plexion is rather dark, — hair very dark, and worn plainly; 
 eyes hazel, large, round, electric in expression — the true 
 index, at all times, of her feelings, whether sad, pathetic, 
 or revengeful. Her head is large, high, and narrow in 
 front, but full in the combative region. The painter would 
 hardly select her as a model of femine beauty, and yet she 
 is by no means homely. She is possessed of rare percep- 
 tives, memory and language, and the ability to apply what- 
 ever she learns. Her education is the very best that the 
 Hoosier capital will afford. She is an inveterate reader of 
 history and politics; believes that a woman has a right to 
 know anything she can learn, and express an opinion when 
 Bhe has one. She is frank, bold, honest, energetic, and 
 
22 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 always ready to defend the right. A dandy, whose highest 
 conception of a lady is that of a semi-sentimental, smirk- 
 ing, French-chattering, piano puppet, will hardly bo 
 tempted to fall in love with her, but a iiuin who wants 
 a icomtoi, will make her his wife if he can get her. She 
 is not rude, but earnest, ardent, and always rcad-y to 
 attack wrong wherever she may find it; always desires to 
 be obedient and respectful to her parents, but not negative 
 and subservient. 
 
 On the way home, Mrs. Clinton was occupied in asking 
 George questions with reference to his enlistment, his corn- 
 pan}', officers, etc, etc. She seemed particularly anx- 
 ious to know all about the nature of a volunteer en- 
 listment, — how far the recruit was bound before he was 
 sworn in, etc. 
 
 George knew his mother's susceptibility, and could 
 plainly see that some one had been poisoning her since he 
 had parted from her in the morning. He was, therefore, 
 extremely careful to say nothing indicating a desire to 
 retrace the step he had taken. But the significant queries 
 of his mother did not trouble George half so badly as the 
 ominous silence and vexed countenance of his -father. 
 There was a gruif. disappointed expression in tlie latter's 
 features, which could not easily be fathomed, and which 
 set George on nettle of uneasiness. Dora, also, observed 
 this, and determined, if possible, to know the cause of it. 
 
 Arrived at home. George housed the carriage and put 
 away the horse, while the other members of the family 
 proceed to the house. Dora immediately sough', an inter- 
 Tiew with her father, when the following pastel between 
 them: 
 
 "Father, what causes you to be so gloomy and abstracted 
 this afternoon? — so rufiled and unapproachable. Quite dif- 
 
THE TEST OF LOYxiLTY, 23 
 
 ferent, you seem now to what you did tbis morning. Then 
 you was sad, now you are morose." 
 
 " Daughter, it would be difficult for mc to tell you all I 
 feel just now; and if I were to do it, it would, perhaps, 
 only perplex you, while it wouldn't relieve me." 
 
 '' Father, unless it is something not proper for me to hear, 
 I insist that you disclose to me the whole cause of your 
 trouble. You know how much I love you, and how miser- 
 able I am, when anything goes wrong with you which I 
 may not know." 
 
 ''Well, for your satisftiction, I'll tell all. To begin with, 
 I've been surprised to-day to find that some of my old 
 Democratic friends don't support the Government. I have 
 been particularly troubled at Hardhead's notions of the 
 war. I fully expected to find every Douglas man a warm 
 supporter of the Government; but he not only speaks dis- 
 couragingly of the war, but favorably of the secessionists — 
 the murderers of Douglas. The rebellion has made a new 
 man of him. He now sees light where he used to see dark- 
 ness. He now defends the Lecompton doctrine and the 
 Breckenridge platform with as much zeal as he used to op- 
 pose them; giving as a reason for his past support of the 
 Anti-Lecompton ticket that it was the only one which 
 could possibly defeat the Republicans. He seems to think 
 that the Southern people are fighting for their rights, and 
 that the abolitionists have brought on the war. Now you 
 know Hardhead has always been a good friend of miiic. 
 He certainly knows more than I do about politics. Ivj 
 always looked up to him as a political, as well as a Ic.;,^:! 
 advisor; and the stand he now takes, and the boldness he 
 defends it with, shakes my confidence a little in the views 
 I took this morning, and leads me to ask whether or not 
 I have done right in giving up George." 
 
24 THE TEST OF LOYALIT. 
 
 '* Father, I can hardly believe that it is you who talks thus. 
 I am filled with inexpressible anguish to hear you even in- 
 timate th;it your faith in the cause of the Union is shaken. 
 As to Hardhead, I could have told you long ago that he is 
 an unprincipled politician ; a man ready to do anything 
 for money or for position — a traitor both to his party and 
 to his country. His friendship to you is based upon, the 
 profit he has derived from your patronage, and that he yet 
 hopes to derive in the future. Take away the money prop 
 and his high estimation of you will tumble into the un- 
 fathomable depths of oblivion. And can it be possible that 
 my father acknowledges dependence upon a corrupt, worn 
 out political hack, as it regards the formation of his opin- 
 ions and the conception of his duties in a great crisis, such 
 as the present? Is it possible, that my father, when the 
 flag of his country has been basely insulted, will confer 
 with one who would sell soul and body for office, to know 
 what he should do? 
 
 " The assertion that this war is brought about by the abo- 
 litionists is a lie, and Hardhead knew it when he uttered 
 it. The great national calamity wbich now overhangs us 
 is just what the enemies of Douglas have been working 
 for a number years. The election of Lincoln — the pretext 
 for the war was made certain by the division of the Demo- 
 cratic party at Charleston. The same fire-eaters who de- 
 feated the efforts of the conservatives of the Xorth-west are 
 working to destroy American liberty ; and the man who, 
 having fought under the standard of the Little Giant, 
 would turn, immediately after his defeat, a<nd lick the dust 
 from the feet of his enemies, is unworthy a position among 
 respectable apes. 
 
 " The issue of the present is not ahoUtion, but the salva- 
 tion of America. It is not whether the negro shall be freed, 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 25 
 
 but -whether the freedom of the white men shall be pre- 
 served; not whether the present administration is right, 
 but whether the great Temple of Liberty, reared by the 
 heroes of Seventy-six, shall stand; not whether a local in- 
 stitution of the Souvth shall be extended, but whether the 
 Union, more prescious to the true American than life, shall 
 be perpetuated." 
 
 "Daughter, tlie heat of your feelings carries you to ex- 
 tremes, llemember you're young and have not seen as 
 much of the political workings of this Government as 
 others have. I know you're well versed in history for one 
 of your age, and that you take an unusual interest in the 
 welfare of your country, but the w^armth of your young 
 blood won't allow that cool exercise of judgment that older 
 ones are capable of; I admire your patriotism, but don't 
 like your uncompromising disposition. It docs rot become 
 one of your age and sex to speak so harshly of everybody 
 who opposes your views. Hardhead may be all that you 
 say he is, but it. doesn't look well in you to use quite such 
 hard words about him as you do. You ihould be more 
 moderate." 
 
 '• The.^e are not moderate times, father. The life of 
 America is at stake; and whoever, either directly or indi- 
 rectly, shows sympathy with its enemies not only deserves 
 the uncompromising hatred of every friend of freedom, but 
 the ignoble death of a traitor, be he old or young. Trea- 
 son is inexcusable enough in youth; but when dignified by 
 age and advocated against the light of experience, it be- 
 comes detestable beyond the power of human description. 
 No, Father, sny not that my words have been too sharp 
 against a man, who, as the insideous serpent insinuated 
 himself into the good graces of our Mother Eve, that 
 through her, he might taint the air, curse the earth, and 
 
26 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 blielit the souls of million:i, v/ould stcalthfully creep into 
 the hearts of Columbia's loyal sons, infuse into their souls 
 the fatal poison of disunion, and thus destroy a nation's 
 freedom. Words are but feeble agencies to portray the 
 dark, the. damning crime of conspiracy against liberty ; 
 and the condemnation of traitors is so deep that the eye of 
 the human imagination could not penetrate it, in an age. 
 But, Oh! Father, how do you think poor George will feel 
 when he hears of the change that seems likely to come 
 over you? How will his soul bear up under the knowledge 
 that your heart is not fully enlisted in the great cause for 
 which he goes to fight? And — " 
 
 There, daughter, stop ! The old man can endure no more. 
 You have touched the tender spot. You know how I love 
 George; you know how I love my country. But, my head 
 is addled, I am in a vexed, uncertain state of mind ; don't 
 know what to make of Hardhead, and — " 
 
 "Why. father, I can tell you what to make of him," said 
 George, surprising both his father and Dora by his sudden 
 appearance. "He is simply a sympathizer with the South; 
 an enemy to the Government. Everybody knows that. 
 Col. Vaughn told me to-day that Hardhead was at heart a 
 rebel, and a more dangerous foe to the Union than any man 
 in the Southern army." 
 
 "Col. Vaughn!" 
 
 ''Yes, Col. Vaughn." 
 
 "Well, if lie says it, I reckon there is something in it. 
 But George, did you hear what passed between me and 
 your sister?" 
 
 "Only a part of it. father — the latter part." 
 
 "Well, son, you mustn't think that your father would 
 have you undo anything you have done to-day. I have 
 merely allowed myself to get a little worked up by some 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 27 
 
 talk I had with Hardhead this forenoon; and. as Dora has 
 hinted, I reckon it is weakness in me to allow him to do my 
 thinking. Go on my boy, you have honored yourself and 
 your fiither in offering yourself to your country. May 
 God bless you." 
 
 The incisive arguments of Dora, although not new to Mr. 
 Clinton, owing to the unselfishness and earnestness of the 
 manner in which they were presented, tended greatly to re- 
 store his mental equalibrium, and to remove those Demo- 
 cratic jealousies aroused by his couYcrsation with Hard- 
 head in the city. But his sympathy for his son and 
 the opinion of Col. Yaughn — a life-long Democrat — caused 
 him to feel ashamed of having allowed himself to entertain 
 any doubts of the righteousness of his country's cause ; 
 and to fall back rapidly to his former position — that what- 
 ever might have been the causes of the war, it is the duty 
 of all citizens of all parties to sustain the Government. 
 
 He was naturally a firm, resolute man; but was becoming 
 enfeebled both in mind and body by age, and was by no 
 means well prepared for the new issues and soul-trying exi- 
 gencies which the year >861 brought with it. His party 
 prejudices were exceedingly strong. He had always be- 
 lieved that the history of his party was the history of the 
 Government; that the Democratic policy was the only one 
 upon which the Republic could be securely based; and, 
 hence, although he felt, as Dora had said, that the same 
 men who had divided the Democracy and thus ensured the 
 election of Lincoln, were foremost in the rebellion, jet he 
 had no love for the Republicans, and by no means liked 
 the idea of humbling his Democratic pride. 
 
 It was under the influence of these peculiar feelings and 
 prejudices that he was induced to take into consideration 
 the views of Hardhead. But the counter-views of another 
 
28 TIIK TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 Democrat, more talented and influential, tended to restore 
 bim to his former patriotic stand, and to arouse in him a 
 strong suspicion of Hardhead's loyalty. 
 
 In this state of mind, he called for his pipe, lighted it 
 and sat down to soothe his excited nerves and indulge in 
 hopeful reveries. In the mean time Dora went to the kit- 
 chen to assist her mother about the supper. 
 
 While supper was in preparation, Mr. Clinton took occa- 
 sion to ask George a great many questions about Colonel 
 Vaughn and other Democrats, and their opinion of the war, 
 etc , etc.. which George cheerfully answered as well as he 
 could. It was a great solace to him to know that his first 
 views of the war and the duties of the people were fully 
 supported by the most distinguished Democrats of the coun- 
 try. And he finally requested George to procure for him 
 a paper containing the noble speech made by Senator 
 Douglas in Indianapolis, on his return from Washington, 
 immediately after the breaking out of the rebellion. 
 
 Supper being ready, it was quietly despatched; all ap- 
 pearing to have said about all they had to say respecting 
 the exciting scenes • of the day. Mrs. Clinton was un- 
 usually quiet; but exceedingly vigilent in watching all 
 George's motions and expressions of countenance. 
 
 After supper the family proceeded to the sitting room, 
 and after a few minutes' conversation, during which time 
 Mr. Clinton again indulged in the use of the pipe, prepara- 
 tions were made for r<3tiring to rest. The venerable head 
 of the family selected and read from the '-Old fashioned 
 Bible,"' an appropriate chapter, and then poured out his 
 soul in earnest prayer to the Great Disposer of all human 
 events, in behalf of his distracted country, and the brave 
 soidiers who had gone to fight the battles of freedom. He 
 closed his appeal bj' invoking the blessings of heaven upon 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 29 
 
 his only son, w • now about to leave liis father's roof 
 
 to meet the enemies of his Goveriniicnt in deadly combat. 
 During this prayer the feelings of all were touched. 
 George and Dora felt whnt they had never felt before. The 
 insecurity of human institutions, and the uncertainty of 
 life were brought before their minds in the most vivid man- 
 ner, and they felt they were to suffer afflictions of the soul 
 to which they had previously been strangers. The eccen- 
 tric mother was moved to intense grief, and experienced a 
 degree of humility which even such eratic minds as her's 
 rarely know. All arose from the merc'e>' seat, melted intc 
 contriticn, and sympathetically harmonious with each other, 
 to retire to rest imbued with thoughts and desires as new 
 as they were soul-thrilling. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 LOYALTY S TE>T. 
 
 We near the large plantation residence of a wealthy 
 Tennesscean, near Knoxville. The man who resides there 
 formerly lived in the vicinity of Nashville, but moved to 
 his present place of abode about the time that Sumter 
 'was reduced, in order to escape the persecutions which t\\d 
 secessionists were visiting upon the Union men of that 
 region. His name is Trucman. He is an uncompromising 
 friend of the Union. He is a brother of Mrs. Clinton; 
 has an intelligent and interesting family; is brave, noble, 
 and generous. We shall soon form a mure intimate 
 acquaintance with h':^! but for the present we will approach 
 the door of his house and busy ourselves in listening to a 
 conversation between his two daughters. 
 
 "Louie, did you tell me you had received a letter from 
 our Hoosier cousin, Dora Clinton?" 
 
 "Yes. Would you like to read it?" 
 
 "No; I would rather have you read it. You read so 
 much better than I do." 
 
 "Anything to please you, Jennie," said Louie, as she 
 opened the letter and r^ad as follows: 
 
 "Dear Lotie : I have so many things to write about 
 that I scarcely knew where to begin. You are, of course, 
 as well apprised -of the great misfortune which has befallen 
 our country, as I am. You may not know, however, the 
 
 30 
 
TIIK Trlr^T OF LOYAJ/iY. 31 
 
 feelings of our peo|lj toward you as well as one who has 
 always lived here. 
 
 'The people of the North have not engaged in a war 
 for the freedom of the negro, but for the preservation of 
 t I'.c Union. Thousands of men who voted against Lincoln 
 hive tiken up arms, not against slavery, but against trai- 
 tors. The Administration declares it as the policy of the 
 Government to interfere with the domestic interests of no 
 State, and to protect the lives and property of citizens 
 everywhere. If the Southern people would lay down their 
 arms to-day, the Government would receive them again into 
 the Union without infringing a single one of their rights. 
 But while the seceders continue to strike at the Govern- 
 ment, the great loj^al masses of the Xorth will fight while 
 a man is left. 
 
 "The secessionists need not deceive themselves with the 
 hope that the conservative Democracy of the North-west 
 will assist them in their silly, insane efforts to establish a 
 Southern Confederacy. We know too well the value of 
 our Government to encourage its destruction. There may 
 be a very few among us who sympathize with the traitors, 
 but they are too idiotic and cowardly to be worth anything 
 to anybody. 
 
 '•You know not, my dear Louie, how much uneasiness 
 your kin here, suffer on your account. Knowing that your 
 father is an uncompromising Union man, we fear that 
 unless aid is soon sent you, he will f\ill a victim to those 
 ruthless savages, who obey the mandates of Jeff. Davis. 
 May the Father of mercies protect you, is our constant 
 prayer. 
 
 "Should you be closely pressed, fly to us if you can. 
 We will receive you with open arms. 
 
 "The health of the entire family is good. 
 
32 THE TEST OF L<, V-.\ J-.TV . 
 
 ''George has volunteered in his country ''s service. 
 "Ever your faithful cousin, 
 
 "Dora. 
 "P. S. — Ftemember me to your pi and ma, and Albert, 
 and kiss Jennie for me. " D." 
 
 "How much that sounds like cousin Dora," exclaimed 
 Jennie. "Her independence, patriotism, and sympathy 
 are all visible in that letter." 
 
 "Yes, and her sound common sense, too," Louie said, as 
 she folded the letter and placed it in her portfolio. 
 
 "How good it is in her to sympatize with us, when she 
 herself is, no doubt, enough grieved that her only brother, 
 ■who has^always been by her side, must be made a mark for 
 rebel bullets." 
 
 "Yes, Jenni^, it is, indeed, good, but not remarkable; 
 because our own misfortunes, so far from monopolizing our 
 souls, really render them the more capacious for the recep- 
 tion of the sorrows of other?." 
 
 "0! Louie! when I think of the beautiful home we 
 have exchanged for this place, and the many good friends 
 this war has alienated from me, it nearly breaks my heart. 
 But then, if it only pi ces father out of danger, and saves 
 Albert from being pressed into the rebel army, I am sat- 
 isfied." 
 
 "Yes, and v»'ell you may be; for there is no telling what 
 evils we may yet have to encounter. Lincoln seems to be 
 very slow in sending arras or aid to Hast Tennessee, and if 
 we should be neglected' until the secessionists have made 
 sufficient, headway to put us under martial law, and cut off 
 all sources of assistance to us, we shall experience trials 
 of another sort to any we have heretofore known. Our 
 noble Senator, Andy Johnson, has spared no efforts to in- 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 33 
 
 duce the Government to supply us with the means of de- 
 fense, but as yet we have nothing but promises. The 
 Administration does not seem to appreciate the devoted 
 loyalty of the Tennessee mountaineers. The fearless 
 spirit and self-sacraficing Unionism of Brownlow and his 
 brother patriots, seems thus far to have excited little more 
 than admiration among the powers at Washington. It 
 may be, however, that preparations are being made to 
 assist us as rapidly as possible." 
 
 '•Oh! Louie! don't talk so gloomily of our prospects. 
 [t makes the cold chills run all over me. Only think of 
 Father's being treated as some of the Union men about 
 Nashville have been; and then the idea of Albert being 
 made to enter the army of Jeff. Davis, to make war upon 
 the Government to which he has always been so devotedly 
 attached — to trample under foot the flag he holds more 
 sacred than life. Surely! surely! sister, such terrible 
 calamities as these are not in reserve for us."' 
 
 "Earnestly, I pray not, Jennie; but while we should not 
 anticipate the worst, yet we should always be prepared for 
 it. I would not have you suffer the afflictions you have 
 -portrayed in advance; I would only have you be satisfied 
 that our condition is no worse than it is. If we had en- 
 tirely lost our home, it would be nothing to the sacrifice 
 we may yet have to lay upon the altar of our country." 
 
 "Oh! how I wish we were rid of our negroes, and could 
 go North," Jennie exclaimed in her most fidgety style. 
 "Then Albert could join the Union army, and share the 
 honors of loyal warfare with his cousin George. But 
 then, he could not be persuaded to go and leave us here, 
 exposed as we are," 
 
 "Girls! girls! have you heard the news?" cried Albert 
 8" 
 
34 THE TEST OP LOYALTY. 
 
 Trueman, rushing unexpectedly into the room, -while a 
 mingled expression of uneasiness and vengeance flashed 
 from his keen gray eye." 
 
 ""What news?" eagerly inquired the sisters, both in the 
 same breath. 
 
 "Why, a force of two thousand secessionists is within 
 one day's march of Knoxville, and — " 
 
 'Why. Albert! that must be a mere rumor," said Louie, 
 trying to suppress her agitation. 
 
 "All but a mere rumor — I only wish it were. I have 
 just this moment heard it from a very reliable Union man 
 who came immediately from the neighborhood where the 
 scoundrels encamped last night." 
 
 "Is that so?" 
 
 "Yes, it is so; and he says the cowardly dogs are de- 
 stroying property, and shooting down unarmed Union men 
 wherever they go." 
 
 "Oh! that we had arms! Why don't the Government 
 send us arms? We ask no more," ejaculated Albert in the 
 most supplicating tones. 
 
 "Albert ! my son! this is no time to be vainly lamenting 
 our condition — no time to stand here idly wishing for what 
 we can not obtain!" cried Mr. Trueman, at the top of his 
 voice, as he entered the presence of his children, his whole 
 countenance burning with fiery indignation. "The de- 
 vouring wolves of Jeff. Davis are in our midst, committing 
 the most savage outrages upon our people, to make them 
 bow at the feet of the rattlesnake king, and no time is to 
 be lost, or we shall be reduced to a submission more hu- 
 miliating than that of the meanest slave. 
 
 "Come, my boy, don't stand here waiting and praying 
 for Government arms; but with your revolver and fowling 
 piece mount your Selim, and off with me to Knoxville. 
 
TOE TEST OF LOYALTY. 35 
 
 Brownlow and other lion-liearted patriots, are in waiting 
 for us." 
 
 "AYell; but Father what will become of us?" asked 
 Jennie, while her pallid countenance and trembling frame 
 showed the intensity of the fear to which she had been 
 wrought up, 
 
 "What will become of us, indeed !" said Louie, in tones 
 of sarcastic bitterness. " Better ask what will become of 
 Father and Brother, and the brave little band of patriots 
 who are going to defend us against those heartless 
 wretches. 
 
 . "Surely, we can take care of our persons while our 
 friends go to meet the hosts of Confederate brutes who 
 threaten the destruction of the whole country." 
 
 "Heroic daughter! Worthy descendant of the revolu- 
 tionary mothers; may Heaven enable you to inspire your 
 sister with the same dauntless courage and unyielding for- 
 titude which I know will keep your head above the fiery 
 waves that are now sweeping over the land. I have no 
 fears of your mother. Her spirit is fully equal to the 
 trials it will be required to endure. But we must be off," 
 
 "Ned! Ned!" 
 
 "What, massa?" said a suple son of Africa who an- 
 swered to that name, as he sprung into the room, and 
 hat in hand, made his lowest bow to his master. 
 
 "Go immediately to the stable and saddle Charley and 
 Selim, and bring them out in the greatest possible haste. 
 Come, off with you!" 
 
 "Yes, massa; I bring de bosses in de twinklin ob a 
 sheep's tail," said Ned, bounding away to the stable, re- 
 volving over and over in his kinky pate what the emer- 
 gency could be that required such unusual haste, and 
 
36 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 wliicli causpd the whole fiimily to nppear so deeply agi- 
 tated. 
 
 "Louie, call your mother. I must see her before I go, 
 and let her know what it is that takes me so unceremo- 
 neously from home." 
 
 **I guess she is in the garden, Father," replied Louie, as 
 she glided out of the parlor in' search of her mother. 
 
 She had been absent but a few minutes when she re- 
 turned, bringing Mrs. Trueraan, who, as she presented her 
 husband with a beautiful boquet, remarked tenderly : 
 
 "Here I am, dear; what will you have with me?" 
 
 "Were it any other woman than you, I should be afraid 
 to tell you," answered Trueman, looking confidingly at his 
 wife. "But knowing your courage and power of endu- 
 rance, I do not hesitate to tell you why I requested your 
 presence." 
 
 "Ah! I see it is someii.ing serious." 
 
 '^Serious, indeed, my dear — more so, doubtless, than 
 anything which has ever yet tested your fortitude. The 
 fiendish followers of Jeff. Davis are within a d:iy's march 
 of Knnxville, burning houses, murdering the people, steal- 
 ing property, and doing whatever else their hellish in- 
 stincts prompt thera to do, in order to make the Unionists 
 submit to the rule of their Confederate master." 
 
 "Is it possible! So it seems that our removal to East 
 Tennessee has not secured us from the persecutions of the 
 usurper. "Where is the aid promised us by the Govern- 
 ment?" 
 
 "It is too late, my dear, to lament the failure of the 
 Government to supply us with the means of defense. 
 "Whether there is any just cause for the slow movements 
 of the Federal authorities, we know not. Nor have we 
 time to stop and inquire. We only know that we are pre- 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 37 
 
 sented Avitli the alternatives of \Yar or abject slavery; and 
 that we must, with what means we have, resist, to the 
 death, those who seek to coerce us into disunion, or sacri- 
 fice that which is dearer to us than life — our honor. 
 
 "Albert and I are going, with our revolvers and shot- 
 guns, to Knoxville, to unite our eftorts with the few 
 remaining freemen of the once proud State of Tennessee, 
 to resist the encroachments of the oppresssr. We are few 
 in numbers, but strong in the love of liberty. Our de- 
 pendence is not on superior equipments and military disci- 
 pline, but upon the righteousness of our cause and tho 
 God of truth. We may all fall, but we prefer honorable 
 death to that mean servility which reduces a man to tliG 
 condition of the brute.*' 
 
 "Husband, I have never had any desire to survive your 
 death, but I have as little that you should outlive your 
 honor. Go and meet the ruthless despoiler who seeks to 
 strip your country's flag of its pristine glory, and trans- 
 form its noble defenders into obseciuious menials; and 
 while the consciousness of your soul-inspiring motives 
 emboldens your heart and nerves your arm to the unequal 
 conflict, remember that she who loves you better than life, 
 is ever invoking the God of justice to shield you from 
 danger." 
 
 "And if I fall?" 
 
 " I will rear a monument to your fame, and inscribe on 
 it: John Trueman, one op the illustrious Tennessee 
 martyrs who fell while bravely defending the 
 American Union against the myrmidons of the trai- 
 tor, Jeff. Davis." 
 
 "Then, wife, though the vassals with whom I go to con- 
 tend were as countless as the sands upon the sea shore, I 
 would cheerfully meet them all; and with the certainty of 
 
38 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 death staring me in the fticc, would strike while life re- 
 mained, knowing that when my bones should be mouldering 
 in the grave, my memory should be sacredly enshrined in 
 the heart of one of America's noblest women." 
 
 "Massa! de bosses is ready!" exclaimed Ned, coming 
 rather unceremoniously into tbe presence of his master 
 and mistress. " Dey been weilTed dis mo'nin, and I curry 
 dem up as slick as a pcal'd ingion. But Cha'ley got do 
 debel in him dis mo'nin as big as a yea'lin. lie try to 
 flounce de saddil on todder side all do time I try to put it 
 on." 
 
 "Is Albert ready?" 
 
 "Yes, Father, I am all ready,*'" answered Albert, spring- 
 ing into the room, and presenting himself before his 
 Father rigged from top to toe in a suit of woolen home- 
 spun, with his shot-gun suspended to his shoulder, and his 
 revolver snugly belted. 
 
 "And you, my boy, are going with your Father to de- 
 fend your liberty, are you?" said the heroic mother, her 
 every feature beaming with a mingled expression of pa- 
 triotism and a mother's pride. 
 
 "Yes, mother, I am going," replied Albert, in bold,. 
 manly tones. 
 
 "Well, son, remember your mother, and under no cir- 
 cumstance ever so conduct yourself as to cause the blush of 
 shame to mantle her cheek when your name is called in 
 her presence." 
 
 "Never! never! mother, while I have the power to act 
 will I dishonor ^o?/r name," Albert exclaimed, erecting his 
 tall, manly form, and looking the very personification of 
 all that is brave and noble in man. 
 
 By this time all the members of tbe family had gathered 
 around Mr. Trueman and Albert: and many of the ser- 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 39 
 
 vants, including the eccentric Xed, were huddling about 
 the steps anxiously catching every word that dropped. 
 
 Louie and Jennie stood arm in arm, in mute silence, 
 carefully watching every change in the features of their 
 parents and brother, and with all the eourage they could 
 summon, awaiting the departure. Louie had succeeded in 
 quieting the fears of her more timid sister, and in recon- 
 ciling her to the dire misfortune which seemed to be hov- 
 ering over them. 
 
 All things being in readiness, Mr. Trueman and Albert, 
 with a hasty good-bye to their friends, mounted their 
 horses and started for Knoxville. Long did the mother, 
 the daughters, and slaves stand at the gate, whither they 
 had followed their protectors, and gaze in the direction of 
 Knoxville. With all their differences in character and dis- 
 position, one feeling pervaded every soul^-that of a sense 
 of danger. Even the simplest of the negroes seemed to 
 be impressed with the idea that they were standing on an' 
 isolated, defenseless spot, surrounded on every hand by 
 the turbulent waves of civil war. 
 
 Long after her husband and son had disappeared, Mrs. 
 Trueman called her family and servants together, and pro- 
 ceeded to make the best preparations for immediate home- 
 defense which her meagre facilities would allow. Hasty 
 barricades were constructed for the doors and windows, 
 and every one capable of striking a blow was provided 
 with an extem.porized weapon of one kind or another. 
 Axes, hatchets, pitch forks, spades, carving knives, and 
 cudgels innumerable were brought into requisition. Mrs. 
 Trueman did and said everything she could to inspire her 
 daughters and slaves with hope and courage. She recoun- 
 ted to them many of the deeds of female and negro hero- 
 ism during: the Revolution and the Indian wars. She told 
 
40 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 Iheni liow American women had assisted their fathers, 
 husbands, and brotliers, in driving the British fiom the 
 land, and establishing the independence of the United 
 Stiites; how bravely negroes had conducted themselves in 
 the days of Seventy-six; how the wives and dau.2:hters of 
 frontier settlers had managed to destroy whole bands of 
 Indian savages. Finally she appealed to them in the 
 name of all they held sacred on earth or revered in Heav- 
 en, to show themselves equal to the emergencies of the 
 hour. She told them that they were not expected to go 
 out to meet armies on the field of battle, but to guard 
 home, property, and their persons against such straggling 
 vandals as might be strolling about in search of the means 
 of gratifying their avarice and lusts; that if they valued 
 their lives and their honor, they would show it by resisting 
 to the utmost of their powers, any encroachments upon 
 their personal and domestic rights; that if th«y loved their 
 brave protectors, wdio'had taken their lives in their hands 
 and gone to confront the minions of the usurper, Davis, 
 they would manifest it by unflinching courage in times of 
 danger. 
 
 By the time she had completed her arrangements and 
 finished her exhortations, her daughters and negroes had 
 unlimited confidence in her ability to command thc^pitch 
 fork and cudgel brigade. The simple-hearted darkies re- 
 garded her as a chief well skilled in '-strategy," and fertile 
 in expedients. Her bravery had long been acknowledged. 
 Upon the approach of night, Mrs. Trueman selected seve- 
 ral of the most trusty of her slaves, and posted them -is 
 sentries to keep watch and give the proper alarm in case 
 of approaching danger. She conferred upon the faithful 
 N-ed the honor of the ofiice of "corporal of the guard," 
 and he assumed the responsibilities of his important station 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 41 
 
 with that degree of alacrity and pride only known to tho 
 negro. 
 
 Assembling his sable comrades, he delivered to them the 
 following charge: 
 
 •'Fella Nigga's: Ole massa's* gone wid young massa 
 to Cte de secessioners, an dar aint nobody heali to do 
 niiflin but ole missus and de two young mi^'suse3 an dc 
 rigga's. Ole missus say we mus stay 'wake de 'hole nitc, 
 and neber go to sleep nary time, an watch de scaterlopers 
 what mout be gwine about seekin whom dey mite steal 
 sombody's bosses, or bu'n sombody's ba'n. I'se been 
 'pinted to see dat you does yoah duty, clean up to de 
 handle. Now, I '.'^pects ye to keep yoah eyes wide open, 
 if you has to prop up de lids wid splinters. Now, don't 
 fo'get dat, nohow. Mus'ut stan still nowhah, fob nigga 
 sleep standin bout as well as lyin down, dats a fac. 
 , " If anybody come, let me know fust, den I tell mi->sus. 
 Keep yo;;h eyes skin'd fob dat scallywag dat boa'ds oveh 
 to Johnson's, what come from de Norf. and say he vote 
 fob Brackenridge, an blebe in Siiddern rights, kase if de 
 Bcatterlopers cum roun', I blebe he be de fust man to show 
 dem whar to do dar dirt in dis neighbo'hood ; an ye know 
 he got speshel spite at de niggers on dis place kase dey 
 won't c'rupt dar morals by 'sosheatin wid him." 
 
 Having delivered this charge, Ned sent the guard to 
 their several stations and established his headquarters on 
 bis ma.ster's back porch, near the kennel of the faithful 
 b juse dog, pitch fork in hand, prepared for any emer- 
 toncy. 
 
 While all these things were transpiring at the Trueman 
 plantation, scenes of a f^\r more thrilling character were 
 occurring in another direction. Mr. Trueman and Albert 
 having arrived at Knoxville, found about one hundred and 
 
42 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 thirty Tennessee patriots waiting for them. These men, 
 like Trueman and his son, were generally ignorant of mili- 
 tary discipline, and were armed with rifles, shot guns, re- 
 volvers, Bowie knives, etc., etc. 
 
 Brownlow, unhappily, was lying very ill, and they were 
 obliged to select another man from their number as their 
 leader. Trueman was the man. All had the utmost con- 
 fidence in him. He was known to be honest, brave, and 
 sagacious; and no one felt that all that could be done 
 would not be accomplished if he commanded the company. 
 
 Assuming, without hesitation, the responsibilities thrust 
 upon him, Trueman proceeded immediately to organize, as 
 best he could, the men who had placed themselves under 
 his charge. This being effected, he gave them considera- 
 ble exercise in shooting and charging upon horseback, 
 availing himself, in the meantime, of every opportunity for 
 testing their courage. To his great satisfaction he fouujj 
 that no man in the whole number had any of the elements 
 of cowardice. The company was composed of tough, 
 active, intrepid mountaineers, who had never known fear; 
 of men who, having always been the freest of the free, 
 among Southrons, were not to be subjugated by those they 
 deemed the enemies of liberty ; of men who loved, above 
 all other earthly things, the American Union, and whose de- 
 votion to the old flag was superior to every other earthly feel- 
 ing; of men who, without succor, and surrounded on every 
 hand by a wall of fire, had sworn by the memory of their 
 sires, by the affection they bore their loved ones, and by 
 high Heaven, never to come under the dominion of those 
 who would level to the dust the great Temple of Liberty, 
 and erect in its stead a cotton throne. 
 
 Among such men as these, Trueman felt that every man 
 was a general, and that the greatest duty which devolved 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 43 
 
 upon him was to show himself worthy of their eonfideuce. 
 The task before them was an arduous one. A superior 
 number of drilled men, with all the regular equipments of 
 war, was to be met and driven from Eastern Tennessee. 
 Upon the success of this undertaking everything depended. 
 They had boldly declared their hostility to the bogus 
 Confederate Government, — their determination to stand • 
 by the Constitution of the United States; and in pursu- 
 ance of this declaration they had taken up arms to defy 
 their enemies. Should they fail everythiag was lost. 
 Their property would be confiscated, their families impov- 
 erished, and themselves doomed to imprisonment and 
 death. 
 
 All these reflections crowded themselves upon True- 
 man's mind, as he formed his men in column and gave 
 orders to march. 
 
 The foe they had to meet had been for some days scour- 
 ing the country, about twenty miles from Knoxville. The 
 road to this section lay through a rough, mountainous 
 country — a country ofi"ering the greatest facilities for 
 guerilla warfare — and was in many places barely passable. 
 To guard against surprises, Trueman selected from his 
 company a guide thoroughly acquainted with the route. 
 The loyalists had proceeded only about ten miles, to a 
 place where they had previously intended to encamp, when 
 they discovered the enemy. He, too, was under march, ' 
 and was just coming over the brow of a hill. At first it 
 appeard to Trueman that the number with which he had 
 to contend did not greatly exceed his own, but as the se- 
 cessionists continued to pour platoon after platoon, and 
 company after company over the hill, he saw that his little 
 handful of men, compared with that of the enemy, was as 
 a drop of water to the ocean. As he halted, and contem- 
 
4-i THE TEST OF LOYALTY, 
 
 plated the vast odds against hira, his heart sickened, not 
 at the almost certain prospect of death which stared him 
 and his comrades in the face, but from the fear that, de- 
 spite all their efforts to prevent it, Eastern Tennessee 
 would be overrun and subjugated by the destroyers of 
 liberty. 
 
 To die was, in his estimation, and in that of his fellow 
 patriots, a very small consideration, if by that sacrifice, 
 freedom could be secured to their portion of Tennessee; 
 but if, with all their resistance to the Confederate tyrant, 
 they could not rescue their homes and families from his 
 de>stroying clutches, then was the prospect gloomy indeed. 
 
 Suddenly, and as unexpected as would have been the 
 Upheaval of a subterraneous ocean, the secessionists sprang 
 up on the right and left of the patriots, from undiscovered* 
 ambuscade, and completely surrounded them. Unprepared 
 as they were for the surprise, the brave little band of loy- 
 alists displayed the greatest coolness. Trueman formed 
 them in line, remarking as he passed from one to another 
 of his men: "Bo3^s, we die for Liberty and our homes. 
 May the martyrdom we suffer to-day kindle a blaze in 
 East Tennessee which shall dazzle the eyes of the Admin- 
 istration at Washington, and arouse it to a sense of it3 
 duty to us," 
 
 The commanding officer of the rebel forces sent an order - 
 demanding the immediate and unconditional surrender of 
 the loyalists. To this Trueman replied: 
 
 '•Tennessee Freemen never surrender. They die!" and 
 ordered his men to fire. 
 
 Instantly every patriot brought his piece to his face, 
 and the clicking of about one hundred and thirty locks 
 was followed by the fall of as many traitors. The seces- 
 sionists, enraged at the unexampled bravery of so small a 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 45 
 
 handful of men, returned the five with deadly effect, and 
 with demoniac 3'ells rushed upon the few rciiiaiuitig loyal- 
 ists, "with the determination of leaving none to tell their 
 friends of the heroism they had exhibited on that fearful 
 day. But the rebel chief commanded that no Union man 
 who surrendered, or was found wounded, should be killed. 
 
 When the smoke cleared away, and the secessionists had 
 approached the spot where the loyalists had fallen, it was 
 found that none except the killed and wounded remained. 
 Among the latter was found the noble Trueman, with a 
 musket ball through his right shoulder. He was immedi- 
 ately taken in charge with others of his wounded comrades 
 and put under surgical treatment. The first questions he 
 asked when restored to consciousness were: "How many of 
 the boys are killed? Where is Albert?" 
 
 One rebel soldier, who happened to be more humane 
 than the majority of his comrades, obtained leave to make 
 search among the fallen patriots for one answering the de- 
 scription given him, by Mr. Trueman, of x\lbert. But 
 after making the closest examination of every body, among 
 both the dead and wounded, he found no one resembling 
 the described Albert. 
 
 Thus closed the scenes of one of the most eventful days 
 of the history of Tennessee. 
 
 In the very same hour that Mrs. Trueman was organi- 
 zing her female and colored home guard, her husband was 
 a wounded prisoner, in the hands of his country's ene- 
 mies, while her only son had either been disabled, and 
 had crawled away from the scene of mortal strife, and se- 
 creted himself in some cave or copse, or had escaped to 
 be hunted down and shot, or captured and imprisoned. 
 The brave little band of loyalists had, with few exceptions, 
 sealed their devotion to liberty with their life's blood, and 
 
46 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 had thus erected for themselves a monument of fame more 
 durable than marble or brass — a monument which shall 
 stand while the history of America is preserved. 
 
 Let us now return to the Hoosier State and see what tho 
 Clintons and their friends have been doing. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SOLILOQUY — THE CHANGE. 
 
 "What a glorious morning is this," soliloquised Dora 
 Clinton, as she stood upon the old, vine clad porch of the 
 parental mansion, and looked out upon the green forest 
 fringe which girted her father's farm. "How exhilerating 
 the soft breeze which comes through the woods and across 
 the fields laden with the fragrance of wild flowers; how 
 soul thrilling the song with which the robin hails the ap- 
 pearance of the solar monarch. How like my country in 
 its golden days of peace and prosperity is this joy-inspir- 
 ing morning. But, as the brightest day is often darkened 
 by the frowning storm cloud, and rendered hideous by the 
 destructive tornado, so is my once happy country enveloped 
 in the sombre mists of revolutionary gloom, and plowed 
 by the devastating hurricane of civil war. And shall we 
 murmur? No! God is merciful even when he frowns; 
 beneficent even when he punishes. And as by the dreaded 
 storm and the ravaging tornado the elements are purified 
 and nature's disturbed forces restored to their wonted 
 equilibrium, so by revolution and c-ivil strife nations are 
 politically purified, and the unbalanced machinery of State 
 restored to its proper equipoise. Shallow, indeed, is the 
 philosopher who can not see the goodness of the Deity as 
 much in the cloud as in the sunshine; as much in the 
 raging tempest that lays waste a country as in the balmy 
 
 47 
 
48 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 zephyr that fans an infant's cheek; as much in the evils of 
 war as in the blessings of pence." 
 
 "Why, sister, what a pretty little sj.-eech you have been 
 making here to yourself — a very protly speech, though I 
 am not so sure that i-t is all true. I have my doubts as to 
 whether God has anything to do with this war. I think it 
 likely the Pevil has more hand in it than the Supreme 
 Being." 
 
 ''Ah, George, is that your notion of things?" 
 
 "Yes. Are we not taught that God is the source of all 
 good, and the Devil the author of evil?" 
 
 "Certainly; but at the same time are we not taught that 
 Satan acts by permission of God? And if he acts by per- 
 mission of God, then he must, in some degree, be acting 
 out the will of the Almighty; and whatever is in accord- 
 ance with His will is right, though we may not see it," 
 
 "Well, sister, I'm no Theologian; can't talk with you 
 much on Theology. It takes the little preacher to do 
 that." 
 
 "You rascal ! " 
 
 "Good mo'nin to you dis mo'nin. How's de folks dis 
 mo'nin ?" 
 
 "Why, Dick, what on earth brought you here this early 
 in the day? I had no idea you was out of bed yet. You 
 town people generally sleep long after this time." 
 
 " Not all ob 'em don't sleep so pow'ful late, Massa George. 
 
 "De big folks and de loafe's gine'ly goes to bed at one 
 in de night and gits up at ten de next day ; but de me- 
 chanics and workin' people, an nigga's goes to bed early 
 and gits up wid de sun. Dey has to make a libben you 
 knows. 
 
 "Wha's Massa Clinton?" 
 
 "He's out taking his usual morninc; ramble about the 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 49 
 
 farm," answered Dora; ''examining the fences and looking 
 after the stock. Do you wish to see him?" 
 "Yes, Miss Dory, if you pleases." 
 
 "TTell, take a seat," said George, handing Dick a chair. 
 '•He will be in soon. But, Dick! I and J)ora have just 
 been contending as to who has the biggest hand in the 
 war, God or the Devil. What do you think about it?" 
 
 "Wy, Massa George, dats a question dU chile know;^' 
 bery little 'bout. I go last Sunday mo'nin to heah dc 
 Prispiteeriu preecheh, an he say he tink God frough dc 
 Debil bring dis wah on de people case dey be gitten too 
 proud an wicked. Den I go to heah de nigger Metidisl, 
 what preach in de supernumerated Piscopalen chu'ch, in 
 de evenin, an he say dat needer God nor de Debil hab eny- 
 'ting to do wid it; but dat de enslavement ob de x\fricanuB 
 popy-lye be de whole cause. Who de Africanus popy-lve 
 be I knows not, but from what de preecheh say I 'spose he 
 be a nigga. Between de 'pinions ob dese two big preeches 
 dis chile git conside'bly mixed up, and de moah he trys to 
 settle which is de best de mo'eh he gits dumfusticated." 
 
 " Well, Dick," said Dora laughing — while George was 
 too full of mirth to say anything — "I don't blame you 
 for being bothered, for it is very hard for the best educated 
 of us to harmonize the differences between the conflicting 
 doctrines of the present day." 
 
 "Well, Miss Dora, I 'spects afteh all de poor nigga haf 
 to bar de blame ob dis wah, case ef dar had'nt a been no 
 nigga dar would n't a been no wah, dats a fac.'° 
 
 "We don't know that, Dick," replied Dora, more serious- 
 ly, "because although the absence of negroes might have 
 prevented a war such as the present one, yet when any peo- 
 ple become so politically corrupt as ours are they have to 
 have a revolution." 
 4 
 
50 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 "Spects dat so, too, Miss Dora; but ye know nigga don't 
 know nufl&n 'bout polyticks no bow." 
 
 "Hallo, Dick, wbat wind blew you bcre at tbis bour in 
 tbe morning?" jocularly asked Mr. Clinton, suddenly ap- 
 pearing from tbe back yard and ascending tbe steps at tbe 
 side of tbe porcb, and taking a seat upon tbe old cusbion- 
 ed settee be always reposed upon wbcn warm and tired in 
 tbe summer. 
 
 "Wby, Massa Clinton, am dat you.? You's de bery man 
 I wants to see. 
 
 "You see, Massa Clinton, me an Missus Venom bad a 
 fallen out last nigbt 'bout Missus Loyal. Todder day 
 somebody knock at de doab. Missus Yenom call me 'me- 
 jetly and say: Dick, go an open de doab, and don't forgit 
 wbat I alers tells you; if it be Missus Loyal, tell ber I 
 aint at bome wben ber or any odder Abumlisbenest comes 
 to see me. Well sboab 'nuflf wben I goes to de doab dar 
 was dat bery Missus Loyal ; an sbe ax me wbab is Missus 
 Venom? an say sbe want to see ber 'bout donatin blankets 
 and quilts, and sicb like to de sogers, case.de Guv'ment 
 hadn't bad time to git 'em fob de boys. Ob coase I do my 
 juty, an so says I: 'Missus Loyal, Missus Venom be in 
 de settin room; but sbe say sbe not at bome wben you or 
 eny odder Abumlisbenest cum.' Missus Venom beab me 
 ob coase, an wben I went to de settin room sbe ligbt rigbt 
 into me like a bornet, for tellin Missus Loyal too mucb. 
 Sbe say sbe no want me to say: 'Missus Venom is at home, 
 and say so an so,' but dat sbe want me to make de woman 
 blebe sbe was sbore 'nuff gone; an all dat 'bout Abumlisb 
 sbe want me to lef out all togedder. 
 
 "Dreckly Massa Venom came bome, an Missus Venom 
 tell bim all 'bout wbat was de matter, an so says be: 'I 
 guess I'll sbip Dick; be's dangrous nigga.' Den be pay 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 51 
 
 me off an tell me to go an git a place 'mong de Abumlisli- 
 enests. But den I does n't like Abumlish, case I don't 
 wan't de niggas sot free and sent 'mong ns, you knows. 
 So I thought I come out here dis mo'nin an see if you 
 want eny help. I can plow, or hoe corn, or tend he hosses 
 or eny ting most you wants done 'bout de farm." 
 
 "Well, Dick, I believe you are honest, and I have always 
 heard that you worked well ; and as you have come in just 
 the right time, I guess we will take you. You will not be 
 required, here, to take up your time in opening and closing 
 doors, and running errands, but in hard work about the 
 farm," replied Mr. Clinton, while his fun-full countenance 
 showed how he had enjoyed Dick's simple, frank, narra- 
 tion of the causes which led to his dismissal. Meantime 
 Dora and George had stepped a little aside and given them- 
 selves up to the hear-tiest kind of laughing. 
 
 *'But what did Mr. Venom pay you, Dick?" 
 
 "Fifty cents a day, Massa." 
 
 "Well, if you will work well, I will give you a dollar a 
 day for day work, or twenty dollars a m-onth, wet and dry, 
 boarding, washing and mending thrown in." 
 
 "I tak de las, Massa. De las suit me de best, and if dis 
 chile don't work, tell him ob it." 
 
 It is, perhaps, proper to state here that Dick was not 
 born free. When about twenty years old his master, a 
 Kentuckian, had, upon his death bed, freed all his slaves, 
 some fifteen in number, when Dick found his way to the 
 Hoosier city, where he had some friends, and had worked 
 steadily for Venom up to the breaking out of the rebellion, 
 when the unfortunate, or fortunate affair just related caused 
 his dimissal. 
 
 Dick, immediately entered upon the performance of his 
 new duties, feeling even happy that he had been discharged, 
 
52 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 seeing it had resulted in a considerable advancement in 
 his wages. He was immediately given the charge of the 
 horses, and instructed in reference to the manner in which 
 the labor which was expected of him should be done. 
 
 "Father," said George, after Dick had gone to work, 
 and he and his father had returned to the house, ''I will 
 give you all my wages while in the service, and allow it to 
 be paid on Dick's hire." 
 
 "No! no ! my son, never! I am fully able to defray the 
 expense of the help employed in your stead. Give your- 
 self no uneasiness about that." 
 
 "Why, ole man, have you gone and hired that great 
 thick-lipped, white eyed nigger?" exclaimed Mrs. Clinton, 
 in a tone of surprise, as she came from the sitting room, 
 rubbing her hands together, and looking over the tops of 
 her spectacles, as much as to say, why was / not con- 
 sulted? 
 
 "Of course I have. Is there anything wrong about 
 it?' 
 
 "Anything wrong about it! Why, don't you know he's 
 no 'count to you? What does he know 'bout farmin?" 
 
 "He says he knows something about it; and he seems 
 to be honest and anxious to work. You know I am greatly 
 in need of help, so I thought I would hire him." 
 
 "How come he to leave Venom?" 
 
 Mr. Clinton here related the circumstance which threw 
 Dick out of his old place, about as he had it from the 
 latter. 
 
 Mrs. Clinton stood a moment contemplating first George 
 and then his father, with a mingled expression of vexa- 
 tion and disappointment. 
 
 "And is George bound to go, then?" 
 
 **Why, certainly, mother. What do you mean by such 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 53 
 
 a question?" said Dora, who until now had said nothing 
 since her mother appeared. 
 
 "I reccon I've got a right to ask such a questioR. 
 George is my boy, an I'm his mother; and there aint no- 
 body can feel for a boy like his mother. Besides, George 
 is too young to go to war. He ain't stout enough to stan 
 it; an he's not bound to go yit till he's sworn in, if I aint 
 badly mistaken." 
 
 'Olother!'' exclaimed George, whose feelings could no 
 longer be suppressed, "does not my honor bind me? Have 
 I not placed my name on the enlistment roll, and pledged 
 myself to appear promptly when required, and be mustered 
 into the service? Who will I be in this country, and what 
 will the boys belonging to the company think if I should 
 break that pledge? I thought you was willing for me to 
 go, from what you said yesterday, and I am sure I have no 
 desire to go against your will, but it is too late now to 
 talk of retraction. Rather let me die than break my 
 promise to my country." 
 
 "Wife, the boy is right. It is certainly wrong to try to 
 persuade him out of the service now. It is a death blow to 
 one's future manhood to induce him to trifle with his 
 honor while young. By no means say anything to dis- 
 courage George, now that he has enlisted." 
 
 "Well, I spose you '11 haf to have your own way, as you 
 allers do in everything," Mrs. Clinton muttered, retiring 
 to her room, wiping her spectacles and eyes, alternately. 
 
 "What in the world can be the matter with mother?" 
 inquired George, excitedly, as Mrs. Clinton disappeared. 
 
 "I don't know, son, unless it is her extreme anxiety 
 about you, and — " 
 
 "No, Father, it is not all that," interrupted Dora. "I 
 know mother loves George; but about two hours' talk with 
 
54 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 Mrs. Venom has done more to make her oppose his 
 joining the army than anything else." 
 
 "Perhaps that may have something to do with it, my 
 daughter.'' 
 
 "Oh!" exclaimed George, if Mrs. Venom has talked 
 with her, the mystery is solved at once, because — " 
 
 " There,, be moderate, boy. Remember the frailty of 
 humanity, and especially the susceptibility of woman. 
 Mrs. Venom is naturally a kind, good hearted woman, but 
 she is united for life to man who, although very clever and 
 honorable in a private capacity, is so strongly attached to 
 his party that he can approve no public act outside of it." 
 
 "Yes, Father;" said Dora, "it is a great pity for our 
 sex that we are not independent enough. "We are not al- 
 together to blame for it, however; for our education and 
 social relations are such as to rob us of our individuality, 
 and make either dolls or slaves of us all, and in most in- 
 stances both. You cannot expect women to exercise a free 
 judgment when they are taught from childhood that, be- 
 yond music and the soft languages, their educational 
 sphere does not properly extend, and that to take an inte- 
 rest in matters of Government renders them coarse and 
 masculine. 
 
 "As it respects politics, women and negroes are generally 
 on a level in America, and in some States the latter are 
 superior. Woman will never fully develop her self-hood 
 while she is tauo^ht that it is all mer^red in that of herleii^e 
 lord." 
 
 "Why, daughter, you seem to be getting strong minded. 
 Have you been hearing Lucy Stone, or reading Carrie D. 
 Filkins' paper?" 
 
 "Father, I know nothing except what I have seen in the 
 vulgar political sheets in the way of unmanly slurs, of the 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 55 
 
 teachings of the women to whom you have referred; but 
 from the public odium heaped upon them, I think I might 
 learn much that is truly ennobling from either one of 
 them — much valuable truth not taught in the majority of 
 the female boarding schools of the day." 
 
 "Well, we've had enough of this," said Mr. Clinton, 
 rising slowly from his seat and moving toward the front of 
 the porch. "George, I guess you must go to town with 
 me this forenoon. I don't like to trust myself alone with 
 that colt, and Dick is using both the old horses in the 
 plow." 
 
 "Very well. Father; shall I catch up and get ready?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "May I go along, Father?" eagerly asked Dora. "I 
 will not tease you any more about women's rights, but will 
 try and be a pretty girl." 
 
 " Do you really need to go, my daughter?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed I do. I want to get some bonnet ribbon, 
 some stationery, and I want to mail some letters, and in- 
 quire for some I am expecting." 
 
 "Well, get ready, then, while George is getting out the 
 carriage, for we can't afford to wait long. We must get 
 back by nine o'clock." 
 
 "I will be ready before you are, Father, I'll bet." 
 
 And Dora skipped away to her dressing room and was 
 fully prepared for her town trip some time before George 
 brought the carriage to the gate; while her father went to 
 inform Mrs. Clinton, and ask her what she wanted brought 
 from town. 
 
 "Are we all ready?" inquired Mr. Clinton, giving his 
 venerable beaver the last and finishing swipe with his silk 
 bandana. 
 
 "I am ready," answered George. 
 
5B THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 ■*^'And so am I, and have been for so;nc time," said Dora. 
 
 "Then let's be oflF at once." 
 
 "Here, ole man, you are about to forgit tlie molasses 
 jug. Git it full, for that nigger you've hired 'ell stow 
 away a pint at a meal, I'll bet. I never seed a nigger in 
 my life that didn't eat twice his weight every month, in 
 molasses, when he could git it." 
 
 "Well, wife, never mind about the molasses. If the 
 man works well we can afford to feed him." 
 
 "Why, is Dora goin, too?" inquired Mrs. Clinton, de- 
 murely. "Now, Dora, for your mother's sake don't git 
 into a fuss to-day with enny of your friends. Come^ you 
 know we do-n't want to quarrel with every body, and git 
 the people in town so down on us that they won't come to 
 see us." 
 
 " You need not uneasy yourself about that, mother," 
 replied Dora. "I shall make no quarrel with anybody but 
 traitors, and only with them when they come in my way. 
 And as for visitors, I want none except those who stand 
 by the flag — those whose brains have not been cobwebbed 
 by the spider of disunion, and whose every heart-throb 
 responds to the taps on the bell of Liberty." 
 
 "More o' your boardin school highferluten," muttered 
 the old lady, as she turned and walked'with vexed agility 
 to her room. "I'm afcard you'll ruin the family, yit." 
 
 By the time she had reached her room and seated her- 
 self to her sewing, Mr. Clinton, Dora, and George, were 
 rolling toward the city. 
 
 Arrived there, George took the horse and carriage to a 
 livery stable, and thence proceeded to the quarters of his 
 company; and Dora went to her shopping and post office 
 errands, while her father went about the transaction of his 
 domestic business. 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 57 
 
 At the company quarters George found his brother vol- 
 unteers in high glee over a late Union victory in Western 
 Virginia. He had a jolly time with them, and left, assur- 
 ing them that he would soon be with them. 
 
 Dora, on inquiring at the post office, received several 
 letters, and among others, one from Tennessee. The hand- 
 writing on the envelope told her plainly whom it was from, 
 and she immediately tore it open and read the contents. 
 Folding it and slipping it into her pocket, she soliloquized, 
 audibly: 
 
 "I wonder what mother will think of that when I read 
 it to her? What will be her opinion then of the slimy 
 reptiles in the North that crawl in the mire of secession 
 sympathy? Oh! won't I read that letter to her with em- 
 phasis?" And from beneath the cloud of her dark brow 
 flashed the lightning of indignation. "I will go this 
 minute and find George. Ah! there he goes across the 
 corner." 
 
 "George! George!" 
 
 "Hallo! Is that you, Dora?" 
 
 "Yes. Hold on a moment; I want to see you." 
 
 Tripping diagonally across the street, (for she was too 
 wholly absorbed in her thoughts to show any regard to the 
 ordinance of the council of fashion, requiring all well- 
 bred people to keep the sidewalk,) she ran up to George 
 and handed him the Tennessee letter. He opened and 
 read; but before he reached the bottom of the last page, 
 he handed the letter nervously back to his sister, exclaim- 
 ing: 
 
 "Can it be possible? I wonder what Father will think 
 of Hardhead when he hears that?" 
 
 "AVhy, he'll think about what I told him several eve- 
 nings ago," returned Dora, bringing her little foot down 
 
58 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 on the pavement, and tossing her head as much as to say: 
 ''I'm not generally wrong in my judgment of a man, if I 
 am young, and a woman." 
 
 Passing up Main street, Dora and George met their 
 father engaged in a ver}^ low conversation with Hardhead. 
 Dora immediately plucked her father aside, and said, loud- 
 ly enough for Hardhead to hear: 
 
 "Father, pardon my presumption, but have you no bet- 
 ter way of spending your time than in conversation with 
 that old traitor?" 
 
 "Hush, you silly child. You are certainly not crazy 
 enough to insult a man on the street." 
 
 "No, not a man; but an uncouth, scaly, secession liz- 
 zard, I would not only insult, but kick out of my way just 
 now, if he were to drag his hideous form across my track," 
 replied Dora, in a considerably louder tone, looking darts 
 into Hardhead's countenance. 
 
 The latter, fearing an engagement with Dora even more 
 than the "ruflGtanly soldiers,'* as he called them, wh^ some 
 days previous had shown him a little more attention than 
 he thought consistent with good breeding, turned rapidly 
 on his heel, and without as much as saying good day, 
 made quick time to his office, growling as he went: 
 
 "What a d 1 of a minx, old Clinton's daughter is 
 
 getting to be." 
 
 "Father," said Dora, "I have a letter here from Ten- 
 nessee which, when you hear its contents, will open your 
 eyes wider, I apprehend, than they were ever known to be 
 before. You '11 hate rebels as badly as I do, I think, when 
 you hear the news from our Tennessee friends." 
 
 "Why, what can it be?" 
 
 "Never mind now. You shall know it all when we get 
 home." 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 55 
 
 "Well, if you and George are ready we will be off at 
 once. I believe I have nothing further to do." 
 
 " I guess there is nothing to keep ws here any longer, is 
 there, George?" 
 
 "Nothing on my part, Dora." 
 
 "Then let's go right away." 
 
 And Mr. Clinton led the way toward the stable where 
 George had left the horse and carriage. 
 
 In less than an hour the Clinton family were seated in 
 a group on the old porch, anxiously awaiting the reading 
 of the Tennessee letter. 
 . "Come, Dora," said Mr. Clinton, "let's have that news, 
 
 right off." 
 
 "Very well. You shall have it, instanter." 
 
 And Dora drew the letter from her pocket, opened it, 
 
 and read : 
 
 "Loved Cousin: Your fears that 'evil might come 
 upon our family on account of Father's strong Union sen- 
 timents, have been realized. Eastern Tennessee, being 
 without the means of defense, has been overrun by the 
 secessionists, and yesterday afternoon, in an effort to drive 
 them out of the country, the loyal East Tennesseeans were 
 literally cut to pieces. Of course Father and Albert were 
 among the loyalists; and Father was dangerously wounded 
 by a musket ball which passed through his right shoulder. 
 What became of Albert we know not. He has not been 
 heard of since the fight. Whether he was mortally 
 wounded, and crawled into some hidden place and died, or 
 has escaped and is waiting an opportunity to get home, we 
 are left to conjecture. In either case death seems equally 
 certain, because the secessionists, having overcome all op- 
 positiouj are searching out Union men every where, and 
 
GO THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 imprisoning, shooting, and hanging them, in the most bar- 
 barous manner. 
 
 "In one single day three men have been hung ^Yithout 
 c\;cn the favor of trial; five have been shot while trying to 
 escape, and any number have been thrown into loathsome 
 prisons. Many of the latter have been sent hundreds of 
 miles from their now destitute fimiilies, to be manacled and 
 dunireoned in the far South. 
 
 o 
 
 "All these sufferers are the most respectable and enter- 
 prising of our citizens. 
 
 "This very forenoon a Union man was hung, without 
 trial, right by a railroad stjition, and as the passenger train 
 passed, many of the so-called chivalry of the South, came 
 ou: upon the car platforms and kicked the poor man's 
 lifeless body. He hangs there yet, an undeniable evidence 
 of both the devoted loyalty of Tennessee patriots, and the 
 heathenish barbarity of Southern traitors. 
 
 "It will be hard, I reckon, for you to believe these state- 
 ments; but as certain as there is a world, they are true. 
 If anybody had told me a year ago that any of our people 
 could do what I have seen them do within a few days, I 
 should have scouted the idea, and considered its author as^ 
 fit for the mad house. But what I hare seen I must be- 
 lieve. I am now prepared to expect anything. 
 
 "My own dear Father is now lying a wounded prisoner 
 in the county jail, and dim, indeed, is the hope that he 
 will escape execution. I and ma visit him frequently, and 
 do all we can to alleviate his sufferings and cheer his de- 
 pres!-:ed spirits. 
 
 "Oh! cousin; ycu kno«r nothing yet of the horrors of 
 this wicked rebellion. Nor do I wish that you ever may 
 experience what I have. No power on earth can picture 
 my feelings as I now write; not only on account of the 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 61 
 
 present, but in contemplation of the future. There is here 
 no security of either life or property. Many of our neigh- 
 bors have been ruthlessly stripped of all their means. 
 While Union men have been cruelly murdered, their wives 
 and little ones have been, from wealth and luxury, hurled 
 into extreme destitution. AYe know not what moment we 
 may share the common fate of a!l who prefer the stars and 
 stripes to the rattlesnake and pelican flags. Mother is as 
 determined as father, and declares she will suffer anything 
 before she will submit to the Confederate wolves. Only 
 yesterday she drew a pistol to shoot a Confederate officer 
 who came to take down the American flag, which floats 
 over our house. As sure as the traitor had entered the 
 yard he would have been a dead man, for when mother 
 talks about shooting, she means it. 
 
 '•Father, although wounded and expecting to be exe- 
 cuted, suffers very little on his own account; but the 
 thought of what we may have to endure, and the subjuga- 
 tion of Eastern Tennessee, weigh constantly on his soul. 
 
 "We have no chance to do anything but remain here and 
 die, or suffer worse than death. The Government has dona 
 nothing for us. Perhaps it has done all it could; but to 
 people situated as we are, patience is a stranger. We are 
 in no condition to allow for the apparent delays of the 
 Administration. 
 
 "How gladly would we accept your invitation to come 
 North, if we could. But how cap we? In the first place, 
 Father is wounded and a prisoner, and we would all wil- 
 lingly die with him before we would leave him. But even 
 if he were well and with us, there is no chance of escape. 
 So you see the prospects for our coming to you are indeed 
 poor. 
 
 i.. 
 
62 THE TEST OF EOVAI.TY. 
 
 ■"Jennie, and I, and mother, are enjoying tolerable 
 health, physically ; spiritually, "we are sick enough. 
 
 "Our love to your nia and pa, and cheers to George, vf\\o 
 has enrolkd himself in his ' ountry's cause. 
 •^'Your cousin, 
 
 "Louie." 
 "Dora," 
 
 While this letter was being read, every heart was 
 touched. Mrs. Clinton, naturally one of the most erratic 
 and susceptible of persons, was wrought up to the highest 
 pitch. 
 
 "Goodness sakes alive! Is it possible! Lord have 
 mercy! Poor brother John! What will become of him 
 an his family? Aint there no help for them? Can't 
 anything be done? Must they all stay there an be 
 killed? Are we never to see them any more? Oh, my 
 God, my God!" cried Mrs. Clinton, while her whole frame 
 quivered with aa internal agony, which even she could not 
 express. -"George, you may go now, an kill every secesh 
 you see." 
 
 "Oh! how I should like to be one of an army to clean 
 the heathens out of East Tenneesee and rescue the noble 
 Union men of that State," said George, erecting his form, 
 and contracting his fingers as though he were gripping a 
 musket. "Wouldn't I like to help strike down the keep- 
 ers of uncle's jail, burst open the doors, and bear him 
 home to his family." And George's eye lighted up as 
 though he would soon be allowed to accomplish what he 
 so much desired. 
 
 "When are you to be mustered in, George?" asked Mr. 
 Clinton. 
 
 "Why, the captain said day after to-morrow, he 
 thought." 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 63 
 
 '•AVell, perliaps you may have the privilege of going 
 where you seem so anxious to go; and it looks like that is 
 YFhere you are needed most." 
 
 '•I do hope they will send us there, right off, Father." 
 
 '•By the way, son, here is a paper I brought from town. 
 I want you to read it to me." 
 
 '•Of course I will. Father." 
 
 "Well, take it, and turn to the telegraphic dispatches, 
 and read them first. I want to hear the war news." 
 
 George took the paper, while his mother and Dora went 
 to the kitchen, and read the whole telegraphic column. 
 Among other dispatches was one stating that the President 
 was going to take immediate steps toward succoring the 
 loyalists of Eastern Tennessee. 
 
 "That's the very thing I wanted to hear. Son, read 
 it over." 
 
 George read it the second time. 
 
 "That's the talk. I tell you Old Abe begins to suit me 
 pretty well, if he is a Republican." 
 
 "Who cares for Kepublican, Democrat, or anybody -else, 
 Father, so the war is vigorously prosecuted against the 
 rebels. It makes no difference who puts the rebellion 
 down, so it is done." 
 
 George now turned to another page and read a copied 
 editorial from the Kew York Ledger, — formerly a strong 
 Breckenridge paper, — which was pregnant with highly 
 patriotic sentiments. He then read another from the Tri- 
 hune very much of the same character, 
 
 "Why, is it possible that these two papers are about to 
 get into the same channel after fighting, as they have, for 
 so many years?" asked Mr. Clinton. 
 
 "Why, certainly. Father; stranger things than that are 
 happening every day. This war is producing some yery 
 
C4 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 remarkable changes. See General Butler doing the noblest 
 service in the army, while Jesse J). Bright improves every 
 opportunity to strike an underhanded blow at the Govern- 
 ment. See Edward Everett taking the loftiest, patriotic 
 stand, while John Bell unites with the dirty secessionists 
 of his State." 
 
 ""Won't it be a glorious day in the history of this coun- 
 try when party is forgotten and only country is thought 
 of, my son?*' 
 
 "Indeed it will; and it looks now as though matters 
 were drifting that way, in the North." 
 
 George turned to another page and ran his eye over it 
 until he came to an extract from a speech of one C. L. 
 Yallandigham, and read a few paragraphs. 
 
 "There, George, that's enough of that. It sounds just 
 like Yancy or Jeff. Davis before the war. If you can't 
 find anything better than that you may bring mc my pipe. 
 I'm in no humor for that kind of stuff, just after hearing 
 the news from East Tennessee." 
 
 George brought the pipe, and Mr. Clinton, after "filling 
 and lighting it, proceeded to sooth his agitated nervous sys- 
 tem, through the never failing agency of the narcotic 
 weed, and to hide the memory of Yallandigham in huge 
 columns of smoke. 
 
 "Massa Clinton, was dat de dinna ho'n I heard way out 
 on todder side ob de field?" 
 
 "Yes. None too soon for you I reckon." 
 
 "Ob coarse not, massa. I tell you dis chile's hungry." 
 
 "Well, come right on out to dinner. Come, George." 
 
 In a few minutes all were seated round the dinner table, 
 and, of course, the leading topic was the condition of 
 thinsrs in Tennessee. Dick sat some time in mute silence 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 65 " 
 
 listening- attentively to what was being said. Finally he 
 ventured a question. 
 
 '' Massa George, did you say de secessioners be confis- 
 ticatin an bu'nin all de property in East Tennessee?" 
 
 "Yes; all the property of Union men." 
 
 "Den what'll become ob deniggas? Will dey be confis- 
 ticated, too?" 
 
 "Certainly; all belonging to Union men." 
 
 "Reecon dat 'ed be a good place for Massa Venom. He 
 say he like to own a hund"ed niggas, an lib in de Souf; an 
 I spects dars a good chance dar in Tennessee now to git 
 niggas putty cheap. Dars only one thing in his way, I 
 spose, an dat is, he's too big cowa'd to do de necessary 
 fightin. Massa Venom sleep good nary night. He lie 
 'wake mos all de time specten de Abumlish to come an 
 present him wid a hemp neck tie." 
 
 "All these Northern traitors are cowards," said Dora. * 
 "I only wish they had to endure the sufferings of the 
 Union men of the South." 
 
 " 'Spects, Miss Dory, if dey had dem 'to ondergo dey'd 
 git most ob de secessh bleech'd out ob 'em and come out 
 what dey calls Abumlish." 
 
 "Yes, I'll venture anything they would." 
 Dinner over, Dick returned to his work, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Clinton heard George read the paper, end Dora occupied 
 herself in replying to her cousin Louie's letter, though 
 with very little hope- that Louie would ever see a line of 
 her answer. 
 
 The time for mustering George's company into the ser- 
 vice had been considerably prolonged, and George, with 
 most of his comrades, began to feel no small degree of 
 anxiety about getting off to war. The Tennessee letter 
 had greatly heightened his anxiety, and he was really 
 5 
 
66 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 '• spoiling for a fight." Heavily, indeed, did the time hang 
 upon his hands. Every minute seemed an hour in dura- 
 tion, and every day an age. 
 
 Finally, the evening before the day his captain had told 
 him the company would be mustered in, he received intel- 
 ligence that his presence was demanded at company quar- 
 ters early next morning. 
 
 With what untold rapture did he recieve this glad news. 
 The long period of anxious expectation was now broken, 
 and George's highest earthly desire was to be gratified. 
 Promptly on the morning of the day appointed he ap- 
 peared at the place designated by the captain, and with 
 his entire company was sworn in. 
 
 On the day following, the boys received their arms and 
 uniforms, and from that period forward, with the other 
 companies composing their regiment, were drilled con- 
 stantly in the manual of arms and in field movements. Du- 
 ring this period, George was frequently visited by his 
 friends from the country, and he was delighted to find that 
 his mother had become an ardent advocate of a vigorous 
 war policy. 
 
 "George," said she, in talking to him one day, "I hate 
 to give you up, of course, as any mother would, but I'm 
 proud to have you go an defend your Goverment. The 
 war's here, an can't be helped; the best men in the South 's 
 got to die at the hands of nigger worshippers. I tell you, 
 I've got my eyes open. There aint but one way to git 
 peace, an that's to whip the rebels an hang the leadin 
 secesh; an as for slavery I don't care much what becomes 
 of it. "When you git into battle, I want you to show the 
 grit o' your mother, now mind that." 
 
 Finally the regiment to which George belonged was or- 
 dered to Western Virorinia. This was not the direction in 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 67 
 
 which he wished most to go; but still it was better than to 
 remain inactive, out of the reach of danger. 
 
 "Anywhere to fight rebels," said he upon hearing the 
 news, tossing up his hat, and cheering the stars and 
 stripes. 
 
 Eemembering that his parents and sister would never 
 feel satisfied if they were not allowed to see him off, he 
 sent word to them by one of his father's neighbors, of the 
 intended movement, and that his regiment would march 
 that very day. In less than two hours he was visited by 
 his father's entire family — Dick and all. 
 
 "Well, George, you go to-day, do you?" 
 
 "Yes, Father, and I am glad of it," answered George, 
 spiritedly. 
 
 "Where do you go?" asked Dora, 
 
 "To Western Virginia. I would rather have gone to 
 Tennessee; but you know soldiers have bo choice — mus' 
 go where they are ordered; and I would much rather go 
 to Virginia than stay here. Anywhere to fight." 
 
 "But is no troops to be sent to Tennessee?" anxiously 
 inquired Mrs. Clinton. "Is the poor Union men of that 
 State jist to be butehered, an their families robbed of 
 house an home, without even knowin they have any friends 
 that would help them?" 
 
 "We must be patient, mother," answered George. " The 
 Government will undoubtedly do the best it can for Eastern 
 Tennessee. But there are many difficulties with which to 
 contend before that region can be reached. It is, doubtless, 
 all for the best. Let us pray God to protect our friends 
 until we can rescue them." 
 
 "Yes, de Lord's bery good; but I hab allers noticed dat 
 he be gin'elly on de side ob dem what hab do most guns 
 
68 THE TEST OF LOYALTY 
 
 an do de best shootin," said Dick, rolling up liis big eyes, 
 and looking exceeding wise. 
 
 "There, Father, we are ordered to fall in — I must be 
 off." 
 
 The regiment now formed and marched to the railroad 
 depot, followed by a host of friends and spectators. 
 
 This was the fifth Hoosier regiment sent to the South, 
 and the interest manifested in behalf of the boys was in- 
 tense. From the time they left their barracks until they 
 reached the depot, the citizen escort increased until it 
 numbered its thousands. Arrived at the depot, a scene 
 pas-sing all human description, ensued. The hurrying to 
 and fro of officers; the rush of anxious relatives to speak 
 a farewell word of encouragement — obtain a last shake 
 hands and a last kiss, presented a spectacle only to be con- 
 ceived of by those who have witnessed such sights. 
 
 After forcing his way through packed crowds of soldiers 
 and citizens, George finally reached his friends, who were 
 awaiting his appearance with as much anxiety as if he had 
 been long absent. But a few moments' were allowed for 
 parting injunctions, promises, and well-wishes. 
 
 "George, you must be obedient to your officers, and 
 faithful in the performance of your duty," said Mr. Clin- 
 ton, shaking George's hand warmly. "Only be as true to 
 your country as you have been to me, and all will be 
 well." 
 
 "I'll try, Father." 
 
 "Kemember your sister, brother," cried Dora, taking 
 George's hand and imprinting a warm kiss upon his lips, 
 while her eyes glistened with tears, and her whole counte- 
 nance beamed with the light of that pure, disinterested 
 affec-tion, only known to the sister. 
 
 "Here, George, take this, and don't forgit to read it 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 69 
 
 often. It will be a light to you when your pathway is 
 dark, and a comfort when you are down-hearted. It will 
 lam you how to keep out o' the way o' temptation, an be 
 happy," said Mrs. Clinton, presenting her son with that 
 holiest of a mother's gift's — a bible. 
 
 George embraced her, and at the call of his captain took 
 his seat hurriedly in the train. 
 
 "All ready!" cried the conductor, signalling the engi- 
 neer to start. 
 
 Three or four piercing screams from the locomotive 
 whistle and the long train, freighted with the dearest hopes 
 of Indiana fathers, mothers, wives, and sisters, moved 
 slowly onward. 
 
 Every car window was filled with projecting heads, 
 while hats and handkerchiefs innumerable were waving 
 from the train, and from the multitude below, and the 
 very heavens were echoing the enthusiastic cheers of the 
 loyal sons of the West. Eanged along the sides of the 
 railroad track, were those who felt the deepest interest in 
 the welfare of the departing lieroes, and from whose eyes 
 gleamed those gems of affection more precious to the sol- 
 dier than pearls, and more to be prized than the richest 
 gold. Down many "a furrowed and many a rosy cheek, 
 trickled the tears of sorrow mingled with patriotism, and 
 from many a fervent soul went up the silent though earnest 
 prayer of deep solicitude. 
 
 Many were the sighs and anxious looks that followed 
 the train, as with constantly increasing speed it moved 
 toward its destination ; and sad were the hearts of hundreds 
 as they turned their faces homeward, to find vacancies in 
 the family circle, perhaps never to be refilled. In the eve- 
 ning after the departure of the regiment, we find the 
 
70 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 Clinton family seriously talking over the events of the 
 past week. 
 
 "What an awful condition the country's in," said Mrs. 
 Clinton. '-It looks to me we're all tore to pieces." 
 
 ''Yes, wife," responded Mr. Clinton, '"we are truly in a 
 bad condition; but we of the North know very little of 
 the evils of war, yet. Think of what the people are suf- 
 fering in East Tennessee." 
 
 "Oh, Father!" cried Dora, "don't mention East Tennes- 
 see. The thought of what our friends may be suffering 
 fills me with horror. Ere this, uncle may have been hung, 
 and his poor family reduced to beggary." 
 
 "Oh! its awful!" cried Mrs. Clinton. "But John True- 
 man's a man, an his wife's a woman, if she has allers been 
 use to niggers. I tell you, they'll die like heroes, every 
 one on 'em, before they'll submit to the secesh. One thing 
 that consoles me in this tr;5^in hour, is to know that none 
 o' my kin aint cowards.'' 
 
 "How many niggas has Massa Trueman got?" inquired 
 Dick, in a manner which indicated that a new idea had 
 struck him. 
 
 "I believe he had a hundred," replied Mr. Clinton. 
 
 "Den I 'spects dey he'p de family considerable much 
 when de danger come, if massa's allers been good to dem." 
 
 "TTell, he was the best man in the world to his slaves," 
 said Dora. 
 
 "Oh, pshaw!" exclaimed Mrs. Clinton, looking very in- 
 credulous; "I don't believe niggers has got pluck enough 
 to fight wo'th a cent." 
 
 "Don't fool you'se'f^ missus. I tell you I's seen niggas 
 do de biggest kind o' foughtin, in what Massa Venom calls 
 cases o' 'mergancy. Niggas can fight wid dar teef an 
 finger nails, an make batterin rams ob dar heads. Wy, I 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 71 
 
 seed a nigga onet but a lioie in de biggest kind ob a cbeese 
 wid his head. No, missus, dars lots o' niggas 'ell fight. 
 I heah some ob 'em 'bout town dis mo'nin sayin dey'd like 
 to hab a chance at secesh, an I shouldn't be 'sprised if dey 
 hab dat chance one ob dese days, an den dey'U show you 
 'bout de fightin." 
 
 "Oh, pshaw! Dick!" said Mr. Clinton, "you needn't be 
 tineasy about negroes ever having to fight in this war. 
 This is a white man's war." 
 
 "Yes' massa; but if de white mans gits killed ofi", a 
 whole- heap ob ^em, an dies, lots ob 'em, wid de yaller 
 fever in de Souf, Massa Linkum '11 be mighty apt to con 
 sent foh niggas to he'p him out ob de scrape. Any how, 
 dats dis chile's 'pinion." 
 
 "Oh, we will have the war closed before the yellow fever 
 season, Dick." 
 
 "I's not so sure 'bout dat, massa. Dem Sudderners '11 
 fight putty stubbo'n, an dey '11 git a good many ob dar 
 niggas to he'p dem." 
 
 "Well, ole man, les go to bed. I'm completely tuckered 
 out with the day's labor an excitement." 
 
 "Enough said." 
 
 And Mr. Clinton had Dora to bring him the old family 
 Bible, and after reading a chapter, humbly and fervently 
 addressed the Throne of Grace. 
 
 After the evenings service, the family retired, filled with 
 sadness and anxiety. George was gone, perhaps never to 
 return, and the Tennessee relatives were, perhaps, under- 
 going tortures of which no just conception could be 
 formed. Dreams of the most frightful character disturbed 
 the Clintons during the entire night. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 A PRISONER OF Tp^'AR, 
 
 "0, Father, do you ttink you'll ever get well in this 
 gloomy, filthy place?" asked the affectionate Louie True- 
 man of her fath^, as she took her seat on the damp earth 
 by his side, and pillowed his aching head in her lap, 
 
 "Ah! daughter, I have very little hope of re.covering if 
 I have to remain here. But your mother told me a mo- 
 ment ago, when she left me, that she would see the rebel 
 commander of the post, and do her utmost to obtain per- 
 mission to take me home." 
 
 "Oh! has she gone to try that? May God in his mercy 
 give her success. 0, Father, if we can only get you out 
 of this dismal place, and have you at home, we can soon 
 have you up again. 
 
 "But then, will they let Dr. Sharp continue to wait on 
 you there, as he has done here? For, if he has turned to 
 be a secessionist, he is very kind and attentive to you; and 
 he is such a good doctor that I want him to remain with 
 you." 
 
 "Ah, Louie, you need not think the doctor has turned 
 out a real secessionist. He is only playing 'sharp' on the 
 rebels for the present, in order to save his family and pro- 
 perty. If Federal troops should ever occupy this town, 
 you will see the doctor as jrood a L'nion man as he ever 
 
 (72) 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 73 
 
 was. But keep mum. He has gone with your mother to 
 assist her in procuring my release." 
 
 "Oh! Father; do you think they will succeed?" 
 
 "I hope so, daughter." 
 
 A ray of hope penetrated Louie's hitherto gloomy and 
 despairing soul, and reflecting outward, lighted up her 
 eye, which illuminrcted her every feature, imparting to her 
 naturally handsome face an expression which would have 
 filled the most obdurate heart with thrillino; emotions. 
 
 Bending over her father's blanched countenance, she 
 tenderly stroked his forehead and cheered his wearied 
 spirit by sweet, comforting words, and a smile, the life-in- 
 spiring effects of which was only increased by those dew 
 drops of affection which stood upon her soul's windows. 
 
 The prospect of taking her father out of a dungeon 
 which the light of day never reached, and of surrounding 
 hira with the genial influences of home, lifted a cold weight 
 from Louie's heart, which had long depressed and chilled 
 her feelings. 
 
 How anxiously did she await the return of her mother 
 and the doctor; how earnest were her desires that the mis- 
 sion of mercy might succeed. 
 
 After thus waiting for a considerable space of time, du- 
 ring which every minute seemed an age, her attention was 
 suddenly attracted by the sound of steps and voices at the 
 prison door. 0, how her heart fluttered as she awaited 
 the entrance; how rapidly did sunshine and clouds succeed 
 each other in the chamber of her soul, as the turnkey threw 
 back the. great iron bolt and the massive door creaked on 
 its hinges. 
 
 "Why, Louie! here so early? I had not expected you 
 so soon," exclaimed Mrs. Trueman, affectionately. 
 
 ^' Yes, mother. I supposed you would be worn out with 
 
74 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 last night's labor, and could not be relieved too soon/' 
 
 "Why, Louie! good morning; glad to sec you, indeed; 
 have good news to tell you," said the good-natured little 
 Dr. Sharp, advancing, and extending his hand. 
 
 "Good news! Oh! what is it, doctor?'' nervously in- 
 quired Louie. 
 
 "Why, your father will soon be out of here and at home 
 again." 
 
 " Is that it? The Lord be praised !" 
 
 "Yes, daughter, that is it," assuringly replied Mrs. 
 Trueman. "I and the doctor have obtained leave to take 
 your father where we may hope to do something for him." 
 
 "God bless you, dear mother! and how much do we owe 
 to the good doctS-?" 
 
 And Louie gently removed her father's head from her 
 lap, and running to them, embraced both her mother and 
 the doctor, while tears of joy rolled in quick succession 
 down her pale cheeks. In the meantime Mr. Trueman, 
 who had lain for days in an utterly helpless condition, 
 raised himself up, and supporting his body on his left 
 elbow, ejaculated: "Thank God! Oh, bless my wife! 
 Bless the doctor ! I shall see light again. Oh ! let me go 
 soon!" 
 
 "You sliall go soon, my dear," replied Mrs. Trueman, 
 flying to her husband, and easing him back upon his pallet, 
 "but you must not allow this unexpected good fortune to 
 excite you to imprudence. Remember, dear, you are 
 weak." 
 
 And she smoothed back the hair from his forehead, and 
 kissed him tenderly. 
 
 Louie and the doctor now approached Mr. Trueman, 
 each taking one of his hands, while the faithful wife still 
 sat ben-ding over him, smoothing his pale forehead, and as- 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 75 
 
 suring liim that lie should soon be removed from that loath- 
 some spot. 
 
 The turnkey remained at the cell door contemplating the 
 scene within, with feelings altogether new to him. 
 
 "Louie, did you come in the carriage?" inquired Mrs. 
 Trueman. 
 
 "Yes, mother." 
 
 "Did Ned come with you?*' 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Where is Ned?" 
 
 "He's up near the public square minding the horse. 
 Shall I go for him?" 
 
 "Yes, right away, daughter; and have him bring the 
 carriage here immediately." 
 
 Louie threw on her shaker, tripped out of the jail, 
 and proceeded with delighted haste to the spot where she 
 had left Ned with the carriage, none the less happy to 
 know that she was to break the glad news of her father's 
 release to his most faithful servant. Joy is ever diffusive, 
 and few, indeed, are the persons who do not increase their 
 stock of happiness by sharing it with others. 
 
 "I wonder what makes Miss Louie in sich a big hurry? 
 Sumpin must be up," muttered Ned to himself, as Louie 
 approached him. 
 
 "Oh, Ned!" cried Louie, as she came up almost out of 
 breath. "I have the best news to tell you, you ever 
 
 heard." 
 
 "What dat. Miss Louie?" asked Ned, while a broad 
 o-rin displayed his magnificent double row of ivory, and 
 his eyes stood out so plumply as to almost show the whites 
 clear of the orbits. 
 
 "Why, father is released from jail, and is going home 
 with us." 
 
76 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 "Now, Miss Louie, is you jokin, or in lia'd yea'nest?" 
 
 "In earnest, of course. And mother wants you to 
 take the carriage right down to the jail, and take father 
 home." 
 
 "Better blebe dis nigga do dat in de biggest hurry he 
 cber done anything." 
 
 And in less than it takes us to tell it, Xed turned the 
 carriage, helped Louie in, and was whirling on' his way to 
 where his wounded master lay. So eager was he to see 
 Mr. Trueman and be convinced that all he had heard was 
 true, that he took time to ask no questions until he reached 
 the prison. Here he was met by the doctor, just as he 
 drew up in front of the entrance to the jail. 
 
 "Well, Xed," said the doctor jovially, "what do you 
 think of your master's getting back home to you again?" 
 
 "Thinks powe'ful well ob 'era, massa; but I'&feard dars 
 some humbug 'bout dis ycr business. Am massa r'aly 
 free?" 
 
 "Free to go home. Ned. There's no humbug about 
 that: but I expect he'll be guarded there as a prisoner, 
 still." 
 
 "Have to be guarded!" asked Louie, in a tone of sur- 
 prise. 
 
 "Yes, of course. He is still a prisoner of war to the 
 Confederate States, and will be treated as such until some 
 new arrancrement is made." 
 
 "Well," said Louie, "I supposed he was still a prisoner, 
 but did not think of the necessity of a guard. However, 
 we can't have everything just as we wish it, always, and I 
 reckon we may be glad that we have obtained as much 
 favor as we have." 
 
 "Of course you may, hoping in the meantime for better 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 77 
 
 tilings in the future," responded tlie doctor, winking very 
 significantly. 
 
 Louie was well acquainted witli Dr. Sharp, had long 
 been convinced that he was not very inappropriately 
 named, and hence concluded that there was a volume of 
 meaning in the words, "hoping, in the meantime, for bet- 
 ter things in the future," accompanied by the doctor's 
 peculiar wink. She therefore said nothing further, touch- 
 ing her father's condition, but followed the doctor, who now 
 led the way to the prisoner's cell. 
 
 Ned was, of course, backward as slaves generally are, 
 but took good- care to leave very little space between him- 
 self and the other members of the party who preceded 
 him to his master's place of confinement. 
 
 "Well, here we are, mother, ready to proceed," Louie 
 exclaimed, entering the cell, and going directly up to her 
 father. 
 
 "Why, Ned, my boy! how are you? It has been some 
 time since I saw you," said Mr. Trueman. 
 
 "Why, massa! am dat your bery se'f? I shouldn't 
 a know'd you, only by de voice; you's so powe'fully 
 changed. Why, massa, you's all bleeched as white as a 
 linen shirt." 
 
 "Yes, Ned ; staying here as long as I have would bleach 
 a nigger, I believe." 
 
 "'Spects dats so, massa; but you know we must 'hope 
 for better things in de futer,' " replied Ned, trying to copy 
 the highly significant language of Dr. Sharp. 
 
 "Unusually philosophic to-day, Ned," said Mr. True- 
 man, smiling. 
 
 "Well, let us proceed," said Mrs. Trueman. "I'm for 
 business." 
 
 Mr. Trueman was now carefully carried to his carriage, 
 
78 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 and the doctor accompanying them, the family proceeded 
 home, attended by two Confederate guards. 
 
 Trueman, upon once more emerging into the light of 
 day, experienced a degree of rapture only known to those 
 who have been deprived of it as he had. In Methodistic 
 phrase, he felt like shouting; but the peculiar character of 
 the surroundings and his own weakness, prevented any 
 such outward demonstration of joy. He, as yet, had little 
 hope of escaping the common doom of Eastern Tennessee 
 patriots; but the certainty of again being at home, sur- 
 rounded by his family, where he could, at least for a sea- 
 son, breathe a pure and buoyant atmosphere, was so much 
 better than he had previously expected, that he really felt 
 he had cause to rejoice. 
 
 Arrived at home, he was carried into his room and laid 
 on a soft, downy bed, such as he had always been accus- 
 tomed to prior to his imprisonment. Instantly Jennie 
 came to his bedside, and throwing her soft, white arms 
 round his neck, cried: 
 
 "Oj Father! are you with us once more?" and bedewed 
 his pillow with tears. 
 
 Soon the glad intelligence of his arrival reached the 
 ears of the slaves, and they crowded into the room where 
 he lay, exclaiming: 
 
 "Oh, massa! am you actelly on dis plantation agin? 
 Glory be to de Lord ! We pray for you all de time, massa." 
 And great tears of joy rolled down many an ebony cheek. 
 So touching was this scene that even the hardened Confed- 
 erate guards could not control their feelings, and the mois- 
 ture of their eyes showed that the searing influence of 
 treason had not yet wholly dried up the wells of their 
 sympathies. 
 
 Everything within the room where Trueman lay was 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 79 
 
 clothed with new charms to him. The bedstead on which 
 he reposed, the chairs, tables, etc., ranged around, the 
 window blinds and casements, seemed possessed of rare 
 beauties; and many little things scarcely noticed by him in 
 former days, now assumed the most attractive forms, and 
 presented themselves to his mind as matters of peculiar 
 interest. 
 
 How true it is that we never know how to value home 
 until we have been deprived of it. To have been absent 
 on ordinary business five years would not have endeared 
 Trueman's home to him half so much as one day spent in 
 the loathsome rebel prison at Knoxville- 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 DR. SHARP S SCHEME — NED S SOLILOQUY. 
 
 AVonderful indeed were the cheering effects of home and 
 its surroundings upon Trueman's wound, and emaciated 
 body. Instead of the fceted air of the dungeon, he now 
 inhaled the invigorating atmosphere coming from the 
 mountains; and instead of wilting under the effects of mid- 
 night gloom, he enjoyed the soul-reviving influence of the 
 light of day and the sunshine of the family circle, com- 
 bined. 
 
 Day by day he grew stronger, and his wound healed 
 rapidly. But as he recovered his strength, the difficulties 
 with which he and hjs family were surrounded, became the 
 more appreciable. He had committed the unpardonable 
 sin, in the estimation of rebels. He had proven to seces- 
 sionists that he loved the Government of his fathers more 
 than he did the South. He had taken up arms to defy 
 the Confederate Government, and had thus forfeited aii 
 claims to its protection. He was now a prisoner of war 
 to the South, with no hope of ever being honorably re- 
 leased, except by death. 
 
 His family was by no means likely to be cared for and 
 
 protected in case he should be taken from it; but on the 
 
 other hand, had before it every prospect of disgrace and 
 
 misery indescribable. He could obtain his release and be 
 
 (80) 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 81 
 
 restored fully to his family only upon one condition, viz: 
 by taking the oath of allegiance to the Southern Confed- 
 eracy; and this he could no more think of doing than he 
 could contemplate suicide. To escape seemed impossible, 
 helpless as he was, and guarded on all sides by a most vig- 
 ilant enemy. 
 
 Albert could not be heard from, and the chances were 
 that he never would be. No available assistance appeared 
 in any direction, and the future was as gloomy to contem- 
 plate as the valley and the shadow of death. 
 
 Eeflections of this character were occupying Trueman's 
 mind on the- afternoon of one of those melancholy days 
 which never witness the light of the sun, and whose rare, 
 humid atmosphere depresses the most buoyant souls, when 
 Dr. Sharp, with his face all aglow with good humor, and 
 his little round gray eyes twinkling with the expression of 
 some well-matured scheme, entered the room. 
 
 ''Good evening, Mr. Trueman." 
 
 "Good evening, Doctor. Sit down and try your hand 
 at driving the blues away from me," said Mr. Trueman, 
 drawing a long breath, and looking anxiously at the doc 
 tor. 
 
 '•What! got the blues again! I believe they have as- 
 sumed the chronic form with you. However, I don't 
 know that one can blame you much, considering the 
 scrapes you get into." 
 
 " Never mind the scrapes, but prescribe at once, as I 
 have requested." 
 
 ''Of course 111 prescribe, Trueman; and I am pretty 
 sur€ the treatment will succeed," said the doctor, with one 
 of those peculiar winks of his which always meant some- 
 thing. 
 
 "Then let's have it immediately." 
 6 
 
82 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 *'Well, before I proceed, tell us how the arm and shoul- 
 der are, to-day, and "— ;drawing close up to Trueman's 
 Bide, and whispering, — "how near the guards are." 
 
 " The arm is mending rapidly, and the guards are at a 
 respectful distance, picking berries with the niggers. Go 
 ahead with your prescription, doctor, go ahead." 
 
 "Well, the prescription is this: Get away from here as 
 speedily as possible." 
 
 ^'Get away! AVhy, what do you mean? How can you 
 conceive of the possibility of such a thing?" 
 
 "Easily enough, sir; easily enough. And not only can 
 I conceive of it, but I can put you immediately in the way 
 to do it." 
 
 "Do you mean what* you say, doctor, or are you just 
 gassing me to-day, as you generally do when I am low- 
 Bpirited?" 
 
 "Mean exactly what I say, sir, and am ready to give you 
 the most convincing proof of it, if you will only be as ready 
 to adopt my plans as you are to take my doses." 
 
 "I am certainly ready to adopt anything that is practi- 
 cable." 
 
 "Well, now hear me, and when I am through, I think 
 you '11 agree that my scheme is practicable." 
 
 "Doctor, do you really think it will work?" asked True- 
 man hopefully, after listening attentively to a somewhat 
 detailed plan of escape. 
 
 "Work! Well, see if I don't 77iake it work. Only give 
 me a little time; Mrs. Trueman, and Ned, and I'll do it as 
 easy as I ever cured a bad cold." 
 
 No one, as yet, had the least idea that Ned knew any- 
 thing of the use the doctor proposed to make of him; but 
 a shrewd darky is by no means asleep at all times when 
 his eyes are shut; and the mere intervention of an ordi- 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 83 
 
 nary door will not always prevent his hearing what may be 
 deemed very important secrets, especially if the key-hole 
 be left unstopped. 
 
 Ned had for several days noticed what he regarded as 
 very peculiar movements on the part of Dr. Sharp, and on 
 this occasion observing, from an unseen corner, that the 
 doctor not only closed the door of Trueman's room, as he 
 entered, but turned .the key, his African curiosity was 
 roused to its highest pitch. Stationing himself at a con- 
 venient place to flank the key-hole, he improved the first 
 opportunity of moving up and occupying a "stragetic posi- 
 tion," planting his auditory battery in the advance. 
 
 "Gory! dat's good!" whispered Ned to himself, as he 
 heard the doctor detailing his scheme to Trueman ; " Massa's 
 gwine to git out o' dis. 
 
 "Um, goody! dats better yit. Dis chile's to 'stinguish 
 hisse'f by 'scortin massa to de Norf. Won't dat 'ford 
 splendiferous chance for dis nigga to 'splay his 'srategy?' 
 Always blebed dis chile was to do sumpin oncommon, ebber 
 sense Aunt Cloo tu'n de coflfee grouns on his fo'tune." 
 
 And Ned's face fairly glistened with self-complaisance. 
 
 "But de ques'n am, what '11 massa do wid Ned when he 
 gits to de Norf? Niggas is free when dey gits ober dar, 
 dat's a fac;" and here. Ned, observing that the conversa- 
 tion between the doctor and his master was drawing to a 
 close, retired in very good order to a spot where he might, 
 with impunity, think a little louder. 
 
 "Yes, dat am de ques'n," soliloquised Ned again, as he 
 seated himself on a large stone in the back yard, and 
 turned his eyes in every direction to see if the coast was 
 clear. "Ob coa'se Ned '11 besot free; an dar aint nuj05n 
 wrong 'bout dat, dat's a fac, dough I likes massa powe'ful 
 well. 
 
84c THE TEST OF LOTAI.TY. 
 
 "An den if dis chile cou'd jis' fix 'cm up some how to 
 git Lucy ober dar wid him, an setup h©use-keepin foh his- 
 se'f, wouldn't dat be some style, as Massa Albe't used to 
 say? Well, dar aint nufl&n like 'strategy,' no how, an T's 
 good at dat. So jis' wait till de time comes." 
 
 Trueman's confidence being now fully established in the 
 doctor, and he having arrived at the conclusion at which 
 men of his spirit generally arrive when similarly situated, 
 viz: that no change could possibly render his condition 
 worse, the plan of escape proposed was adopted heartily, 
 and steps immediately taken to carry it out. 
 
 Trueman's only great regrets were that he could not 
 take his wife and daughters with him, and that he should 
 be obliged to part forever from his faithful slaves; for 
 while it is true that servants are often devotedly attached 
 to good masters, it is also true that masters are as fre- 
 quently attached to good slaves. If he could only have 
 taken them North, and freed them, he would have been 
 fully satisfied, but this was not possible. He endeavored 
 to console himself, however, with the idea that they could 
 fare no better in his presence than in his absence. But 
 mere consolations do not so satisfy such minds as True- 
 man's as to ease them. The trials of the last few weeks 
 had been rapidly aholitionizing him. His love for the 
 Union was so paramount to every other consideration, that 
 whatever threatened its safety he would have destroyed, 
 however much endeared to him; and it had been clearly 
 demonstrated to him within a few days, that slavery and 
 the Union could no longer dwell together in harmony. 
 He was now fully prepared to make any sacrifice which his 
 country demanded of him, and the mere loss of his slaves 
 was a trifle in his estimation, were it only possible for him 
 to give them their freedom, and so situate them as to in- 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 85 
 
 sure their future comfort. But tlie idea that they were 
 not only to remain in bondage, but to be confiscated by 
 Jeff. Davis' minions, and used to forward the rebellioH, 
 was anything but pleasant. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FUNERAL OBSEQUIES. 
 
 The Trueman residence is dressed in mourning to-day. 
 Slaves move about the premises, through the halls and 
 rooms of the house with eyes downcast, spirits dejected, 
 and a general mien not out of keeping with the sable robes 
 with which nature supplied them. In a retired room, 
 darkened by close drawn, heavy windowshades, is a velvet- 
 lined coffin, and around it are gathered Mrs. Trueman and 
 her daughters, dressed in deep mour-ning, sighing, weeping, 
 lamenting. Outside this circle are gathered, in a promis- 
 cuous huddle, the house servants, male and female ; and 
 the incessant application of tattered bandqnas and table- 
 worn aprons to eyes swollen with grief, would indicate that 
 those humble dependents have lost their chief support. 
 
 A gentle rap is heard at the door of the death chamber, 
 and, entrance being granted, in steps the country parson, 
 with a train of curious attendants. His habilliments, his 
 solemn countenance and manner, show that he has come to 
 perform the last rites over the body of the dead. lie 
 opens the sacred volume, reads an appropriate chapter, 
 then lines and sings a touching funeral hymn, — the slaves 
 following in strains of '-doleful melody" — then earnestly 
 supplicates a throne of grace in behalf of the mourners, 
 whose husband, father and master has been "cut oflF from 
 86 
 
8T 
 
 THE TEST OP LOTALTY. 
 
 *,, lnnrl for the hi"li crime of supporting a wicked op- 
 'p'L So S™nt ia its unholy persecutions of the 
 
 ""The' preliminaries over, the parson selects and reads a 
 JLe^e.,and.omit.^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Xur:;:: "rChT;;... with ahoutionists, or,.. 
 
 'secute slavery. 
 
 .;; :: ..y of manifesting sorrow." we thin, as we 
 
 Wted darkies, apparently drinking .n every^ d o the 
 sermon-if sermon we may call it-seem only o 
 the more and sob the louder. ^ 
 
 The minister has concluded, and Dr. Sharp, m his usual 
 spr'g^tly, tripping manner, protrudes his dumpy for. into 
 
 "riZs haste," he whispers to the parson^ '-The hody 
 i. in a most offensive state of putresence, and it^is not pro- 
 Itive^f either the comfort or the health of the company 
 to keep it above ground much longer. _ 
 
 a Yes" sanctimoniously nods the parson; and in a few 
 .i„utes; with little noise but much bustle. D.^arp has 
 appointed the pall-hearers, and the head of J;^''/™^ 
 In = funeral train emerges from the house and leads the 
 i; t ward the country graveyard, ^pon coming o>^, 
 The pall-bearers and mourners are confronted by a host of 
 eUizrns and soldiers, who, so soon as the coffin passes the 
 
88 THE TEST OP LOYALTY. * 
 
 front gate and enters the road leading to the burying- 
 ground, form in order of procession in the rear. 
 
 Is it possible that Trueman can have so many friends, 
 or are these but solemn mockers? Listen! 
 
 '-John Trueman was brave; I've seed him tried," mur- 
 murs a butternut-uniformed' cavalier in the ear of a com- 
 rade near him. "He was a quick turned, ginerous sort 
 of a feller as ever I knowed," says a citizen to his neigh- 
 bor, as the train moves on. 
 
 A good man's friends may be partially alienated from 
 him by the untoward circumstances of a social or a politi- 
 cal revolution, but they can never be wholly severed from 
 him. Trueman's friends were those who had tried his 
 worth, and although they felt — many of them — to regret 
 what they considered his errors in politics, their admiration 
 of him as a man h©d only been modified, not changed to 
 hatred by those conceived errors. Slowly, solemnly the 
 procession, composed of soldiers, citizens and slaves, pro- 
 ceeds, and, finally arriving at the cemetery, the cofl&n is 
 placed by the side of a newly dug grave, and the parson, 
 with another hymn and prayer, cons-igns the ashes of 
 Trueman to their last resting place. The coffin is lowered, 
 three or four stout men grasp, each, a spade, and the dull, 
 leaden sounds of the heavy clods upon the boards which 
 cover the vault fall with a heart-chilling weight upon our 
 ears. There are soul-depressing sobs, heart-piercing cries 
 to be heard in the direction of the closely veiled wife and 
 daughters; there are convulsive demonstrations of grief 
 throughout the entire crowd of African attendants; there 
 are gloomy brows to be seen among all the Confederate 
 soldiers ; there are tears of sorrow glistening from many a 
 neighbor's eye. In fact, the burial scene is one of unusual 
 sadness, and we long to be released as a witness. 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 89 
 
 The last shovel full of dirt is packed upon the sharply 
 elevated clay mound, and the throng of attendants return 
 home at will and v/ithout order. Every one seems struck 
 vrith the buoyancy of soul exhibited by the friends of the 
 deceased. Mrs. Trucman's movements are wonderfully 
 elastic as she mounts the step of her carriage and takes a 
 seat inside. Louie, notwithstanding an occasional convul- 
 sive sob, converses with considerable sprightliness, while 
 Jennie may even be seen, occasionally, timing the air of 
 some familiar ditty, mentally sung, upon the floor of the 
 vehicle with the toe of her gaiter. It is the soul that 
 sings rather than the voice, and if we could draw aside 
 those heavy veils we might see, playing upon the counte- 
 nances of the wife and elder daughter, the same animating 
 tune which sought involuntary egress through Jennie's 
 foot. 
 
 The observer is puzzled. Can it be that these women 
 have become so calloused by unremitting grief that the 
 sorrow occasioned by the cleath of a husband and father is 
 buried with his ashes? Or, has the joy over the rescue 
 of Trueman from an ignoble execution by an honorable 
 death risen superior to the gloomy despondency which 
 otherwise would overcast the mourners? However it may 
 be, there is a lightness of manner and cheerfulness of voice 
 noticible among the Truemans on their return from the 
 funeral, widely contrasting with the sorrowing manifesta- 
 tions at the grave. 
 
 The sun sinks calmly behind a gold fringed cloud which 
 skirts the western horizon as the Confederate guards, so 
 long Trueraan's most watchful attendants, take their leave, 
 and the atmosphere of freedom may again be breathed in 
 the immediate vicinity of the old mansion. 
 
^^ THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 A half-filled moon moves gracefully up the clear, starry 
 sky as from the agloomed slave cabin is wafted to our ears 
 the quaint melody, 
 
 'Ma£Ba's in de cold, cold ground. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE — ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 "What strange letters father writes me, now-a-Jays, 
 said George Clinton to himself, seating himself upon the 
 ground in a West Virginia camp, and re-perusing au 
 epistle just received from home; "says here he thinks I 
 am fighting in the noblest of causes, and then right away 
 intimates to me that he greatly doubts the ability of this 
 Administration to conquer the rebellion; wonder if Hard- 
 head is working on him again ; must say I don't like such 
 letters; almost wish father would quit writing. How dif- 
 ferent Dora writes; would rather read one of her month- 
 old letters than a dozen of father's freshest.. Dora makes 
 me feel like fighting the whole Southern Confederacy, 
 father almost puts the cowardly chills all over me. Won- 
 der if he knows the effect of such letters as his on a sol- 
 dier? Believe I'll just answer him right now, and tell 
 him what it is." 
 
 So saying George produced his portfolio and penned to 
 his father the following very pointed reply: 
 
 "Dear Father: Your's is at hand; am glad indeed 
 to hear from you, but sorry you 'deal me so much cold com- 
 fort. I think if you had to climb these rocky, barren hills, 
 and crawl through the bushes and briers as I do, after 
 
 91 
 
92 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 the Indian plan, you wouldn't think much, nor care much 
 about the Administration, just so the rebellion might be 
 put down. What has got you to doubting the ability of 
 the President? Hasn't he done about all that any man 
 could do under the circumstances? Don't you think it a 
 pretty hard time, anyhow, to be President? I do. Why, 
 every civilian in the country wants to tell Lincoln how to 
 carry on this war. The land literally swarms with military 
 advisers, and from the way many of you write, I've no 
 idea but that half the farmers in Indiana could end this 
 war in a week if they had their way about it. You don't 
 seem to think how poorly we were fixed for war when we 
 began, and how well the secesh were prepared, on account 
 of their stealings. Just think how many soldiers had to 
 be armed and equipped in a little time, and how little 
 ready material we had to go on. 
 
 '•Yes, it's hard to be President now; for while you folks 
 at home are all complaining because the thing is not being 
 wound 'jp quick enough, lots of the soldiers are cursing 
 the Government because they' can't have every nice thing 
 they have been used to at home, hauled round to them. 
 
 "Now, I tell you this country has got to get used to 
 war. The thing can't be done in a day, nor a week. It 
 may take years yet, but I reckon you "11 agree that the 
 Government is worth any effort to save it, however expen- 
 sive. And now, father, just allow me to drop you a hint: 
 if we can afford to leave home and endure what we do to 
 save the country, you folks at home can surely afford to 
 give us all the encouragement in your power. I tell you, 
 it makes a soldier strong to tell him to fight, but when it 
 comes to hinting to him that those who control his actions 
 are not doing for the best, it tends, if he listens to it, to 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 93 
 
 take all the fight out of him. I hope you '11 thiok of these 
 matters. 
 
 'But I must quit. 
 
 "Ever your faithful 
 
 "GrEORGE. 
 
 "P. S.— My love to all the friends of the Union. Tell 
 Dora to write. ''Gr." 
 
 During his entire life, George had never said or written 
 anything to his father which partook of anything like the 
 degree of independence which was manifested in this let- 
 ter, and it was by no means pleasant to feel it his duty to 
 do so now. Several sighs and a trouble-expressing con- 
 traction of the brow, accompanied the passage of this epistle 
 into the camp mail box. Let us follow it to its destina- 
 tion. 
 
 It is a delightful summer morning, and George's father 
 sits in his accustomed seat on the old porch, running his 
 eyes rather hurriedly over a page of letter cap, just out of 
 the envelope. • 
 
 "Rather saucy, that, for George, I'll declare," said Mr. 
 Clinton, stopping to digest a paragraph, and looking out 
 regretfully from under his momentarily elevated spectacles, 
 as much as to say, "I almost wish I had not written him 
 what I did." Resuming the letter, he read it eagerly to 
 the close, and nervously folding and re-encasing it, said: 
 
 "Well, I must say, the boy.talks manfully. I know he's 
 honest; never would be the boy to talk to me that way but 
 from a strong conviction of duty. And there's some good 
 sense in what he says. It is a bad trme to be President. 
 Things were in a terribly bad fix at the commencement of 
 this war. The South had everything and the Government 
 had nothing. May be some of the papers I've read, and 
 
9-4 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 and some of the Democrats I've talked to, are too bitter 
 toward the Administration; not a good idea, always, to 
 form a fellow's notions too soon; well to be careful, or one 
 might get on the wrong track; rather a ticklish time to 
 take stock in politicians, any how; never was disposed to 
 sympathize with the rebellion ; have always hated the very 
 idea of it; merely thought that perhaps the present Ad- 
 ministration was not aiming to put down the rebellion so 
 much as to establish some of its pet notions. And it 
 really does seem to be touched with abolition ; reckon its 
 as the boy says, letters like my last, take the fight out of 
 soldiers." 
 
 Thus sat Mr. Clinton, revolving in his mind the question 
 of propriety in relation to the course he had lately pur- 
 sued in his correspondence with George, when Dick, re- 
 turning from an errand to town, threw into his lap a letter 
 directed in a well-known hand writing, and post marked 
 '•Louisville, Ky." 
 
 "Why! what does this mean?" exclaimed he, in a tone 
 ^f agitated surprise, at the same time tearing open the 
 envelope, and turning hastily to the signature. "As I 
 live! — from John Trueman. Well, that's ahead of any- 
 thing yet; made sure he wns dead. Wife! wife! come 
 here!" 
 
 ^'Oh, I'm too busy, darnin your socks, to come jist now," 
 answered the old lady, rather petulantly. 
 
 "Never mind socks now. I know you want to hear 
 from John Trueman as badly as I do." 
 
 "From John Trueman! Well, I reccon I do;" and Mrs. 
 Clinton measured the distance from where she sat to the 
 porch about as quickly as she was ever known to do it, by 
 no means prepared to see a letter in True man's own hand 
 writi¥ig, but excited enough in the supposition that some 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 95 
 
 one bad arrived, per accident, who knew and could tell 
 sometliing of his fate. But when she came on the porch, 
 and found that Clinton had just received an epistle from 
 lum, dated at Louisville, she fairly went into histerics. 
 
 "Why, ole man, what does it mean? I thought he was 
 hung by this time, or dead from his wound. Well, there's 
 no use talkin to me any more 'bout there a bein no speshul 
 Providence; for shorely, nuthin short of a meraclo could 
 a saved him. Come, read, ole man, read!" 
 
 Mr. Clinton, adjusting his spectacles, proceeded: 
 
 "Louisville, , 1861. . 
 
 Dear Brother and Sister : I expect this will take 
 you a good deal like an unexpected thunder-clap, for I 
 have no idea you think it possible for me to yet be alive. 
 But, by the interposition of Divine Providence, I am still 
 spared, and have made good my escape from the very 
 mouth of hell. How this is, I cannot now say, of course, 
 but when I see you I will tell you all about it. Meet me 
 on the 18th, at the Union Depot, upon the arrival of the 
 morning train. I would come right on but for some little 
 matters I have to arrange here, which will require a couple 
 of days. Your brother, 
 
 John Trueman. 
 
 "Why, father! father! what does this mean? A let- 
 ter from uncle John! Can such a thing be possible?" 
 3ried Dora, dashing on to the porch, from her toilet room, 
 with hair flying in all directions, and a countenance indes'- 
 cribably expressive of the agitation to which she had been 
 wrought up by the few broken sentences she had caught 
 from her father's reading. "Is it really from him? Do 
 let me see it, father;" and she reached and received the 
 letter from her father, and devoured its contents in far less 
 
96 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 time than it takes us to tell it. "And ke will be here, 
 himself, will he, in a few days? Well, this is indeed most 
 glorious; have an idea he will be able to present a class of 
 arguments against the rebellion wlii-.h will completely de- 
 molish all this semi-seccsh cant we hear so much of about 
 here. Oh, won't it be so rich to have him get hold of 
 Hardhead! Ill manage for that, see if I don't," said 
 Dora, snapping her fingers and dancing away with an air 
 of triumph to her room. 
 
 The time to elapse between the reception of this epistle 
 and the arrival of Trueman was short in fact, but tedious- 
 ly long to the Clintons. His letter was of just that char- 
 acter which is best calculated to excite the human curios- 
 ity, and every member of the Clinton family was almost 
 constantly engaged, during this interin], in manufacturing 
 questions of every kind for the expected coming. 
 
 The morning of the 18th came, and with it John True- 
 man to Indianapolis. His relatives were in anxious wait- 
 ing at the depot, with carriage ready to convey him to 
 their residence. 
 
 For the description of the scene which occurred upon 
 the meeting of Trueman and his kin, the author acknow- 
 ledges the lack of genius. Sufl&ce it to say, that Dora, 
 being the most sprightly, reached him first and kissed him 
 warmly. Mr. Clinton gave him a real Western shake of 
 the hand, while tears of joy stood in his eyes, and Mrs. 
 Clinton hugged him, and, notwithstanding the nimblencss 
 of her tongue, was unable to say anything but "0. John! 
 0, John!" for several minutes. 
 
 Trueman, in the meantime, was not a little moved at the 
 afi"ectionate reception, and really felt that were his wiife 
 and children with him he would consider himself as having: 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 97 
 
 made a happy exchange of wealth on the one hand for 
 liberty and safety on the other. 
 
 During the almost frantic manifestations of joy conse- 
 seqiient upon this meeting, and standing at a respectful 
 distance, contemplating with becoming diffidence and pro- 
 i'.und interest the touching scene passing before him, was 
 the heroic Ned, who, until addressed by his master with 
 reference to the baggage, etc., etc., had not been noticed 
 by the Clintons. 
 
 '= Brought a boy with you, ha?" asked Mr. Clinton, 
 looking kindly at Ned. 
 
 "Yes," replied Trueman, "I hardly see how I could 
 have dispensed with him. He has been, indeed, a great 
 help to me; and I am not sure but that his shrewdness and 
 jnergy have frequently preserved me from danger. ' 
 
 "I dare say he has been very good to you. He lookft 
 like he was a good boy," said Dora. 
 
 Ned now began to feel somewhat at home, and with 
 great alacrity performed all the little chores preliminary 
 to the start for the Clin»to-n farm, which, as Trueman did 
 not feel disposed to ramble about town and see the sights, 
 was not long deferred. 
 
 "We are all ready, I believe," said Mr. Clinton, as Dick 
 turned the carriage in front of the depot and alighted to 
 assist in stowing the baofsraii'e. "All aboard!" and the 
 crack of the driver's whip announces the drive to the 
 country, xA.long the route a thousand and one questions 
 were asked and answered relative to the condition of aifairs 
 in Tennessee, and particularly respecting the Trueman kin 
 that were left behind. 
 
 It was observed by the Clintons that Trueman appeared 
 somewhat depressed when asked about his wife and daugh- 
 ters, always accompanying his reply with a sigh. He felt 
 7 
 
98 THE TEST OP LOYALTY. 
 
 that they were not altogether safe, whatever Dr. Sharp's 
 maneuvers; that should his expedients for keeping the 
 •secret fail, the chances for 3Irs. Trueman and the children 
 were slim. The Hoosier relatives desiring to direct his 
 mind from these painful reflections, turned the conversa- 
 tion to a more enlivening channel — crops, scenery, the In- 
 diana military status, etc., constituting the topics. 
 
 Meantime, Ned and Dick were rapidly forming an ac- 
 quaintance which gave prospect of a very close intimacy 
 between those individuals. Following the carriage home, 
 and seeing Trueman and his kin snugly housed for the 
 evening, we shall leave them for the present. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE SURPRISE — THE DELIVERANCE. 
 
 Standing upon an eminence near tlie Trueman residence, 
 and looking in a south-westerly direction, we see, at th^ 
 distance of about five hundred yards, a dragoon, making 
 his way directly toward the house. He is tall, but well 
 proportioned, and a graceful rider. His steed is one of 
 superior blood,— spirited, and nimble. As he nears the 
 house, we perceive that he wears the Confederate uniform, 
 and the speed of his horse indicates that he is upon urgent 
 business. We wonder what is his errand. He dismounts, 
 hitches his' horse, and proceeds to the house with a con- 
 fidence which suggests considerable familiarity with the 
 premises. He rings the door bell; a servant answers the 
 
 call. 
 
 "Is this the residence of John Trueman?" he inquires, 
 in husky tones. 
 
 "Yes, sah." 
 
 "Is he in?" 
 
 "No, sah; him been dead free days," answered the ser- 
 vant, in a manner betokening suppressed grief. 
 
 "What, dead!" 
 
 "But," said he, resuming his former gruffness, "I must 
 to business. Show me your mistress' apartment." 
 
 "Yes, sah! Dis way, sah; dis way." 
 
 (99) 
 
100 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 Following the servant, the cavalier is shown into Mrs. 
 Trueman's room. 
 
 "Good morning, madam." 
 
 "Good morning, sir;" and Mrs. Trueman rises and shows 
 the intruder a seat, endeavoring meanwhile, to get a close 
 look at his features; for while his voice is rather strange, 
 there is something in his accent and his demeanor which 
 seems strikingly familiar. Ilis air, to her. is not an easy 
 one, and his whiskers and hair bear the semblance of dis- 
 guise. "However," thinks she, "it will not do to appear 
 impudent, and I must not follow up his averted counte- 
 nance too closely." 
 
 He motions the servant out of the room. 
 
 "I understand Mr. Trueman is dead." 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Rather sudden, that death. Was his wound a mortal 
 one?" 
 
 "No, sir. But he caught cold in it, and it mortified," 
 replied Mrs. Trueman, in a tone not indicating that 
 amount of sorrow we usually expect to see in a bereaved 
 widow. 
 
 "Madam, I am your friend, and — " 
 
 "Who are you? No man is my friend until I know 
 him," and Mrs. Trueman placed her hand upon her revol- 
 ver, her constant pocket companion. 
 
 "Can you keep a secret, madam?" asked the dragoon, 
 kindly. "The one I would impart to you involves my 
 life, and perhaps yours." 
 
 "You would evade a direct answer, then. Yes, sir, I 
 am a icoman, and can keep a secret." 
 
 "Then, mother, I need not tell you my name," and Albert 
 Trueman fell at his mother s feet. 
 
 "Albert! Albert! my dear boy!" cried Mrs. Trueman, 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 101 
 
 raising him and pressing him to her heart. "x\nd you are 
 still alive. But, how comes it that you are a Confederate 
 dragoon? Explain, my boy, explain!" 
 
 "Be very silent, mother; we may be overheard." 
 
 Mrs. Trueman's presence of mind admonished her of 
 the importance of closed doors, and she saw that they were 
 all securely bolted, and then said, in a low tone: 
 
 "Proceed, Albert." 
 
 "Well, mother, on the afternoon of that fearful day — of 
 course father told you about the battle — and — " 
 
 "Yes, he told me all about it." 
 
 "Well, my horse was killed under me. I saw all my 
 comrades killed or wounded; thought at first I would die 
 fighting. Then I thought of you and the girls. I stood 
 in the bottom of a little sink. A dead rebel laid at my 
 feet, his horse near by — for they had a few cavalry. It 
 was the work of a moment. I stripped him of his uni- 
 form, donned it, mounted his horse, and rode to the rear 
 of the rebel lines, cheering for the South. This, dear 
 mother, I did for you — for my sisters. You know I 
 wouldn't have done it for myself. Was it right?" 
 
 "Why, certainly. It was noble. But how come these 
 whiskers? They are not yours." 
 
 "Well, you see, they were just put on for to-day, merely 
 to keep the servants from recognizing me; for none of the 
 confeds know me. And we have not been long enough in 
 East Tennessee for any of the natives to catch me up." 
 
 "Shall I call Louie and Jennie?" 
 
 "Not yet, mother. I must tell you my errand." 
 
 "Well, go ahead." 
 
 "You see, mother, Dr. Sharp is the only person, except 
 yourself, in the world that is in my secret. I have had 
 
102 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 frequent conferences with him, and know all about father's 
 death and burial." 
 
 "You do?" 
 
 "Yes; and the next thing in the programme is to hurry 
 you off, with all speed, to Indiana." 
 
 " But what will become of you, my boy?" 
 
 "I'll take care of myself, never fear; but you must go 
 to-morrow morning. Everything is ready. Dr. Sharp 
 sends by me all the passes through the lines, and you must 
 go on the first train to-morrow. The doctor did not like 
 to risk me on this business, but I could not bear for you to 
 leave without seeing me, and so I prevailed on him to let 
 me come." 
 
 "Thank Heaven for this most gracious dispensation," 
 said 3Irs. Trucman. '-But how will you escape?" 
 
 "Never mind me; I'll meet you in the United States be- 
 fore long." 
 
 "But the girls — I must see them now, and be off." 
 
 Mrs. Trueuian brought in Louie and Jennie, after first 
 preparing them, aside, for ina meeting — for she well knew 
 the mercurial temperament of Jennie could not behave 
 prudently in case of a surprise — and the scene which fol- 
 lowed was one of those sacred ones which the artist may 
 dimly outline but cannot develop. A lad — a boy just 
 turning his teens, who has experienced more within the 
 space of a few days than most persons do in a lifetime, in 
 the habiliments of disguise, carrying forward a scheme 
 which would not have disgraced Napoleon, stands in the 
 looked embrace of two who have hitherto essayed to ad- 
 vise him in all matters of propriety, alternately kissing 
 them and detailing his own marvelous escape and his 
 methed for procuring theirs. No wild passion energized 
 his will or nerved his arm in this the grand enterprise of 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 103 
 
 his life; no romantic affection for an affianced bride de- 
 veloped tlie expedients requisite to the performance of th© 
 task before him. But it is that pure, unsullied love which 
 the true son and brother bears to his mother and sisters 
 which makes him the hero, the idol that he is. 
 
 The time arrives for his departure. He bids his dear 
 ones adieu, hastens to his horse, and is soon seen flying 
 toward the rebel camp. 
 
 "3Iother," said Louie, "I believe I have the most 
 glorious brother in the world. Why, did you hear him 
 tell how he helped father off without father knowing any- 
 thing about it?" 
 
 ''Certainly." 
 
 "Oh! wasn't that splendid! " cried Jennie ; "J tell you, 
 he's the boy." 
 
 "There, there, Jennie, be careful," enjoined Mrs. True- 
 man. "Dont you know our danger? Albert is a heroio 
 boyj but we'll talk more about that some other time. 
 Come, we must not forget his advice. Let us be preparing 
 for our trip. Dr. Sharp is to be here in the morning to 
 escort us to the train ; — those passes — ah, here they are, 
 all safe," and Mrs. Trueman's heart swelled with the an- 
 ticipated joy of again seeing her husband. 
 
 Servants were now called, trunks and bandboxes pro- 
 duced, and, until a late hour in the day, all hands were 
 busied in packing dry goods preparatory to the" journey to 
 Hoosierdom. 
 
 Mrs. Trueman's mind was now comparatively at ease. 
 She had for sbme days felt the greatest anxiety on account 
 of her husband. Her fear had been that he would be de- 
 tected in his attempt to escape, in which case she knew 
 what his fate would be. But this fear had been removed 
 by Albert, who had during his visit graphically sketched 
 
104 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 to Louie bis father's hazardous "ride for life" and his safe 
 exit to the land of freedom. Still, more than this, Albert, 
 "whose face Mrs. Trueman had not hoped to see since the 
 battle; Albert, her husband's living miniature, had that 
 day pressed her hand, called her mother — oh, how sweet 
 that name — and bedewed her cheek with tears. Indeed, 
 this was one of the most glorious days of Mrs. Trueman's 
 life — one well calculated to prepare her for feeling light 
 the sacrifice of home and property she was about to make 
 
 The night passed, the morning came, and with it Dr. 
 Sharp, who accompanied Mrs. Trueman and her daughters 
 to the depot, where they were to bid adieu to Tennessee. 
 
 To portray the feelings of the Truemans as they said 
 good-bye to those faithful servants, whose very existence 
 was knitted to theirs, and who had never known what it 
 is to depend upon themselves, would require the artist to 
 be Mrs. Trueman, Jennie and Louie. 
 
 There was the kind, trusty old mama who had nursed 
 and watched over the cradle of all the Trueman children ; 
 her husband, Aaron, who had attended them along the 
 zigzag paths of youth, and all the younger slaves with 
 whom they had grown up — these, all these, were now to be 
 left to the mercies of those who were strangers to mercy. 
 Can any, save those who had the trial of parting from 
 these faithful Africans, tell what it is to be thus separated? 
 And who shall be blamed for all the domestic troubles of 
 this character which have occurred in the South? Echo 
 answers, Southern traitors. 
 
 Pacifying the sorrowing domestics, to some extent, by 
 the promise that she would endeavor to soon have them 
 with her, Mrs. Trueman, with her daughters, entered the 
 carriage, which had been hers, and ordered the driver to 
 proceed, 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 105 
 
 "0, home, sweet home! gone forever," she murmured, 
 as the carriage rolled away toward Knoxville. But the 
 human heart is ever eager for consolation when troubled; 
 and Mrs. Trueraan found in the expected felicity of again 
 embracing her husband in a land of liberty, a balm which, 
 in a very great degree, healed the wound caused by the 
 loss of her home. 
 
 Arrived at the depot, the Truemans were soon aboard of 
 the train and moving at a rapid rate toward liberty, father 
 and husband. Nothing worthy of remark occurred along 
 the route, and in due season they came safely to Louis- 
 ville, and proceeded thence to the Hoosier Capital, where 
 they were warmly greeted by their friends. 
 
 Mr. Trueman's happiness upon finding his wife and 
 daughters safe with him was raised to ecstatic glee upon 
 hearing that Albert was still alive. And, believing that 
 the same kind Father who had so graciously guided and 
 protected them would conduct Albert safely through the 
 wilderness, he banished all uneasiness from his soul, and 
 found sweet contentment in that hope only known to him 
 who has an abiding faith in God. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE ESCAPE — THE RETURN. 
 
 It is a balmy summer morning. Not a cloud is to be 
 Been upon the whole face of the sky, as the sun in full 
 glory rides up the eastern horizon, inviting the race from 
 slumber to nature's grand sanctuary of praise and thanks- 
 giving. And vre are reminded that as by the day god's 
 chemico-vital influence, countless changes are continually 
 going forward in the mineral^ vegetable, and animal king- 
 doms — death succeeding life, and life death — so by the 
 mysterious, all-pervading power of Jehovah, are multifa- 
 rious changes perpetually occurring in the moral, social, 
 and political departments of the intelligent world — nation's 
 birth succeeding nation's death; old governments and 
 social institutions decaying and giving place to new ones. 
 We are also reminded that as all the changes produced in 
 the physical universe tend to the development of higher 
 forms of life, so do social and political changes promote 
 the development of better forms of government. 
 
 This thought, so general, so sweeping, applies, this 
 morning, with peculiar force to our own people and gov- 
 ernment. But a few months since, the African was avail- 
 ing himself of every opportunity of escape from his 
 Southern master; but now a great political revolution is 
 goins: forward, and the master flees from his slave or volunta- 
 (106) 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 107 
 
 rily gives him freedom, that he may secure his own. 
 John Trueman, once a wealthy slave owner, has now not 
 even a hody servant whom he can call his own. A num- 
 ber of slaves have been left by him in Tennessee to effect 
 their own freedom by escaping from illegal masters, or to 
 remain and be confiscated; while one, the shrewdest, most 
 faithful of them all, has worked his way, with his master, 
 to a land of liberty, and is now engaged with the eccentric 
 Dick upon the Clinton farm. This morning he may be 
 seen in company with his colored associate sauntering out 
 toward the barn. 
 
 "^Yell, Dick, you say you'd like to heah 'bout de time 
 massa an dis chile had comin frough de wilde'ness" 
 "Ob cou"se, ob cou'se." 
 
 "Well, I don't ha'dly know whah to begin; but, how- 
 somevah,' notwidstandin, in de fust place, secondly, you see 
 massa he go dead-dat is, he play dead-de mo nin befoah 
 we start, an be toated into a back room, which open to'ads 
 de stable. Den Doctoh Sha'p, he hab a coffin brought to 
 de room whah massa play defunct, as Doctoh Sha'p say, an 
 habsumpin powe'ful— whew! awful stinkin,— slipped into 
 'em. Den, in de second place, firdly, de doctoh hab de 
 pa'son come an sing, an pray, an preach ober de dead stink 
 in de coffin, to git de Lo'd to sabe 'em. Well, den, m de 
 fou'th place, sixteenthly, Doctoh Sha'p, an de pa'son, an 
 ole missus, an de Suddern sogers, an all de niggas, 'cept 
 dis chile, went in a camp meetin gang to de grabe ya'd an 
 den dey hab a little moah sing, an a little moah preach, an 
 a little moah pray ober de defunct stink, an dey berry 'em 
 widout furder ceremony; an all de 'federate foks think dat 
 was massa. Now dats a fac, shoah as you lib. ^ Well, den, 
 dc sogers all bein gone, massa an dis chile, in de night 
 time, be slipped onto a couple ob bosses, which Doctoh 
 
108 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 Sha'p hab brought to us, an den ^vc git fob ole Kentuck, 
 gist tolluble libely like. But, some time prcbiously, on de 
 same subsequential night, we come to a place in de road 
 whah dar was a 'federate gua'd, an he said, 'halt! advance 
 an gib de countr}- sign,' an — " 
 
 "What sign is dat, Ned?" 
 
 "What sign? Why, de country sign, ob cou'se — dat is 
 a — a — sign ob de Sutldern country, an I s'pose dat's a 
 nigga. Any how, dat's what dar fighten foh. 
 
 "Well, den, when he ask foh de country sign, massa 
 show de Natcheese sign — dat is a six shootin pistol, — an 
 de 'federate drap down an let us pass." 
 
 "What was you doin den, Ned?" 
 
 "Dis chile? Why he was playin strachedy — dat ig 
 keepin so'ter befoah massa, an de top o' my pate to'ards de 
 'federate, so dat if he shoot, de ball hit dat an bounce 
 back. 
 
 "Den we gallup on ober mountains, an rocks, an brush, 
 till we come to a little town in Kentuck, an dar we jump on 
 de steam kua"s an come to Louisville." 
 
 "An didn't nobody do nuffin to you after dat time?" 
 
 "No; 'cept once, when a 'federate soger tried to catch 
 us, but we hab de fastes bosses an out run 'em. I tell you 
 dar aint nuffin like strachedy, nohow. But I reccon we 
 mus git de bosses ready to go to town, Dick." 
 
 "Dats so, shoah case; Massa Clinton 'spects Geo'ge 
 home from de a'my to-day." 
 
 Dick and Ned now harnessed the horses, hitched them 
 to the old family carriage, and drove out in front of the 
 house. The Clintons, with Dick as their driver, were soon 
 aboard, and whirling toward the city. 
 
 "Well, father, what do you think of the rebellion 
 now? Do you think it should be put down, nigger or no 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 109 
 
 nifiirer?" said Dora to Mr. Clinton, rather independently. 
 
 '=Well, ye-es, I reckon so; but, then, I'm still too much 
 of a Democrat to go in for making it an abolition war." 
 
 0, pshaw! out on Democracy! — on everything but the 
 country." 
 
 "So say I, Dora; and out on Abolitionism, too. Now 
 don't you know that Ned would be better off as your 
 uncle's slave than he could be, free? And then who wants 
 the nicTirers freed and sent amoncc us?" 
 
 CO ^ 
 
 "Dat's what I say, massa," chimed in Dick. "We don't 
 want 'em sent among ns — " and the argument was inter- 
 rupted by a general outburst of laughter. 
 
 "Father," replied Dora, "that is not the question. It 
 matters not whether the negro is better off as a slave or 
 not. The question simply is this: If slavery stands in 
 the way of the Government, would you say, 'dowxi with 
 slavery and let the Government live?'" 
 "Well, it hasn't come to that yet." 
 "I think it is coming to it pretty fast." 
 "Well, it didn't start out that way, any how. All the 
 cry was, ' Save the Union now, take care of politics and 
 slavery when the war is over?' " 
 
 "Yes, father; but suppose the Union can't be saved 
 without destroying slavery — then what?" 
 "But I think it can." 
 
 "You do? Look at the Confederates everywhere using 
 negroes to build fortifications. Then look at the Union 
 troops employed to guard Confederate slaves, while our 
 men, for want of re-enforcements, are being slaughtered at 
 Bull Run. I tell you, father, 1 am a Democrat, too, and 
 don't like negroes any better than you do, but I would 
 rejoice if Lincoln would declare universal emancipation 
 
110 THE TEST or LOYALTY. 
 
 to-morroTV. And you will see that it -will have to corns to 
 that yet.'' 
 
 Mr. Clinton's only reply was a heavy sigh. He felt that 
 the simple, common sense argument of his daughter was 
 too strong^ for him. 
 
 Dora began to observe, with pain, that her father, 
 though honest and well-meaning, was again suffering with 
 that disease which might be termed Chronic Democracy; 
 that while he was capable of rising superior to his party 
 predilections on occasions of peculiar patriotic excitement, 
 yet when such excitements abated, and he had free access 
 to Democratic papers and politicians, he manifested the 
 chronic symptoms again. She was greatly troubled to 
 know what treatment would cure him — alopathic, homeo- 
 pathic or botanic. With the first she had had consider- 
 able success; the second she had used with fair results, 
 but still she had not effected a cure. The question now 
 was whether by the third, which she had never tried, she 
 should let him sweat it out. The alopathic treatment 
 seemed to work well after the symptoms had been aroused 
 by Hardhead on the occasion of George's enlistment; the 
 homeopathic seemed to have some effect upon the recur- 
 rence of the disease which followed the reading of Demo- 
 cratic sheets, and which was manifest in Clinton's corre- 
 spondence with George — for George had written Dora all 
 about it. This treatment was applied by Mr. Trueraan. 
 After thinking the matter over thoroughly, she decided to 
 try the steam system, well knowing that his own party was 
 as good a steam tub as could be found, and that the Gov- 
 ernment would apply the heat. She, therefore, at the 
 close of the argument just cited, lapsed into silence, and 
 resolved to say nothing to him again touching the Union 
 ([uestion until she saw the results of Democratic inconsis- 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 tencies and the future developments of the war as brought 
 out in the crucible of his reflectives. 
 
 About nine o'clock the family arrived at town and re- 
 paired to the depot to await the coming of George's regi- 
 ment, which came in about two hours afterjvard. The 
 crowd gathered to receive the boys, was almost as large as 
 the one which had assembled to see them off to the wars; 
 and the enthusiasm exhibited as the brawny sons of the 
 gallant Hoosier State, covered with glory, debarked and 
 formed into two-ranked column, was of the wildest 
 character. 
 
 "Aint that my boy?" asked Mrs. Clinton, looking 
 toward the front of the column. "Yes, that's him. It 
 is! it is! it is! and I'm gwine right up to him." 
 
 "No, no, wait mother; he will be at liberty soon," said 
 
 Dora. 
 
 "His mother's at liberty now," and the old lady ran 
 and embraced her boy in the presence of thousands. ^ A 
 mother's affection cannot be restricted by conventionalities. 
 
 "Oh, how changed you look, George!" 
 
 "Stand back, madam," said a major, "we need the 
 
 room." 
 
 "Well, aint that a purty out, indeed! that after I've 
 give my boy to the army, sich a lookin thing as that are 
 should deprive me from speakin to him merely because 
 he's in solumn column. Ah! I see into it all. This 
 here's a gitten to be a military despotism. Sich things as 
 that's a makin the money and gitten the honor, an our 
 boys is a doin the drudgery. I knowed this was what 
 Lincoln was after all the time. He don't care nuthin 
 about the Tennesseeans, nor the Government, nor nobody 
 else, so him an the Republicans fills their pockets. I'll 
 
112 THE TEST OF LOYAl/fY. 
 
 see if George goes agin," muttered Mrs. Clinton, retiring 
 in rather bad order to the crowd. 
 
 The regiment marched to the State capitol, followed by 
 its friends, was addressed by the Governor, and released 
 for the day. George, as soon as he had lain aside his 
 musket and accoutrements, found his parents and sister. 
 
 "0, George, I am so glad to see you looking so happy 
 and hearty. How do you like soldiering?" said Dora, 
 laying her hand on his shoulder. 
 
 "Oh, first rate. It agrees with me. We've got the best 
 regiment and the best oflBcers in the world," replied 
 Geor^-e, in that confident manner so generally character- 
 istic of Western volunteers. 
 
 "Best officers in the world!" muttered Mrs. Clinton. 
 "Why, George, you can't be in yearnest, shorely." And 
 here she related the treatment she received at the hands 
 of the major, and added, "Now, George, aiut you power- 
 fully gulled by these fellers? Can't you see the military 
 despotism a sticken out all round?" 
 
 "Why, pshaw, mother, that is no more than an efficient 
 officer's duty. I was sorry it happened, but could not 
 blame the major. The lines must be kept clear when a 
 regiment is on the march." 
 
 "Lines kept clear, indeed! Now, I'd like to know how 
 much it 'ud a hurt 'em to a stopped the rigment till I could 
 a spoke a few words to you. No, I tell you, Abe Lincoln 's 
 a despot, an all these here officers is tyrants, an wants to 
 gull the pore people an git rich ofi" o' this war, an that's 
 all they keer fur." 
 
 "There, mother, I see you are all wrong again," said 
 George, looking around to see in what mood his father ap- 
 peared. The latter looked rather grum and sad, hung his 
 
 I 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 113 
 
 head and said nothing. A mere glance was sufficient to 
 satisfy George as to the cause of his parents' disaffection. 
 In his mother's look and language he could detect volumes 
 of political gossip with Mrs. Venom; in his father's eyes 
 were visible numerous conversations with Democratic pol- 
 iticians, and in the very lines of his face could be traced 
 treasonable editorials. 
 
 The young soldier's mortification was intense. He had 
 gone from home with his father's blessing, — his mother's 
 sympathy; he had left his parents all aglow with the fire 
 of patriotism; he returned to find them poisoned by the 
 wily serpent, secession sympathy — cold in love of country, 
 bitter in their complaints of trivial offences and imaginary 
 abuses. 
 
 "Oh, how I wish I had been kept in the service !" invol- 
 untarily exclaimed he. "I can't stand this." 
 
 "Why, George!" responded Dora, "didn't you want to 
 see us?" 
 
 "Yes, you^ Dora; but I don't know why I should want 
 to see any body else." And George's countenance ex- 
 pressed volumes of sadness. 
 
 "Come with me a moment," said Dora, taking his arm 
 and leading him aside; for she saw how much he stood in 
 need of a different treatment from that he received from his 
 parents. 
 
 "George," said she, after they had retired to the shade 
 of a tree in a remote part of the State House yard,."! 
 know something of how you feel." And an expression of 
 mingled pity and chagrin marked every liniament of her 
 face. 
 
 "But, Dora, what does it mean? How does it come? 
 It wasn't this way when I left." 
 
 "It means this, George. Father has been almost dailj 
 8 
 
114 THE TEST OF LOYALTV. 
 
 visited by Northern traitors — those cowardly, burrowing 
 vermin, who infest tliis connnunity; who would rather 
 undermine the Government and lay it in ruins, than be 
 deprived of the privilege of stealing from it. With these 
 fellows he has had long talks, and they have given and 
 sent him cords of treasonable sheets, — as the Enquirer^ the 
 Worlds the pusillanimous, the pitiful Sentinel. He has al- 
 most slighted his bible to read them." 
 
 "Do you say! But why didn't you burn the accursed 
 trash?" 
 
 "I did — all I could get hold of, and talked to him about 
 the rottenness of such stuff — tried to get him to read 
 Union papers, but the traitors out-generaled me, and kept 
 his ear in spite of my efforts." 
 
 "I thought there was something up from his letters; 
 and then he quit writing." 
 
 "Yes — by the way, some of your letters did good — there 
 has been something up all the time. Once in a while I 
 could — just after reading a letter from you — see in his face 
 and actions, signs of a very strong contest between love of 
 country and love of party. Just then, if I had a good 
 ©pportunity to flank him, as you military folks say, I could 
 almost drive him from his Democratic fortifications. But, 
 then, perhaps the next hour he would receive strong rein- 
 forcements from the city, and I would be forced to retire." 
 
 " I wondered where all those dirty secession sheets came 
 from, to us. 
 
 "But you wrote me, Dora, that uncle had come, and that 
 all his folks, except cousin Albert, are here." 
 
 "And so they are." 
 
 "Well, what have they been doing? Couldn't they put 
 father to rights?" 
 
 "They didn't, any how. You see, uncle and his family 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 115 
 
 are courteous and refined — feel that they are our guests, 
 and don't like to talk too plainly. But uncle has done 
 some good. He often tells father that the Union men of 
 the South are for the Government without any ifs or buts, 
 and relates, in glowing style, the outrages of the seces- 
 sionists. And once I heard him say to aunt, in private, 
 that our Northern traitors were a disgrace to those of the 
 South. But we are called — I suppose we go home." ; 
 
 "Yes; but if it were not for you and uncle's folks, I 
 wouldn't go a step. I'd go right and volunteer now, and 
 back to the South." 
 
 "There, George, never mind. It may all come rig^ht in 
 a few days." 
 
 George procured leave of absence and went home with 
 his folks, feeling anything but happy. He had met the 
 enemy of his country upon three battle fields; had maneu- 
 vered and fought for his life in numerous scouts amid the 
 fastnesses of "West Virginia; had seen his noble comrades 
 fall, pierced by the ball of a lurking, ambushed foe; had 
 lain whole nights upon the bare ground, without tent, in 
 the drenching rain; had gone for days without food, suf- 
 fering all the horrors of hunger, added to the miseries of 
 unrespited fatigue— all this he had undergone for his 
 country, and was consequently in no condition to listen to 
 the treasonable mutterings of political sore heads, much less 
 to hear their sentiments re-echoed by his own father and 
 mother. A day or so spent with his home friends and 
 his Tennessee relatives, during which time the pleasure of 
 seeing his refined and highly patriotic cousins was soured 
 by the consciousness of his parents' indifference to the 
 cause of his heart, and George returned to the capital to 
 be mustered out of the service. Here he met with a spe-^ 
 cies of difficulties more trying than any he had encoun-' 
 
116 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 tered during the service. Red tape stood in the way of 
 his discharge and his pay. Government ofi5cials were slow 
 and apparently indifferent. The boys were detained seve* 
 ral days, being crustily put off from time to time, when 
 they applied for their dismissal. Promises were made and 
 broken with a recklessness truly aggravating, and numbers 
 of soldiers were heard to say that if it were not for the 
 Governor, whose kindness had been so constant to them 
 during the campaign, they would tear down the Govern- 
 ment buildings over the heads of the officials. George, 
 among others, became highly exasperated, and declared, "I 
 will volunteer no more if this is the Government's method 
 of proceeding." He now began to fear that his parents 
 were not very far wrong in their condemnations of the 
 Administration. During this season of protracted sus- 
 pense, he was called on by his old flame, Volatile Venom, 
 who, with other young ladies of her kind, was ever ready 
 to sympathize with anybody aflflicted by the "Lincoln Gov- 
 ernment." George had not very anxiously hoped to see 
 her, but when she did appear, he had not the hardihood to 
 slight her company, or refuse to listen to her treasonable 
 insinuations, especially as the latter were so ingeniously 
 sugar-coated, and so peculiarly adapted to his own feelings 
 that they did not seem so bad to take. His old male asso- 
 ciates of the secession persuasion were also very indus- 
 trious in hunting him up; were likewise very sympathetic 
 and good-Samaritan-like in their attentions. In short, it 
 so happened that almost every conceivable influence was 
 brought to bear against his patriotism at a time when he 
 was most susceptible. 
 
 Finally, however, he was discharged and paid, but did 
 not return home with that inflexible determination tf 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 117 
 
 stand by his country, right or wrong, which formerly sus- 
 tained him so amply under very trying circumstances. 
 
 How true it is that we never know ourselves until we 
 are tried by that which strikes at our personal interests. 
 
 Upon George's coming home, Dora noticed that some- 
 thing had wrought a change in him, and she was not long 
 in ascertaining the causes. Knowing her influence over 
 him, she addressed herself most assiduously to the task of 
 putting him to rights, and was not long in accomplishing 
 her object. 
 
 "Well, sister," said he one day when talking to her, "I 
 guess you are right. War is a new thing to this Grovern- 
 ment, and things can not go at first as we might wish." 
 
 His old regiment was now being reorganized at Indiana- 
 polis, and having a desire to go again with "the boys," he 
 determined to re-enlist. But this time he asked neither 
 the advice nor the consent of his parents. He knew that 
 Dora would support him with her whole soul; and inas- 
 much as she had become his sun by day, his guiding star 
 by night, his heart's idol, his all, he cared for little else. 
 Who shall estimate the moral and spiritual worth of a 
 true, devoted sister? 
 
 Time wore apace, and just two weeks after George's dis- 
 charge from the three months' service, he re-enlisted for 
 three years, little knowing the trials that were in store for 
 him. The regiment remained at Indianapolis three weeks 
 after his re enlistment, during which time certain very im- 
 portant changes occurred among the Clintons and True- 
 mans, which are related in our next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE NEW HOME — THE SURPRISE. 
 
 Mr. Trucman having become a permanent citizen of 
 Indiana, and having been accommodated by his brother- 
 in-law, to the requisite means, purchased a little home 
 near the capital — a neat little cottage and three acres of 
 ground — furnished his house with plain furniture, and 
 settled his ftimily in it. 
 
 "Are we ourselves, or not?" asked Louie of Jennie, one 
 day as they sat on the door step and surveyed the extent 
 of their possessions at a glance. 
 
 " I don't know, Louie. It don't look much like it. Only 
 think of what we were." 
 
 "Yes, and then what we are^ Jennie.'" 
 
 "Well, I reccon we ought not to complain.'' 
 
 "No. Think of what scores of the Union people of our 
 State are suffering — folks that were as rich as we were, 
 without money, without property, without home." 
 
 " Yes, and the home we have, thank Heaven, through 
 the assistance of kind friends." 
 
 "Who's to do our cooking and house cleaning, though? 
 That's the question. Oh, if I could only cook like Cousin 
 Dora." 
 
 "Don't ask me that, Jennie. That's a vexed question; 
 but, I guess, we'll have to learn." 
 
 "Mother says we must try our hands to-day." 
 (118) 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 119 
 
 "I wonder if Ned can cook? Call him." 
 "Ned! Ned! Where are you?" cried Jennie, and in a 
 moment the representative of the' burnt land appeared. 
 "Ned, can you cook?" asked Jennie. 
 "0, yes. Miss Jennie, dis chile knows sumpin 'bout dat; 
 but he knows moah 'bout de eatin pa't, dat's a fac." 
 
 "Well, it's about dinner time, Louie, suppose we take a 
 lesson of Ned." 
 
 The proposition was accepted, and all proceeded to the 
 kitchen, and went to work, 
 
 "Dar, Miss Jennie, you's done it now — put de whole box 
 ob peppeh in de co'n bread — yah! yah!" 
 
 "Why, Ned, I thought that was the saleratus." 
 "Did you ebber see sallyrattus in de pepeh box?" 
 "Poh! we never had pepper boxes in the South — that is 
 T never saw one on the table." 
 
 "Dar, now. Miss Louie, dat beats all — stirren de wheat 
 dough wid a tea spoon." 
 "How then, Ned?" 
 
 "Why dis way— wid youah hands." And Ned took hold 
 of the dough, moistened it and tugged away at it like a 
 good fellow. "Dat's de style." 
 "Is dat a cat? Whah am it?" 
 
 "Why, in the stove!" cried Louie; and she rushed to 
 the stove, opened it, and out jumped a large cat, almost 
 scorched to a crisp, leaving a half-baked pie scattered in 
 fragments all over the oven. 
 
 "Well don't dat beat de dickens. Could'nt you see dat 
 cat when you put de pie in? I's feared I haf to gib up de 
 job of 'structin ye in de science ob kitchenology altogedder, 
 dat's a fac." 
 
 At this juncture the teacher and his pupils were sur 
 prised by the sudden appearance of Dora Clinton, who, 
 
120 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 after a hearty laugh, took the dinner in hand and com- 
 pleted it in the best of stylo, 
 
 "There, now, call Mother, and let's cat," said Louie." 
 
 "Where is Uncle?" asked Dora. ''I did not see him 
 when I left Aunt in the parlor." 
 
 '•He is in town, seeing about getting business," replied 
 Louie. 
 
 "What business docs he want?" 
 
 "Well, almost anything. If he can get nothing else he 
 will go to a printing office." 
 
 "Why is Uncle a printer?' 
 
 "He was, when he was a boy." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "In New Haven. He went there from Virginia when 
 he was a boy to learn the trade with his uncle." 
 
 "Aye! and has Uncle been a Yankee?" 
 
 "Of course, and is yet, all except the vernacular, which 
 is pretty well southernized." 
 
 Mrs. Trueman was now called to dinner, and after the 
 joke in reference to the lesson in cooking was told, and all 
 had enjoyed a good laugh, the party proceeded to the dis- 
 cussion of the practical merits of the dinner, and a general 
 talk. 
 
 "Have you seen Cousin George to-day, Dora?" inquired 
 Jennie. 
 
 "Yes, I have just come from his camp." 
 
 "Missus! Missus! I j is now see Massa George Clinton 
 comin up de road wid somebody what look mightly like 
 dat 'federate soger what try to stop me an ole Massa on de 
 way to dis country. I tell you, Missus, it be him or som- 
 body jis like him, fob dat fella make a mighty 'stinct 
 'mpression on dis chile's mind, dat's a fac." 
 
 "Is George coming with him, Ned?" eagerly asked 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 121 
 
 Dora; and she pushed aside her plate and hurried to the 
 front door. 
 
 "Yes, it i^ George," exclaimed she. 
 
 But a few minutes elapsed, and George Clinton, with a 
 young man, dressed in confederate uniform, rode up to the 
 front fence, alighted, hitched and approached the door. 
 
 By this time Mrs. Trueman, whose appetite had vanished 
 upon the delivery of Ned's message, had made a hasty pre- 
 paration of her toilet and was coming toward the front 
 door, closely followed by Jennie and Louie. 
 
 It is a characteristic of Southern ladies that they never 
 permit themselves to appear in company after eating, until 
 they have made due toilet preparation, while our Western 
 women would about as soon be introduced to the most elite 
 strangers in the midst of a meal as otherwise. 
 
 "Why that's— that's Albert! As I live it is!" cried 
 Mrs. Trueman, and the whole bevy started at double quick 
 for the gate, Mrs. Trueman keeping in the advance. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, dear boy!" she exclaimed, throwing her 
 arms about his neck," you did escape! God did protect 
 you, and bring you to me," and she drew him close to her 
 heart. 
 
 "Thank God, we are all saved now," cried Louie; and 
 she, her sister and mother, encompassed Albert and be- 
 dewed the earth with tears of joy. George and Dora with- 
 drew a few paces and gazed upon the touching tableau 
 with mingled feelings of awe and sympathetic bliss. Re- 
 pairing to the house, they were there but a few minutes 
 when Mr. Trueman came in. 
 
 "What! My boy!" 
 
 "Father!" And father and son locked in holy embrace, 
 and with uplifted hands returned solemn thanks to the 
 
122 TUE TEST OF LriYALTV. 
 
 Father of mercies for their most wonderful and gracious 
 deliverance. 
 
 Was it not meet that this should be done? Here was 
 the entire Trueman family — once wealthy, proud, influen- 
 tial; recently torn asunder, scattered and scourged by the 
 demon secession; now re-united, poor, but happy in a land 
 of liberty and safety. 
 
 When the company had regained it< mental equilibrium, 
 and Albert had been introduced to his cousin, Dora, all 
 united in a request that he should tell how he escaped. Ilis 
 story was a brief one. He had been sent by the confederate 
 commander in East Tennessee, along with a number of 
 others, to make discoveries in Kentucky. When he reached 
 that State he watched his opportuniry. an 1 when on a scout, 
 and out some distance from his comrad-: s, laid whip to his 
 horse, was soon out of sight, and wa:4 but half a day in 
 making his way to a railroad station, where he sold his 
 horse and embarked for Louisville. Arriving at that city 
 the day following, he reached Indianapolis the next, where, 
 happening to meet George Clinton, with whom he soon 
 formed an acquaintance, he inquired for his father. George, 
 having a short leave of absence, cheerfully accompanied 
 him to his father's residence. And this is the whole story 
 of his escape. He ran no hair breadth escapes, was not 
 several times thrown from his horse; nor was he at any 
 time rescued from imminent danger by accident or the timely 
 interference of friends. He simply had a good horse, made 
 good use of time and saved himself. 
 
 Dora was highly pleased with his appearance ; but the 
 reader need not imagine that she was silly enough to fall 
 in love with her cousin. She was merely impressed witlj 
 the idea that he is a noble, manly fellow. 
 
 Time glided along almost imperceptibly, and George, 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 123 
 
 fearing his leave vrould run out and find liirn absent from 
 camp, excused himself and returned to town, taking* with 
 him the horses he had hired to bear himself and cousin to 
 his uncle's. 
 
 By this time, having concluded that his time was come, 
 Ned, the faithful and tried, sued for recognition, and was 
 warmly greeted by his former young master. 
 
 "Massa," said he, turning to Albert's father, "don't you 
 'cognize Massa Albe't as de indiwidual dat wanted de 
 'country sign' dat time? I tell you, massa, dis chile neb- 
 ber was fooled yit, by moon light, an dis am de chap dat 
 want de country sign, an dis chile play off strachedy on 
 him, dat's a fac." 
 
 "Never mind that. Ned. Your mistress has told me all 
 about it." 
 
 "Missus! I'd like to know what missus knows 'bout 
 strachedy?'] 
 
 "There, that will do, Ned." 
 
 Dora remained during the afternoon, and shared the cup 
 of happiness, which was full to running over in the True- 
 man fajnily. In their palmiest days, when wealth and 
 luxury were even burdens to them, the Truemans had 
 never known the joy they did this afternoon. How true 
 it is that poverty and persecution prepare the soul for its 
 fullest measure of bliss. 
 
 Toward evening the conversation turned upon business, 
 and Mr. Trueman, remarking that he had looked around 
 all day for business, declared it as his intention to join the 
 Union army. 
 
 "Why?" asked his wife. 
 
 "Why, because," said he, "I have heard so much trea- 
 son to-day, uttered by men who, instead of losing their all 
 in property, by this war, as I have, have grown rich and 
 
124 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 are stiil getting richer under the protection of this Gov- 
 ernment — I say I have heard so much treason from their 
 lips that I have resolved to try to shame a few of them by 
 going to the support of the standard of my country." 
 
 "Well, but suppose they will not be shamed, husband?" 
 
 "Then I shall propose to Old Abe that he let me hang 
 a few of them. There are certainly some of the meanest 
 lickspittles here in the North that I have ever seen." 
 
 "Well, father, if you go I must go with you," said 
 Albert. • 
 
 "You shall, my boy!*' and Trueman and Albert struck 
 hands in a pledge to fight armed traitors while one re- 
 mained. 
 
 "Did not Mrs. Trueman object?" the reader may ask. 
 Not she. She had always loved her husband and son as 
 dearly as wife and mother ever loved. They were doubly 
 endeared to her by the unprecedented trials, the sacrifices, 
 the heroism of the past few months. But her's was not that 
 selfish affection which is fed and sustained by personal 
 gratification — by exclusive caresses and attentions. It was 
 an affection presided over by that magnanimous spirit 
 which links the interests of humanity with the interests of 
 self — by that love of country which sees no personal hap- 
 piness beyond the perpetuity of the Government. She 
 had witnessed the horrors of a causeless rebellion in the 
 section in which it originated; she had felt, to her heart's 
 core, the sting of that vile serpent which would fasten its 
 deadly fangs upon the fair form of Columbia; she had ex- 
 perienced the woes of civil war and the value of govern- 
 ment; she had made a willing sacrifice of her wealth and 
 caste upon the altar of Freedom, and she was now ready to 
 make any further sacrifice which might be demanded by her 
 country. 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 125 
 
 0, ye mean spirited cowards who would have peace at 
 the expense of liberty; ye obsequious menials who would 
 prostrate yourselves in the dust before the beast whose rule 
 is slavery, and implore a cessation of hostilities that your 
 money, your property, and your worthless lives may be 
 spared — ye libels upon the name, American, look at this 
 patriotic daughter of the South, her noble husband and 
 son, and then, tortoise-like, shrink back in your slimy 
 shells and hide your sneaking faces from the gaze of hon- 
 orable men. 
 
 "It looks hard," said she, "to part with you now, after 
 just passing through with what we have, but if your coun- 
 try needs you, go. Her claims are superior to mine." 
 
 Dora sat and contemplated this remarkable manifestation 
 of devotion to Liberty, with a strange feeling of inspira- 
 tion and mortification combined — of inspiration because of 
 the nobleness of the exhibition, of mortification because 
 her own father, who had not sufi"ered a tithe of what True- 
 man had. showed scarcely a tithe of his loyalty. 
 
 Night approached, and Dora, after promising to visit her 
 aunt and cousins often, and give lessons on the cook stove, 
 (rather more important, by the way, than lessons on the 
 piano,) ordered her horse and galloped home. 
 
 A few days were passed happily in an exchange of visits 
 between the Clintons and Truemans, during which time a 
 great deal of history was rehearsed, and Albert and his 
 father volunteered in the service of the United States for 
 three years. George Clinton's glowing descriptions of the 
 brilliant military achievements of his regiment, together 
 with his earnest solicitations, induced them to enlist in his 
 company. 
 
 The regiment was now nearly full, and in the course of a 
 few days was ordered to Kentucky. It was there but a 
 
126 THE TEST OP LOYALTY. 
 
 short time when it took a leading part in the glorious 
 affair at Mill Springs. In this decisive engagement, which 
 resulted in the hurling back of Zollicoffer's forces, and the 
 salvation of the Northern Border States, Trueman, in a des- 
 perate bayonet charge, ^Yas slightly wounded; and his regi- 
 mental officers, having proven his fine soldierly qualities, and 
 having had frequent exhibitions of his rare executive powers, 
 promoted him to the rank of first sergeant. He occupied 
 this position but a short time, when he was appointed to 
 fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of a second lieu- 
 tenant; and finally, upon the reduction of Fort Donelson, 
 he was commissioned a captain. In the meantime, Albert 
 had been promoted to a first sergeancy. 
 
 Trueman's pay now, together with Albert's, was sufficient 
 to support the family at home in good style, and by care- 
 ful economy, to enable them, at no very distant day, to pay 
 for their cottage home. It was a matter of considerable 
 relief to Mrs. Trueman, meanwhile, to be able to employ 
 an efficient cook — one capable of making practical house- 
 keepers of the girls. 
 
 As the army of the Great West pressed forward, pene- 
 trating the territory claimed by the Southern Confederacy, 
 achieving victory after victory, Trueman rejoiced to know 
 that the old Hermitage State — the State of his early adop- 
 tion — was being rescued from the grasp of the arch-traitor 
 and secured to the Union, How eagerly he awaited the 
 hour when the down-trodden patriots of East Tennessee 
 should be able to rise and execute full vengeance upon their 
 merciless oppressors; when they and their families could 
 be re-established in their rightful homes, and again enjoy 
 the priceless blessings of liberty, under the protection of 
 the starry flag. "We occupy Nashville to-day," said he, 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 127 
 
 in a letter to his wife. ''God, the Government, and the 
 right must succeed." 
 
 Happy indeed must he have been to feel that the faith 
 upon which he had staked his all, and for which he had 
 suffered such fiery persecutions, had not been misplaced. 
 And how different this feeling from that which shrinks the 
 soul and sears the heart of the traitor who sees that, day 
 by day, the just penalty of his crimes approaches. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE viper's sting. 
 
 "Ninnie Hardhead is not far wrong," muttered George 
 Clinton to himself, as he folded a letter he had just read, 
 and seated himself on a stone in front of Yieksburg. 
 ''Not far wrong, I think. He says, what I have expe- 
 rienced: 'This is an unnecessarily prolonged war — a war 
 for the benefit of officers — a money-making war.' Truth 
 in that. And he's about right in saying that nobody but 
 Republicans stand much chance for positions. Here's 
 uncle, and cousin AL, both promoted from the ranks — one 
 to a captaincy, the other to a sergeancy. I've been in the 
 service longer than either one of them; have done more 
 hard fighting; have brought more recruits to the regiment 
 than any man in it, and yet I am nothing but a private; 
 just what I was at the commencement of the three months' 
 campaign. Nearly all the boys in our company — sons of 
 Republicans — that were in West Virginia, have some 
 office. I don't see what I'm fighting for, but to fill officers' 
 pockets. The war is no nearer to an end now than it was 
 two years ago." And George again produced the letter and 
 read it. 
 
 ''Would I rather be free and getting a salary of one 
 hundred a month?" Well I guess I would. How to do 
 it, though — that's the question. And, then, could I face 
 (128) 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 129 
 
 Dora — that sweet sister who has been so true? How could 
 I look at her? I believe it would be easier to take Vicks- 
 burg than to do that. But — then — but, then she's — she's 
 mistaken; she's greatly misled, as Ninnie says." 
 
 Here George hung his head and lapsed into a prolonged 
 ruminating silence. Then rising to his feet and looking 
 uneasily around, muttered: 
 
 "Wants me to try and make it all right between him 
 and Dora, hey? Offers me five hundred to do it. Could 
 take Yicksburg three times while I'd do that once. May 
 be some way to do it, but I can't see it. But, I'm going 
 to try getting out of this, that's so — how? Let's see. Get 
 a furlough home, and forget to come back? No; that's 
 played out; too stout to get a furlough. I'll take my 
 chance for a French leave. Wait till I'm on picket 
 again." 
 
 George now produced his portfolio and wrote a long let- 
 ter to Dora, giving, in doleful detail, the hardships and 
 disappointments he had suffered since re-entering the ser- 
 vice, and complaining bitterly of the partiality he thought 
 he observed in the matter of promotions, etc. 
 
 The reader may now wish to know the causes of this 
 wonderful change in George. We will give them : In the 
 first place, he had suffered his loyalty to be invaded by the 
 dissatisfaction arising from his presumed mistreatment in 
 regard to his discharge from the three months' service. 
 And, although he appeared so willing to enlist the second 
 time, yet his faith — that all-preserving element of a young 
 man's character — had suffered a wreck, and his aims were 
 never so pure and unselfish thereafter. How essential to 
 a boy's right success is confidence. It should never be 
 shaken. 
 
 In the next place, a great effort Kad been made in the 
 9 
 
130 THK TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 North to reorganize the Democratic party. The occasional 
 reverses to the Federal arms had given pretexts for criti- 
 cism and complaint. Politicians and ne^yspapers opposed 
 to the war, had taken bold ground against the Government. 
 The election in Indiana had gone largely against Unionism, 
 and treason seemed to be growing popular. It was now 
 that Ninnie Hardhead insinuated himself into a corres- 
 pondence with George; first talking a little patriotic, but 
 lamenting the reverses of the Union armies, and the suf- 
 ferings of the '"poor soldiers." Then, advancing as he drew 
 George out, and hinting that the Eepublicans would never 
 end the war. Then, ascertaining George's tender place, 
 his jealousy growing out of a disappointed ambition — he 
 unmasked his batteries and directed his heaviest guns at 
 that. The effort succeeded. George revoaled to the enemy 
 the weakest point in his moral fortifications and suffered 
 himself to be surrounded. He was forced to capitulate. 
 The enemy offered magnanimous terms — a pleasant posi- 
 tion, a hundred dollars per month, protection from the 
 "Abolition Government." 
 
 What were young Hardhead's motives? Why, he de- 
 sired two things: first, to distinguish }iimself in the service 
 of his party; second, to reduce the proud spirit of Dora 
 Clinton. He once thought his chance good for winning 
 her. At least, he was smitten, and thought her approach- 
 able. But his conduct, in her presence, toward Union 
 soldiers had, in her own language, "placed a gulf as wide 
 as the difference between treason and patriotism," between 
 her and him, and he had sworn to either make her repent 
 or ruin her happiness. 
 
 If he could get George to desert by his seductive pro- 
 mises, he could then, he thought, bring her to terms, or 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 131 
 
 despoil her future happiness by exposing her brother to 
 the vengeance of the laws. 
 
 The spirit of treason is ever the same whether exhibited 
 in a national or personal affair— either rule or ruin. 
 
 "I'll tame the jade, yet," said Ninnie, one day, to him- 
 self, just after reading one of George's letters. 
 
 '• Let's see— wants to know what to write. Well he must 
 tell her that I am coming over to the Union cause, all 
 right— and— by the way to make things better, I'll work 
 myself into a position— a place in the pay department, 
 that's the ticket." 
 
 But we return to George. Two days after his reception 
 of the letter containing the seductive promise of an easy 
 position, a large salary, and sure protection from the law 
 against deserters, he was placed on outpost dutj. It was 
 night— a dark night, and George thought the time highly 
 favorable to desertion. 
 
 "It will win, I think," whispered he, sauntering out 
 from his comrades upon the pretext that he saw something 
 crawling in the distance, and wanted to see what it was. 
 
 " Now's my time," said he, and he threw aside his accou- 
 trements, and started at full speed. 
 
 A desertion from Vicksburg, at this time was considered 
 next to impossible. The water channels of communication 
 with the North were all in possession of the Union forces; 
 almost every natural and artificial obstruction had to be 
 overcome in taking any land route. George's success was 
 extremely doubtful, not only on account of these difficul- 
 ties, but because of the depletion in his energy and courage 
 arising from the constant conflict going on between his 
 ambition and his conscience. 
 
 "Hist! Is that a soldier there, in my rear?" whispers 
 he, turning and trying to catch the form of an imaginary 
 
132 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 object. "If it is — my God!" and he wheels and runs for 
 life. 
 
 "Oh, horrors! Dora's ghost! It must be! It moves 
 towards me! But, then, she's not dead! How can it be?" 
 he tremblingly murmurs, as he gropes his way through a 
 thicket, his every muscle quivering under the lacerating 
 blows of an outraged conscience. 
 
 "But, my uniform, my uniform !— how's that to be man- 
 aged? By heavens, what a fool I am! That will expose 
 me. I can't — but, then it's too late now to go back. I 
 must put it through, hit or miss. 1*11 try and exchange," 
 said he, stopping a moment to take breath, flashes of antic- 
 ipated success and clouds of remorse mingled with fear 
 alternately flitting athwart the dome of his reflectives. 
 
 Oh, yc venomous worms; ye scaley skinned reptiles; ye 
 human-shaped lizards! think of the poison you inject into 
 the life current of every young man you are allowed to 
 approach. Shall it be said that there is any future for 
 you? No; for in Heaven you cannot live, in Hell your 
 presence would insult the meanest devils. 
 
 Poor George, finally worn out with fatigue, unnerved by 
 fear, pierced to the quick by an acute conscience, giddy, 
 feverish, heartsick, was forced to yield to natures demands, 
 sought a resting place in a dense copse, and stretched him- 
 self out on the ground, every bone in his body aching and 
 his head feeling like a red hot caldron of molton lead. 
 
 "Who, that has a heart, can gaze upon that picture with- 
 out being moved to pity. There lies a young man, the 
 only son of a grey-haired father; the hope of a fond 
 mother; the former pride of a devoted sister ; once a moral 
 giant, now a shorn Sampson; a conquering hero in the 
 right, a vanquished stripling in the wrong; a Caesar for his 
 country, an Anthony against it; an undaunted brave for 
 
THE TEST OP LOYALTY. 133 
 
 freedom, a trembling coward for slavery; a young Hercules 
 in tlie armies of the Union, a powerless imbecile in the 
 service of traitors. Hover about him, 0, ye angels of 
 mercy; pour into his young heart the antidote for the 
 poison of treason; apply to his sick conscience the balm 
 of moral courage ; strike from his will the chain forged for 
 it by remorseless traitors, and fastened by a worse than 
 fiend incarnate; and, when sleep shall have restored his 
 exhausted frame, may he arise in the majesty of his former 
 manhood and declare himself free. 
 
 Did we say, sleep? That groan, those wild ejaculations, 
 those sudden startings at some dream-created monster or 
 apparition, tell us that, wearied as he is, he does not sleep 
 tho sleep that restores. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A RAILROAD TRir — THE ARREST. 
 
 "Why, what does this mean? A letter from George, 
 dated at Evansville!" exclaimed Dora, running her eye 
 rapidly down the first page of an epistle just from the 
 office. 
 
 "What, Ninnie Hardhead an assistant paymaster, and 
 for the Union? Strange! But, this heads me. George 
 says address him as 'Wm. Burk.' What's that for? If 
 he is there on detailed duty, why is he not still George 
 Clinton? Ah ! I see through it all. George has deserted !'' 
 And tears stood in her eyes, while a cloud of indignation 
 gathered upon her brow. 
 
 "His recent letters from Yicksburg sounded like deser- 
 tion. . And why has he said so much of lato about Ninnie? 
 I'll lay anything, that whelp has had a big finger in this 
 afiair. The silly rascal what does he mean?" And Dora's 
 outraged pride spoke in electric tongues from her every 
 feature. 
 
 "Heah; Miss Dory! A letteh 3Iiss Louie send you," 
 Raid Ned, bowing and presenting a communication just re- 
 ceived by Louie Trueman from Albert. "She say when 
 you be done wid 'em you send 'em back by me." 
 
 "Yes, yes. Take a seat." And Dora nervously opened 
 the letter and read. 
 
 "Aye! My suspicions are all confirmed. 'George has 
 (134) 
 
'THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 135 
 
 been missing over two weeks!' He's ruined f ruined for- 
 ever!" she muttered in frenzied accents, while hot tears 
 fell in torrents upon the quivering letter, and her whole 
 frame shook from the smothered fire which, like the pent 
 up flames of a smouldering volcano, raged in her bosom. 
 
 "Here, take it, Ned." And the suple African received 
 the letter and made quick time towards Trueman's residence. 
 
 '•Is this true, or a dream? Is it 7ni/ brother that is so 
 disgraced? 0, God, have mercy! Shall I answer George? 
 No. I'll to Evansville this very day ! N'othing shall hindci 
 me!" said Dora, literally flying to her toilet chamber. 
 
 "Shall I tell father and mother? No. I'll be there and 
 back before they miss me." 
 
 Dora hastily donned her traveling attire, and without 
 seeing or speaking to any of the family, hurried to Indian- 
 apolis on foot, took the first train to Terre Haute, and 
 thence proceeded to Evansville. It was dark night when 
 she arrived at the former place, but what cared she for 
 darkness. To her, there was no distinction between night 
 and day. The greatest, most trying task of her life was 
 before her — the resurrection from the grave of dishonor 
 of one dearer to her than life. It must be done, and that 
 speedily, or George's end would be that of a deserter. 
 
 The Government had just published an order recjuiring 
 that all deserters, within a limited space of time, report 
 themselves for duty at their respective regimental head- 
 quarters upon pain of execution. Several deserters, at 
 various points, had just paid the penalty of their crimes 
 by being shot to death — Robert Gay, among others, at 
 Indianapolis. 
 
 This was the second warning from the Government, and 
 the executions alluded to had occurred some time previous 
 to this, but the former, in consequence of George's trans- 
 
136 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 gression, rang with a peculiar, horrifying shrillness in 
 Dora's ear, while the latter presented ghastly pictures of 
 blood and infamy to her highly wrought imagination. 
 
 "Conductor," said she, as that officer passed along the 
 car aisle, "isn't this train moving at a very slow rate?" 
 
 "Can't run a night train any faster," replied the conduc- 
 tor, passing hurriedly on. 
 
 "Oh, horrors! we will never get there; and George may 
 be gone before I get to see him. Oh, that I had the wings 
 of the lightning!" exclaimed Dora, heaving ar sigh, whose 
 melancholy thrill communicated itself sympathetically to 
 every contiguous soul, and turned many a pair of curious 
 eyes toward her. 
 
 "I have been noticing that lady all evening," whispered 
 a young man to his seat-mate — a foppish fellow dressed in 
 regulation, and bespangled with shining brass buttons, 
 .apropos of the brass in his face. 
 
 " Why, by heavens ! I know her," returned the glistening 
 coxcomb, in his softest, lowest tones. "She's an old flame 
 of mine. Better not let her hear you say anything aginst 
 the Government, for she's an abolitionist, and as fiery as 
 the devil." 
 
 "Do you say?" 
 
 "Yes — but, I wonder what's takins; her alous: this line 
 to-night. Something up, by Ned! "Would you like to 
 have an introduction?" 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " Come along." And the twain rose and approached Dora. 
 
 "Miss Clinton, I — eh — have the — eh — honor — the — eh 
 pleasure of — eh — intro — eh — ducing, Mr, — eh — Mr, Froth- 
 ingale." 
 
 Dora started at the unexpected sound of that voice, 
 turned her eyes toward the intruder, and imagine her 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY, 137 
 
 a-stonishment at beholding Ninnie Hardhead, standing be- 
 fore her dressed in army regulation. On no other occasion 
 during her life had she felt so completely at a loss to know 
 how to demean herself. Mr. Frothingale might be a re- 
 spectable young man, and if so he should be respectfully 
 treated. As for Hardhead she knew too much of his 
 hypocrasy to be deceived by blue cloth and brass buttons. 
 A moments reflection, however, decided her course. 
 
 "Good evening, Mr. Frothingale," said she. "But, 
 gentlemen, I am sorry to tell you that, for the present, I 
 would be excused from the task of entertaining any body. 
 My mind is in no condition for it." 
 
 "Perhaps, — eh — perhaps, Miss Clinton, we can — eh — 
 relieve your — eh — " 
 
 "Enough, sir!" interrupted Dora, loosing all patience 
 with the impudent Ninnie. "Leave me!" 
 
 "By thunder!" said Frothingale, in low tones, as the 
 worthy (?) pair resumed their seats, "she is somewhat out- 
 spoken, aint she?" 
 
 "The very devil!" returned Hardhead. "I thought I 
 saw hell in her eye, so soon as she recognized me. But, 
 never let on." And he bit his lip in his snjothered rage^ 
 and shook his head, as much as to say: "I'll fix her jet." 
 
 "So, then, he is a paymaster, hey? God preserve the 
 Government from such paymasters!" said Dora, audibly, 
 after she had ridden herself of the nuisance. " Wonder 
 how he got in. Didn't the Government know he is a 
 traitor; reccon it's another effort to conciliate the Democ- 
 racijl A few such as he will do the Union cause more 
 harm than a brigade of Southern traitors. Heavens! what 
 mockery that he should wear a patriot's uniform," her 
 indignation kindling until it almost superseded her grief^ 
 
138 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 and she felt like going right up and stripping him of the 
 insignia he so foully disgraced. 
 
 The train moved on at fair speed, reaching Evansville 
 sometime after midnight. As the shrill scream of the 
 whistle announced the near approach to the depot, Dora 
 began to wonder how she was to ascertain George's where- 
 abouts. In the town she could think of no one she knew, 
 and if she knew ever so many, it was a question whether 
 they could afford the information she desired. She had 
 not the least doubt that young Hardhead could furnish it, 
 but it was very unlikely that he would to gratify her, even 
 though his life depended on it. 
 
 "What shall I do?" said she, as she alighted from the 
 train. "Have I done right, or wrong? All the way here 
 alone. No one to tell me anything," — looking anxiously 
 around. 
 
 "But I must be resolute." And she stepped inside a 
 buss and was soon whirling up one of the avenues of the 
 Crescent City, to a hotel. 
 
 "Is this the house?" asked she of the driver, as he 
 helped her out on the pavement, and handed her her car- 
 pet-bag. 
 
 "Yis 'em, this 'ere's the place." 
 
 "Not a very imposing looking edifice — but what care I?" 
 
 "Great God!" said a hardy, tanned young man, standing 
 near the house. "That voice! I know it, surely" — ap- 
 proaching so close that Dora caught his eye. 
 
 "George!" 
 
 "Hush!" said he, in a sharp whisper, coming up and 
 taking her hand. "You must not call me George. I'll be 
 exposed. That's not my name here." 
 
 Dora took the hint, and said no more, but took a firm 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 159 
 
 grasp on his arm, led him aside, and said: " You must go 
 with me to a private room." 
 
 "•No! People will talk about you, Dora, and I'll be 
 exposed to danger. It will attract — " 
 
 "Never mind the talk. My good name is worth no 
 more than yours, nor half so much to me. And I may 
 save you rather than expose you." 
 
 Georcre was thrilled with a feelino; he had never known 
 before. His sister, inexperienced in. travel, unattended, 
 had exposed herself to the taunts of the fastidious, the 
 insults of ruffians, the suspicion of all, in a bold effort to 
 save him. Her purity, bravery, devotion, as pre-eminently 
 exhibited on this occasion, inspired him with a new admi- 
 ration of her noble qualities, but shamed him to the lowest 
 degree of self-abasement when he thought how unworthy 
 he was of the love and watch- care of such a sister. 
 
 Exists there on earth, a thing so unselfish, so pure, so 
 holy, so ennobling as a sister's love? Think of it, ye 
 spiders in human form, when you weave your deceptious 
 webs to ensnare the unwary feet of a susceptible brother. 
 Know that the venom with vfhich you would poison his 
 affections, his motives, shall be sympathetically transfused 
 into the heart of his sister; that in striking him you strike 
 her; that in his sickness she is sick; in his disgrace she 
 is dishonored; in his death she dies. 
 
 George felt that he could resist any other influence than 
 that of I>ora ; and pale, trembling, submissive as a child, 
 he, who had fearlessly faced showers of cannon balls, thou- 
 sands of flashing bayonets, directed by the clerk, followed 
 his sister to a private room in the hotel. 
 
 "You see, I don't stop here, Dora. Too public." 
 
 "How came you below, then?" 
 
 "Well — I — I was waitinsf to see a friend." 
 
140 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 "What friend?' 
 
 "0, a fellow that boards up town." 
 
 ''Boards up town, ha! Didn't he come in on the train 
 with me?" 
 
 Greorge's confusion choked his utterance, and he sought 
 to evade the question by an affected fit of coughing. 
 
 "A knock at the door," said George, rising and looking 
 anxiously about for some convenient way of escape. 
 
 "Never mind the knock," replied Dora, rising. "I 
 know 'the way of the transgressor is hard,' but the inno- 
 cent fear nothing;" and she advanced to the door and threw 
 it wide open. 
 
 "Hold ! hold!" cried George. "I am— I—" 
 
 "Halo, George! my good fellow! AVhat's the matter?" 
 And Ninnie Hardhead strode boldly into the room, not 
 observing Dora the while, w^ho stood behind the door until 
 he came in. 
 
 "I had nc idea, George, of your taking rooms here to- 
 night. Are you safe in this place, my boy? I — thunder 
 and lighting! Dora here! The clerk didn't tell me you 
 had company. I'll — I'll retire." 
 
 "Not until icc'i-e settled," exclaimed Dora, turning the 
 key and slipping it into her pocket. 
 
 "What! lock me in! Ill see!" shouted Hardhead, 
 drawing a revolver. 
 
 "You vile worm of the dust! you foul traitor! think 
 you that I am afraid of your pistol? You haven't the 
 nerve to point it." 
 
 "We'll see," responded Hardhead, raising his weapon. 
 
 "And we will see!" shouted George, at the top of his 
 voice, rushing upon Ninnie, wrenching the pistol from his 
 grasp, and bringing him to the floor with a crash, "Now 
 say one word, and I'll blow you to — " 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 141 
 
 "I was only try — eli — trying to sea — eli — scare her, 
 G— George," wliined the cowed Ninnie, looking up into 
 George's face, like a whipped spaniel. 
 
 "You scoundrel! Up and off!" rejoined George, loosing 
 his hold, taking the key from Dora and unlocking the 
 door, which opportunity of escape was hurriedly improved. 
 
 "Now," said George, despondingly, "I'm ruined." 
 
 "What now?" 
 
 "Why, Ninnie will go straight and expose me," mur- 
 mured he, hurying his face in his hands. 
 
 Dora at once understood and appreciated her unhappy 
 brother's condition. She knew that young Hardhead had 
 influenced him to desert. She also knew that Ninnie was 
 treacherous, cowardly, and revengeful; that he had the 
 advantage of George in position, and would not fail to use 
 that advantage against him, now that he had suffered such 
 humiliation at his hands. 
 
 She now loved her brother more than ever, notwithstand- 
 ing his high crime, because he had not merely shown him- 
 self brave and prompt in her defense, but had risked ex- 
 posure and public disgrace, through Ninnie's treachery, 
 for her. She, therefore, immediately set her wits to work 
 to devise some means of saving him. 
 
 And it may be regarded as a general tr^th that what 
 woman's fertility of resources, on occasions of this kind, 
 cannot accomplish, is unattainable. 
 
 "Dora, I feel as though I couldn't stay here another 
 minute, and yet I don't want to leave you. I may be ar- 
 rested at any moment," said George, moving uneasily about 
 the room. 
 
 "Be easy, brother, be easy. I have thought of some- 
 thing." 
 
 "What?" 
 
142 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 "Have you not some of Ninnie's letters in your posses- 
 sion^?" 
 
 "I have; but what good will tliey do me?" 
 
 "They will save you, or at least mitigate your punish- 
 ment, provided they be properly managed." 
 
 "They may mitigate — hardly save me. But the idea of 
 tlie arrest." 
 
 "Bad enough, George; but you have gone so far that 
 yon may look for that." 
 
 George, now began to realize, fully, the critical condition 
 in which he had placed himself. He had once a powerful, 
 a sure protector, his Government; but had left that pro- 
 tector and had thrown himself upon the mercies of a weak, 
 treacherous scape-grace, and a few others of like character, 
 Ninnie's political friends. He trembled at the thought of 
 his condition. 
 
 While Dora and her brother were yet talking, a sharp rap 
 at the dooT startled them — a Tap which sounded to George 
 like his death knell. The door was opened and in stepped 
 Ninnie and another young officer. 
 
 "Your name Clinton?" 
 
 "It is," replied George, his fear having given place to 
 the courage of desperation. 
 
 "I order you under arrest. Follow!" commanded the 
 officer in stern tones. 
 
 "And I," cried Dora, "go with him." 
 
 "Who are you, miss?" 
 
 "His sister." 
 
 "I suppsse you are, from what I hear (?)" 
 
 "Dare to insult her," said George, presenting his cap- 
 tured revolver, "and, officer as you ar<j, I'll blow you 
 throufrh," 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 143 
 
 " Better keep quiet, young man. It will go hard enougk 
 with you, any how." 
 
 " Give me the pistol, brother, and be you silent. I'll 
 defend myself." And Dora took the weapon into her own 
 possession. 
 
 "Madam," said the officer more politely, "it is very 
 la-te, and if you would be safe, you must remain here." 
 
 "On one condition I will," said Dora, thoughtfully. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " That you tell me where I may find him in the morn- 
 ing." 
 
 " Certainly. You will find him in the lock-up. Any- 
 body can tell you where it is." 
 
 And the officer proceeeded with his prisoner, accom- 
 panied by Ninnie, to the place of confinement designated, 
 leaving Dora alone, 
 
 Xo words can describe the complicated character of 
 Dora's feelings as she turned the bolt of her bed room 
 door, and threw herself upon her couch. In a strange 
 city. No one to protect her, at a public house, slandered 
 by the pusillanimous Xinnie, insulted by an officer. But 
 even these were as trifling matters compared with the pain 
 she sufi'ered on account of George's misfortunes. He had 
 been persuaded to violate his obligation to his country; 
 had been betrayed, and was now upon the mercy of the 
 Government. He might escape the full penalty of the 
 law, but dishonor, foul and lasting, he could not escape. 
 
 And when Dora thought of the causes which led to this, 
 the greatest misfortune of her life ; when she reflected that 
 those who had played the dark parts in this tragedy had 
 done it in the guise of friendship, had for years been the 
 recipients of her father's patronage and her own kindness, 
 she felt a thirst for vengeance- she had never before expe- 
 
144 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 rienced. In vain were her repeated efforts to compose her 
 agitated mind in sleep. Her throbbing temples and swol- 
 len eyes indicated that feverish excitement of the brain 
 which will not allow of the approaches of Morpheus, but 
 which, supplying an extraordinary stimulous to a fatigued 
 nervous system, supports it through an almost infinite 
 scries of wearying efforts. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE EVIL BROUGHT HOME. 
 
 "Emancipation's played out, old woman. We'll never 
 take Vicksburg," said Mr. Clinton to his wife, elevating 
 his glasses, and throwing a fumbled copy of the Cincinnati 
 Enquirer aside. "The nigger proclamation has killed 
 us." 
 
 "I'm not a thinkin so much about Vicksburg, nor nig- 
 gers, nuther, as I am about Dory. I'm a gittin raal oneasy 
 'bout her. What on airth's she after?" 
 
 "This is a strange dido of her's. But a man told me. 
 yesterday, he saw her get on the train for Terre Haute. 
 If we don't hear from her soon, we'll telegraph.*' 
 
 "Yes, we kin telegram — that's the latest fashion o' sayin 
 it. But, as I live, that's her a comin now." 
 
 It was now about five o'clock of the second day follow- 
 ing Dora's embarkation for Evansville; and never before 
 had her parents realized so fully what it was for her to be 
 absent. Her errand had been a matter of exciting curi- 
 osity to the family at home. All sorts of reasons for her 
 unaccountable disappearance had been conjured up; fears 
 for her safety, hopes of her return, prayers for her protec- 
 tion, had, during her absence, constantly succeeded each 
 other; and now that her graceful form and agile step were 
 recognized in the distance, emotions, rapturous unspeakable, 
 10 (145) 
 
146 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 thrilled the hearts of her aged parents, and carried th«m 
 back, for the moment, several years toward the period of 
 their prime. 
 
 "Well, well, my luII, I had a hii? ficoldin laid up for 
 you, but I'ra bo glad to see you, that I can't say nothin," 
 •exclaimed Mrs. Clin' on. meeting Dora at the gate, embra- 
 cing her, and imprinting a mother's kiss upon her flushed 
 cheek. 
 
 "But, come," said she, following her daughter into the 
 house, "you must tell, in the name o' goodness, what 
 you've been a doin." 
 
 Dora, after greeting and. kissing her father, entered upon 
 a full detail of the causes and results of her errand, and 
 wound up by saying: 
 
 " George is now in the city jail, awaiting his trial by 
 court martial." 
 
 "What! In the jail! ' vociferated Mr. Clinton, starting 
 from his seat, staring wildly at Dora, wliile every fibre ^f 
 his system quivered with the shock of the unexpected 
 intelligence. 
 
 "Awful sakes alive ! My boy ! my poor boy! to be shot 
 as a deserter!" cried the old lady, fairly going into tan- 
 trums. 
 
 "Yes, perhaps; but you need not blame the boy. I 
 have the proofs to show the real criminal in the case." 
 
 And Dora opened George's portfolio, which she had 
 secured and brought from Evansville, opened and read a 
 number of Ninnie Hardhead's letters to her brother. The 
 surprise, the indignation, the horror, which possessed the 
 breasts of the parents upon hearing these letters — sur- 
 passed in intensity .any feeling which had ever occupied 
 them. Mr. Clinton, as c-ertain religionists say, felt an 
 awakening; and, all at once, it occurred to him that some 
 
THE TEST OP LOYALTY. 147 
 
 of his own epistles to George, during his first oampaign, 
 had, at least to some extent, prepared the way for those of 
 Ninnie — the precipitators of his son's ruin. Can pen 
 describe, or tongue express the remorse, the humiliation, 
 the grief, of that frail old man, who now, within a few 
 years of the grave, felt that his life's decline was to be 
 embittered by his only son's untimely, dishonorable end, 
 or, if George should be spared, by an heir who, with the 
 blood of his ancestry, would inherit to his latest day, the 
 black, indellible brand of — deserter 1 
 
 0, ye soulless vipers, who essay to wind your deceptions 
 coils around susceptible youth, and fasten your honor- 
 blackening fangs upon its vital center; ye scribes of hell, 
 who would, with pens of demon's claws, dipped in the ven- 
 omed ink of treason, scrawl and blot the unwritten pages 
 of youthful character, behold here, in this heart-broken 
 old man, a specimen of your work ! A gray-haired pioneer 
 of the West, whose life's prime was given to laying here 
 the foundations of civilization, now, after a life of toil to 
 secure a competence for himself and family, feels that in 
 the sepulchre of his boy's honor is buried the brightest 
 hope for which he lived. Hear that groan, which echoes 
 through every apartment of the old mansion, as the old 
 man abstractly murmurs: "I'm to blame, too; I'm to 
 blame." 
 
 Strange to say, Mr. Clinton could not see that the spirit 
 which inspired Ninnie Hardhead with his destructive de- 
 signs, was the all-pervading principle of the party leaders 
 in whose wake he had followed. He could only regard it 
 as having a personal origin. 
 
 While it is true that Ninnie had been, in great part, 
 stimulated by a desire to either win or destroy Dora, yet 
 
148 THE TEST OP LOYALTY. 
 
 this desire may be regarded as the creature of that school 
 of politicians whoso motto is, "rule or ruin." 
 
 "Dick!' called Mr. Clinton. "The horses and carriage, 
 quick!" 
 
 The order was rapidly obeyed, and in little more than 
 half an hour, George's mother, father, and sister, were 
 with him. 
 
 What must have been his feelings at his parents' ap- 
 proach? What a contrast between George Clinton, the 
 West Virginia hero, and George Clinton, the deserter I 
 What had he to say? Nothing. He could think of no- 
 thing, such was his grief and confusion. But he could 
 weep, and sigh, and groan. He could experience tortures 
 of the soul, such as he had not conceived it possible for 
 human beings to endure. And how of the mother and 
 father? Language fails. Let us withdraw from the scene. 
 
 We pass a number of outlaws — hardened criminals prom- 
 enading on the damp, stone floor, outside their cells. 
 What, are they susceptible? So it would seem; for, glis- 
 t-ening in the faint light of the prison, is visible a tear in 
 almost every eye. We come to the outer jail door that 
 opens into the turnkey's room. There stands a hard faced 
 fellow — countenance a nondescript, trying to whistle Yan- 
 kee Doodle; and we would suppose from his features that 
 he never knew either sympathy or sorrow. Who is he? 
 Ninnie Hardhead. We stop here a moment. Presently 
 we see, through the grate, coming out of the prison at a 
 slow pace, leaning forward upon his staff, an old man sup- 
 porting an aged woman, whose face is covered with her 
 handkerchief. Who are they? Mr. and Mrs. Clinton. 
 They are closely followed by Dora, whose eyes are in- 
 flamed and swollen from excessive fatigue and weeping. 
 The turnkey swings back the great iron door, and they 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTT. 149 
 
 pass out toward us. They are ten years nearer tlie graye 
 than they were yesterday. But-do we believe our eyes? 
 the infamous Ninnie is grinning like a demoniac ape, m 
 
 Dora's face. 
 
 " My revenge, miss," in an under tone. 
 
 "Scoundrel, off!" and Dora starts toward him. 
 ■ What, does he run from her? Yes. One brave, loyal 
 woman can chase a thousand xNorthern traitors, at any time, 
 to their dens. An hour later finds Dora and her parents 
 at home-sleeping? No. Morpheus ventures not to m- 
 trude, and grief reigns supreme for the night. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE SPIDER CAUGHT IN HIS OWN WEB. 
 
 "Vicksburgis taken!" exclaimed Louie Trueman to her 
 sister, as she came dancing into the reception room of her 
 Hoosier cottage home, waving above her head the morning 
 paper. 
 • ''Oh! is it?— Glorious!" 
 
 "Yes," said Mrs. Trueman, laying aside her sewing and 
 taking the paper from Louie, "but we will not rejoice too 
 much until we hear from your father and Albert. 
 
 "Why, it seems that we are behind the times. Yicks- 
 burg was taken on the fourth, and this is now the seventh — 
 time enough, nearly, to hear from our folks. Ah, Ned, 
 you bring a letter." And laying aside the paper, she tore 
 open the envelope, and read. 
 
 "From father?" asked Jennie. 
 
 "No. From Albert; dated the first; says Vicksburg 
 will soon fall, and then they will try for a furlough to 
 come home." 
 
 "Poor Cousin George, how much glory he has lost!" 
 exclaimed Louie, sighing. "How will he feel when he 
 hears the news?" 
 
 "Yes, poor fellow! and he's to be tried for desertion to- 
 morrow." And the joy over the splendid victory at Vicks- 
 
 (150^ 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 151 
 
 burg was dampened by the thought of the unhappy cousin's 
 
 fate Neither bliss nor sorrow often come unmixed. 
 
 "To-morrow, Jennie?" asked Louie. "Isn't it to-day?" 
 "I believe it is, sister, sure enough. And we promised 
 
 to meet Uncle's folks in town, and attend the trial." 
 
 "I'll go with you girls; but I very much doubt your 
 
 attending the trial. Military is military," said Mrs. 
 
 Trueman. _, , t -^ 
 
 "Dora will be apt to get in, I think," returned Louie. 
 
 "She'll have Z)«smess there." 
 
 The Truemans had not yet become able to purchase a 
 earriacre, but they had a horse, and, borrowing a vehicle of 
 a neighbor, they were soon on their way to the city, Ned 
 actino- in the capacity of driver. 
 
 On'reaching town and turning up an avenue^ they were 
 agreeably surprised by the Clinton carriage which, turning 
 into the avenue at right angles, met them. 
 
 -Good morning," said all at once, sadness mantling 
 every countenance. 
 
 "Dick!" exclaimed Dora, somewhat uneasily, 'drive 
 faster, we shall be late I fear." 
 
 Dick replied by a crack of his whip, and the carriage 
 rolled up the street at a greatly increased speed, Trueman s 
 following closely in the rear. 
 
 There was, notwithstanding the rapidity with which they 
 moved, a gloomy solemnity about ,h..c vehicles akin to 
 that of a funeral train. Few were the words tha were 
 spoken, and every heart was beating at an -nu.u.1 rat. 
 while nearly every breath wa. a sigh. Every mmd was 
 occupied with its own reflections, yet all absorbed m one 
 sad thought. While some were despondent, others hope- 
 ful there was but one of the entire company who had any 
 practical scheme of operetions, looking to the solution ot 
 
152 THE TEST (»F l.« .V.\ I.TY. 
 
 the great question: How can Georj^e be saved? That one 
 was Dora, who had in her possession nearly all the treason- 
 able letters written by Ninnie to the accused. With these 
 she hoped to at least modify her brother's punishment; 
 and should she fail in that, of one thing she was sure — 
 she would condemn Hardhead, and bring him to the just 
 Dunishment of his sins. 
 
 "This is the place," said she, as they drew up in front 
 of the court chamber, which was in the second story of a 
 large brick, and scarcely had the carriage stopped, when, 
 witl'out waiting assistance, she leaped upon the pavement 
 and started up stairs. 
 
 "I hardly think," said Mrs. Trueman, '-that we shall 
 gain admission, even if Dora should." 
 
 Meanwhile the latter was tripping up the steps uncon- 
 scious of anything that was being said or done about her. 
 
 "What will the lady have?" courteously inquired a 
 young soldier, standing at the head of the stairs. 
 
 " I would be admitted to the court-martial, if you please." 
 
 "On what business?" 
 
 "To attend the trial of George Clinton," replied she, in 
 clear, round tones. 
 
 "That is over, and sentence passed." 
 
 "What! of death?" and Dora's lips quivered, while a 
 glassy film gathered over Ker eyes. 
 
 "Yes, mam, I am sorry to say," replied the soldier in 
 tender tones, observing Dora's emotions. 
 
 "0, God, have mercy! Lost! lost!" cried the heart- 
 pierced sister, almost dropping to the floor. 
 
 The soldier, whose course blue jacket encased as manly 
 a heart as ever throbbed in human breast, was sympatheti- 
 cally touched, and while tears trickled down his bronzed 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 153 
 
 cheeks he extended Dora a supporting hand, and said: 
 "He may not have to die. Government may pardon him." 
 
 "Oh, is there hope?" said she, taking courage. "But — 
 those letters! I was about to forget them. Sir, will you 
 please present these to the court-martial?" 
 
 "With pleasure,"' replied the soldier, "that is, I will have 
 it done," and he opened the door and handed in the docu- 
 ments, with instructions as to whom they were directed. 
 
 Dora waited but a moment or two, when she heard, 
 in the chamber, a general moving about, and the door 
 swinging open, her presence was requested. Eagerly she 
 complied. 
 
 "Madam, your name, if you please," said the presi'dent 
 of the court. 
 
 "Dora Clinton, George's sister," she replied, summoning 
 all the dignity at her command. 
 
 "How came you by these letters?" 
 
 Dora replied by relating the circumstances under which 
 she obtained the papers, with a boldness and clearness 
 which inspired the court with a high degree of confidence. 
 The president becoming unusually interested in Dora, 
 owing to her candor, refinement and scholarly attainments, 
 detained her by requesting a full history of young Hard- 
 head. To this task she proceeded most cheerfully, giving 
 not only his character, but lii.« origin. 
 
 "You will please remain, Misa Clinton," said the presi- 
 dent, "until Hardhead is brought in." And an officer 
 was immediately ordered to arrest Ninnie and bring him to 
 court. 
 
 The officer was gone but a short time, when he returned, 
 bringing with him the treacherous Ninnie, who pale and 
 trembling with fear, entered the room, and starting at the 
 unexpected sight of Dora, shrank back and would have 
 
154 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 retired very hurriedly had it not been for the rallying 
 power of the one who had him in custody. 
 
 "Here, sir," said the president, "you arc the young man 
 who was so ready to condemn another, what have you to 
 say for yourself?" And the clerk was requested to read 
 the letters presented by Dora. 
 
 During the reading of these epistles. Ninnie's color came 
 and went with the rapidity of lightning, while his bodily 
 contortions and squirmings told more clearly than language 
 could, his guilt. 
 
 The whole matter took him by surprise. It was some- 
 thing for which he had made no preparation. He had not 
 presumed those pen and ink witnesses would ever appear 
 against him. It had been his intention to slip George back 
 into the service in case the latter had succeeded in over- 
 coming Dora's hatred toward hiiu. But he had been too 
 much of a Kinnie to provide for the destruction of the 
 correspondence between him and George, in c-ase of failure 
 in that direction — most unfortunate for him but fortunate 
 for the Government, for the right. 
 
 "What am I to do?" thought he. "Ah! I'll deny every- 
 thing. That's my father's motto when he sees a case in 
 court clearly against him." 
 
 "What say you, sir?" asked the presidenfcoolly, look- 
 ing Ninnie full in the face. 
 
 " I — eh — I — eh — nev — eh — er wr — wr — o — te a word of 
 it, sir !" stammered Hardhead, averting his countenance, 
 and trying to conceal the guilt, which, although denied in 
 words, confessed itself involuntarily in the muscles of his 
 face. Hypocrasy controls no ather member of the body so 
 well as it does the tongue. 
 
 " It will require something more than a mere denial to- 
 refute this testimony," said the president, sternly." 
 
THE TEST OP LOYALTY. 155 
 
 The treasonable letters were now compared with certain 
 military documents written by Ninnie, and the handwriting 
 was found to be identical. 
 
 Who can pity the cowardly villain as the president orders 
 him to be stripped of the insignia of his rank, and placed 
 in confinement? 
 
 "3/y revenge!" said Dora, to the miserable traitor, as he 
 passed her, led by a blue jacket, on his way to jail. His 
 only reply was a fiendish frown, accompanied by an attempt 
 at a defiant grunt. 
 
 "There, now," whispered Dora, to herself, as she neared 
 the court-room door to watch his passage down stairs, "if 
 €feorge does have to die, you shall partly pay for it." 
 
 " Miss Clinton will please remain a moment," requested 
 the president, and Dora turned and approached his honor. 
 
 " These letters," continued he, " throw a new light upon 
 your unfortunate brother's case. The time fixed for his 
 execution is a week from to-morrow. What you have just 
 furnished us shall be immediately communicated to the 
 Government, and the President may pardon." 
 
 "Thank you ! thank you !" exclaimed Dora, in heartfelt 
 earnestness, while tears of gratitude, more eloquent than 
 words, stood in her eyes. 
 
 " Oh, if poor George's life can only be saved," mur- 
 mured she, taking her leave, and descending to the street, 
 " he may, in time, at least partially wipe this foul stain 
 from his character." 
 
 Stepping out on the pavement, she found that her friends 
 had all gone. The excitement of the past two hours had 
 obliterated time so far as her perceptives were concerned, 
 and she had not the least idea how long her kin had 
 awaited her appearance. 
 
 " Well, I must find them," said she. " The news is too 
 
156 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 good to keep." And she went tripping along the street, 
 with a heart much lighter than when she entered the court- 
 martial, peeping inquisitively into every trading house she 
 passed. 
 
 "Ah, here they are," she said, turning into a retail dry- 
 goods establishment. 
 
 "Well, and what about the trial?" eagerly inquired 
 3Irs. Clinton, monopolizing Dora's attention. The question 
 was answered by a full account of all the incidents attend- 
 ing the visit to the court-martial. 
 
 The intelligence was not so gratifying to the distressed 
 mother as it might have been, but fully as favorable as she 
 expected. A week's time, Ninnie's letters, Dora's vigilance 
 and industry — which elements in her daughter's character, 
 Mrs. Clinton had learned to prize very highly — might effect 
 much, and a ray of hope — the anchor of life — penetrated 
 the agloomed soul of the frail old woman. 
 
 A little time spent in shopping, and then a visit to 
 George, who was overjoyed to hear of young Hardhead's 
 arrest and imprisonment, and the Truemans and Clintons 
 were on their way home, some doubting, some hoping, 
 some speculating, but Dora thinking, scheming. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A DARK FORENOON — A BRIGHT AFTERNOON. 
 
 "The last day, and still no pardon," murmured Dora, 
 despondently, as she threw on her summer shawl and 
 started for her horse, which stood* ready at the gate, to 
 carry her to her uncle's. 
 
 "Bill, you must do your best pacing this morning," she 
 said, vaulting into the saddle, and taking up the reins. 
 
 "How many times have I and George walked this road to 
 school." 
 
 And even the very pebbles seemed eloquent with the 
 familiar stories of the days of childhood and innocence, 
 as her favorite horse carried her easily, swiftly toward 
 Trueman's residence. 
 
 "Oh, that we were now as we were then!" Dora ex- 
 claimed, glancing at the tall trees which lined the road 
 sides, bearing their green foliage toward Heaven as a mead 
 of praise to the God of Nature. 
 
 But the imposing scenery of her childhood's haunts has 
 few attractions for her this morning. This is the last day 
 pending the time appointed for George's execution. For 
 BGven long days she has indulged the hope of. a reprieve; 
 and scarcely a day of that time has passed that she has 
 not visited her condemned brother in his gloomy confines, 
 cheering, comforting, encouraging. And the thought that 
 
 (157) 
 
158 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 the remote star which had, during this period of anxious 
 Ruspense, penetrated, with its faint light, George's dark 
 cell abode, uiight before the setting of the sun, be forever 
 obscured by the impenetrable mists of death, was not to 
 be dissipated by any attraction, either natural or artificial. 
 
 Day by day had the deliverance been expected. Hour 
 bj hour had Dora labored and hoped for its accomplish- 
 ment. Persons sustaining the most influential relatiocB 
 to the President had been implored to intercede. They 
 had promised to make their best eflforts in the prisoner's 
 behalf. But death, horrible, ghastly, dishonorable, now 
 stood upon the very threshold, and all efforts to save the 
 victimized deserter seamed, thus far, fruitless. 
 
 Flying along the road, absorbed in reflections sad, appre- 
 hensious, gloomy, Dora soon arrived at Trueman's and was 
 met at the gate by her loved cousins, Louie and Jennie, who 
 broke to her the unexpected intelligence that her Uncle 
 John and Cousin Albert had just come home on a fur- 
 lough for three weeks. 
 
 •'Please tell them to come out. I can stay but a minute. 
 Business now." 
 
 "Won't you come in?" 
 
 "No, no, — too much to be done to-day." And Dora's 
 horse, apparently partaking of her restless spirit, headed 
 toward the city. 
 
 The cousins insisted no further, knowing that this day 
 decided the fate of one in whom centered all Dora's hopes 
 and affections. 
 
 "Did you ever see a sister so devoted?" Jennie said to 
 Louie, as they hastened toward the house. 
 
 They were absent but a few minutes, when they returned, 
 accompanied by the battle-scarred father and gallant 
 brother, who greeted Dora warmly. She was happy and 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY, 
 
 159 
 
 yet ashamed to see them— happy to know that they had 
 escaped all the dangers of the bloody gauntlet they had 
 run, and ashanw-l because, instead of sharing with them 
 the 'laurels awarded the heroes of Vicksburg, her brother 
 was then in the loathsome dungoon awaiting the deserter's 
 
 doom. 
 
 Trueman, observing her embarrassment, sought to re- 
 move it, not by avoiding any allusion to its cause, but by 
 a manifestation of that liberal sympathy which, while it 
 condemns sin, loves the sinner; for he knew too well the 
 human heart to indorse the popular error that a cold non- 
 recognition of its wounds, heals them; and taking her 
 aside, he said: 
 
 "Dora, I understand you have presented the Government 
 Bome letters written George by his destroyer." 
 
 "I have." 
 
 "Well, I have a stray one of the same batch," — drawing 
 from his side pocket a rumpled buff envelope, postmarked 
 ^'Indianapolis," containing another of those potent wit- 
 nesses against the treacherous Ninnie. 
 
 "The best of them all!" exclaimed Dora, after a hasty 
 perusal. "See, it says: 'George, your love of the Union 
 is thrown away on a rotten Administration. What does 
 Lincoln— what does his shoulder-strapped curs care Tor 
 you?' Murderous composition, that, but powerful evi- 
 dence. . Too late, though, I'm afraid, to do George much 
 good, uncle." 
 
 "Don't give up yet; may be I can do something." 
 
 "0, if you will, uncle!" said Dora, looking imploringly 
 at Captain Trueman. 
 
 "You are for town?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 '*Ned, bring out Jack." 
 
160 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 The command was speedily obeyed, and soon the captain 
 and Dora were galloping toward Indianapolis. 
 
 "Where do you propose to go, uncle?" asked the latter, 
 as they entered the city. 
 
 "At once to General Clarendon," replied the captain, 
 urging his horse forward. ''lie is commander of the 
 post; and from my acquaintance with him, I take him to 
 be an officer of very approachable and generous charac- 
 ter." 
 
 Proceeding directly to headquarters, Trueman inquired 
 for the General. 
 
 "He is at the jail," replied a clerk standing in the office 
 door. 
 
 "At the jail!" and the captain and his niece wheeled, 
 hurried to George's place of confinement, and were soon in 
 conference with the post commander. 
 
 "Yes," said the general, folding a letter just handed 
 him by Trueman, "Captain, this is sufficient, if anything 
 further were needed, to convict Hardhead. And it goes 
 still further to show how much young Clinton is the victim 
 of copperhead influence. Poor fellow." 
 
 "0, General!" said Dora, beseechingly, "can anything 
 be done yet to save brother?" 
 
 "It isn't too late to try," replied the general, hastily 
 adjusting his cap. "A pardon is the only chance. I'll 
 telegraph at once," — hurrying from the jail. 
 
 "General Clarendon will do something if anything can 
 be done," said Trueman, encouragingly to Dora. 
 
 "Yes, I believe that, uncle." And Dora's eyes told that 
 a new hope had taken possession of her soul. 
 
 Conceiving that they could do nothing further, she now 
 proposed a visit to George, and the captain assenting, made 
 
TUE TEST 07 LOYALTT. 161 
 
 immediate application to the jailor for admission to the 
 prisoner's cell. 
 
 "lie is not in his cell," said the turnkey. "He is in 
 that room," pointing to a doo^r leading into one of the 
 «.heritT"s apartments, adjoining the jail. 
 
 Admitted to the room designated, Dora and her uncle 
 ound George surrounded by army chaplains and numerous 
 vepresentatives of the city clergy, who were laboring zeal- 
 ously, earnestly to prepare his soul for eternity. Deeply 
 adtated in view of his approaching dissolution, despondent 
 of obtaining forgiveness, his heart chilled with gloomy 
 anticipations of the future, imagine his feelings in that 
 most unhappy moment, upon beholding his noble-hearted 
 uncle, whose loyalty had stood the test of the East Tennes- 
 see furnace, whose blood had stained the soil of rebeldom, 
 whose vast wealth had all been sacrificed upon freedom^s 
 altar, whose brow was crowned with the fresh laurels of 
 the nations proudest victories, standing before him. 
 
 "Why, George, how — " 
 
 "No! no! uncle, this is not George," replied the poor 
 boy, sobbing bitterly, and reluctantly extending his hand. 
 "This is the miserable deserter,'' in tones that would have 
 rended the heart of a flint. 
 
 "Could you be spared, would you atone for this?" asked 
 Trueman, tenderly. 
 
 "Atone!" responded George, while the life-inspiring in- 
 fluence of the word sent the blood from his depressed heart 
 thrilling along every artery, and brought him to his feet, 
 erect. "If toil, if devotion to my country, if every drop 
 of blood in my body will atone, I will make the atone- 
 ment." 
 
 "His eye looks as it used to upon going into battle,' 
 whispered Trueman to Dora. 
 11 
 
162 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 Trucman's words seemed fall of promise to George, and 
 yet, so frequently had he been disappointed that he would 
 not allow himself to build too much hope upon them. But, 
 still, he could not but wish that all which might be inferred 
 from his uncle's question might be realized. And why 
 should he not have thus wished? Life is dear, even to 
 those who stand upon the very out boundary of time, and 
 it may reasonably be supposed to be doubly dear to those 
 who have scarcely passed the morning of their existence. 
 George was young, vigorous, hopeful, ambitious; had 
 scarcely tasted the sweets of life ere it seemed that death 
 had knocked at his chamber door and demanded entrance. 
 With talents above the average, fair education and an 
 almost exhaustless fund of energy, what lacked he but 
 time and experience to give real existence to at least a por- 
 tion of the air castles of his boyhood ? 
 
 But it was not so much the prospect of a premature as 
 that of a dishonorable death, which had chilled George's 
 heart and filled his soul with gloomy forebodings. Not- 
 withstanding all the efi"orts of his clerical attendants, his 
 own self-humiliation and repentance during that dark 
 morning, still it had been impossible, thus far, for him to 
 get his own consent to die. The crime he had committed 
 appeared to him unpardonable. He was orthodox enough 
 to conceive of the possibility of the forgiveness of any 
 other sin than that of desertion. Happy had it been for 
 him had he thus reflected ere he had taken the step so 
 fatal to his conscience, to his honor. 
 
 How anxiously did he await some further development 
 of the promise to which that one encouraging sentence 
 had given rise. How earnestly did he wish that Trueman's 
 next utterances might fan into a glowinor flame the embers 
 
 O DO 
 
 of hope from which his first words had blown the ashes. 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 163 
 
 But Trueinan was silent — all were silent, and a deathlike 
 stillness pervaded the room. 
 
 There was another in the same apartment whose sus- 
 pense was equally agonizing with George's, and that was 
 Dora. 
 
 Time with her dragged along at a miserably slow rate. 
 Seconds were hours, minutes were weeks, hours were ages, 
 and still the general did not appear, nor other person 
 in his stead. It would not do to tell George what the 
 general had promised; for his mental torture was already 
 suflficient without having it intensified by the most bitter 
 disappointment conceivable. "Oh, that he would come," 
 is the burden of Dora's every sigh, as, with abstractly mov- 
 ing lips, she turns her anxious eyes, anon, to the clock. 
 
 The same unutterable uneasiness, in a greater or less 
 degree, pervades every soul present, and those who would 
 essay to break the miserable silence, find their lips chained, 
 their tongues spell-bound; and thus minutes, hours wear 
 heavily away, when a rumbling noise is heard at the door, 
 which, suddenly and uncerimoniously swinging open, an 
 officer enters the room and demands the prisoner. His 
 cold look and stern request, startle the company, and strike 
 terror to George and his friends. 
 
 "What, has the hour come?" tremblingly asked Dora. 
 
 "For his execution? yes," replied the officer, asking and 
 answering the question in the same breath. 
 
 "And no relief!" cried Dora, and her heart-rending sobs 
 agonized every soul. 
 
 "It must be so, sister," said George in sepulchral tones. 
 "I have contracted the debt, / must pay it," voluntarily 
 giving himself up to the officer. 
 
 With the first temporary shock passed away all George's 
 dread of the execution, and strengthened in every sinew 
 
164 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 bv the consciousness that he had repented his errors and 
 was now about to pay the full penalty of his crime, he 
 stepped forward toward the cab which was waiting to carry 
 him to the dark valley, with a firmness and dignity which 
 commanded the admiration of every observer. 
 
 And now he enters the little black chamber upon wheels — 
 the officer by his side — the door is closed and locked, the 
 driver cracks his whip — the key note to the discordent, 
 excrutiating dirge now to be wrung from Dora's heart- 
 strings by the bony fingers of despair — and at a rapid rate 
 tl>e self-condemned deserter is rolling toward the gveen- 
 turfed death bed of the ill-fated Gay. 
 
 Dora, with the small remnant of energy based upon the 
 slender hope that, ere the fatal command "Fire," shall be 
 given, the reprieve may _come, has rallied sufficiently to 
 accompany her uncle in a carriage — which, with instinctive 
 tact, he has obtained in exchange for Jack and Bill — and 
 is following close- in the rear of the black cab. 
 
 Extending back the distance of several squares is a pro- 
 miscuous train of attendants — soldiers mounted, on foot; 
 citizens, old^ young, middle-aged; lads, lasses, children; all 
 bending forward with eager, yet gloomy curiosity to wit- 
 ness the closing scene in a great tragedy, whose leading 
 characters were the Southern sympathizers of the Hoosier 
 State. 
 
 The cab hurries on, and only the carriages and horsemen 
 are able to keep pace; but the pedestrians, bound by the 
 strange spell of a desire to hear the death groans of this 
 unfortunate boy, press anxiously onward. No happy face, 
 nor cheery laugh, nor sunny smile may be observed any 
 where throughout the entire length of that immense train. 
 But, all along its whole extent, over every human soul, is 
 spread the black wing of the angel of death, shutting the 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 165 
 
 light of the sun of joy out of every heart. The cab stops; 
 George steps out, in the midst of a suburban forest; he 
 sees his coffin — a plain, black box in the shade of a spread- 
 ing oak; with alacrity he obeys the order to take his seat 
 upon it; a few preliminaries, and he is asked if he has any 
 thing to say to the assembled multitude. "Yes!" is the 
 laconic reply, and he mounts his coffin — which, in the 
 cause of his country, would have been a throne of glory, 
 but which, in the cause of treason, is the death'bed of 
 honor — and says : 
 
 "Friends and countrymen: my words shall be few. I 
 was a soldier; I loved my country; I fought in many hard 
 battles; I helped to win victories; I was honored. I lis- 
 tened to Northern traitors; I learned to hate the Govern- 
 ment; I deserted the army; I die a dishonorable death. 
 Take warning, young men!" 
 
 He resumes his seat; a file of soldiers with loaded muskets 
 form in his front, while a black cap is drawn over his head 
 and face. "We turn to look at the assemblage; no dry eyes 
 are to be seen; even the hardy veterans who, with minnie 
 balls, are to sever the cord which unites soul and body, are 
 moved to tears, and we hear one of them say: "I fought 
 with that fellow at Laurel Hill. A braver boy never 
 shouldered a musket." We turn our eyes upward. The 
 heavens are draped in black, and the massive green heads 
 of the forest giants seem bowed in the spirit of mourning, 
 while a heavy breeze is playing a melancholy requiem 
 among their drooping boughs. We think of Dora. Where 
 is she? Yonder, lying under a maple, her head resting 
 upon her uncle's lap. Has she swooned? The brisk 
 movement of fans and, the frequent application of cold 
 water to her brow, reply. Poor girl ! She has schemed 
 and toiled day and night to save her brother; but death, 
 
166 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 grim, unrelenting, has now placed himself between hej 
 and him, and hope has fled. 
 
 Hark! The low command: "Make ready! — Aim!"' And 
 twenty muskets are leveled at George. 
 
 "Hold!" cries a voice, whose tones ring through the 
 grand old forest like the notes of a silver trumpet, and 
 turn a thousand eyes toward the place whence they proceed, 
 
 "Hold!" And a rider, mounted on a foaming steed, 
 dashes between the muzzles of the muskets and the de- 
 serter, and hands the executing officer a paper. 
 
 The officer commands an "order arms," opens and reads. 
 He folds it, and turning to our hero, says: "George 
 Clinton: the high crime you have committed against the 
 military laws of the United States, is pardoned by the 
 President! Go, and sin no more." 
 
 "Huzza!" goes up from a thousand throats at once; and 
 as the glad news runs from group to group, caps and hats 
 by the hundred rise in the air, and the heavens ring with 
 shouts of rejoicing. Meanwhile George's cap has been re- 
 moved, and he and Dora stand in sweet embrace, while 
 tears of sympathetic joy are watering the taivned cheeks 
 ©'f the noble uncle, who, with head bared, is giving thanks 
 to the Common Father. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE SONS OF LIBERTY. 
 
 "Have you heard the news, father?" asked Dora Clinton^ 
 approaching her parents as they sat together in the family 
 sitting room, quietly talking over some of their domestic 
 affairs. 
 
 "What news?" 
 
 "Why, the exposure of the Sons of Liberty," and Dora 
 drew from her pocket a copy of a morning paper, and, 
 seating herself, read an extended exposition of the treason- 
 able organization to which she had called her father's 
 attention. 
 
 "W^hat in the world does this mean?" exclaimed Mr. 
 Clinton, taken completely by surprise. 
 
 "In the name o' sense! don't that beat the beater?" said 
 Mrs. Clinton. "Jist look at the names — Venom, Hard- 
 head, Dodge, Skulker, Eiskall, Trotter, Truckler, — wy, ole 
 man, I'm afeared the thing'll swaller up the whole Dimo- 
 cratic party." 
 
 "Is that report reliable, though?" inquired the old gen- 
 tleman. 
 
 "It ought to be," replied Dora. "It comes from Gene- 
 ral Clarendon." 
 
 "Is that so? Well, all I have to say is, that if the 
 leaders af my o-ld party are running into that, we may bid 
 
 (167) 
 
168 THE TEST O'P LOYALTY. 
 
 good-bye to Democracy," and a cloud of shame gathered 
 upon Mr. Clinton's brow. 
 
 Until now he had had no authentic evidence of the trea- 
 sonable character of the men who composed the head and 
 front of the Democratic party. They had only talked to 
 him of the tyrany of the Abolition Administration; of 
 illegal military arrests, unconstitutional measures, viola- 
 tion of State and personal rights, the suspension of the 
 writ of habeas corj^us, the heineousness of the emancipation 
 proclamation, etc. Long as the traitorous conspiritors had 
 worked upon him, they had never entrusted him with any 
 of their secrets; for they were well assured, in their own 
 minds, that to unbosom their destructive designs to him 
 would be to disgust him with the party, and drive hira 
 from it. They were satisfied to revive and strengthen, by 
 their assiduous efforts, his old prejiidices against Aboli- 
 tionism, and thereby to secure his vote against the prosecu- 
 tion of the war for the Union. In the meantime, so con- 
 stantly had they assured him that their only object was to 
 purify the Government, and that they entertained no such 
 idea as the acknowledgment of the independence of the 
 seceded States; that they were for the Union and the whole 
 Union: that it was not a change of Government, but a 
 change of policy they desired — so persistently had they 
 labored in impressing Mr. Clinton with these notions that 
 h? had come to believe his party one of the purest that 
 hnd ever figured in political history. 
 
 Clinton had not, with all his Democratic prejudices, a 
 single element of the traitor in his heart: and so perfectly 
 confiding was he that he had, notwithstanding their palpa- 
 ble inconsistencies, been wholly unable to observe anything 
 radically wrong or treasonable in the Democratic leaders 
 of 1862 and 1863. The tact, the assiduity of disappointed 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 169 
 
 politicians, the ingenious sophistry of Democratic news- 
 papers, had succeeded in convincing him that the great 
 object of the war was the abolition of slavery; that the 
 Emancipation Proclamation had divided the North, united 
 the South, and that the restoration of the Democracy to 
 power was the only hope for the salvation of the country. 
 So fixed, in fact, had become these convictions, that even 
 the treacherous worliings of the Southern sympathizers to 
 induce his son's desertion, had not caused him to suspicion 
 his party. All the villainous schemes and efforts of young 
 Hardhead were, in his estimation, traceable only to 
 wounded personal pride and the revengeful spirit arising 
 therefrom. 
 
 Hence, it was not with the greatest readiness that he 
 could receive the exposition of the Sons of Liberty as 
 authentic and reliable. And more especially was it diflS- 
 cult for him to believe this a correct report on account of 
 its coming through what he regarded as an abolition paper. 
 
 How wonderfully subservient are all the faculties of the 
 human mind to prejudice. 
 
 The fact, however, that General Clarendon's name was 
 appended to this exposure, was sufScient to set Mr. Clin- 
 ton to thinking, doubting, and he resolved to investigate 
 the matter. The general's noble intercession in his son's 
 behalf had inspired him with a very high opinion of that 
 officer — for there is one direct road through a father's pre- 
 judices, however strong, to his heart — and that lies through 
 the heart of his child — and he determined to see the 
 general in^ person, and obtain from him a personal 
 confirmation of the published report. And so feverish 
 had grown his curiosity while Dora was reading that he 
 resolved to w.iste no time in carrying out his resolution. 
 
170 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 "Old woman, I'm going to town," said he. rising and 
 calling for his Sunday coat and vest. 
 
 "What, right away, ole man?' 
 
 "Yes, right away. Do you want to go along?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Do you, Dora?" 
 
 "I believe not, father." 
 
 "Then you may tell Dick to bring out one of the old 
 horses." 
 
 The horse was soon produced, and Mr. Clinton, excited 
 by his anxiety to obtain a more definite knowledge of the 
 Sons of Liberty, made more than usual haste to the city. 
 Arriving there at an early hour in the forenoon, the first 
 man he met was Hardhead, who seemed unusually glad to 
 see him, and taking him aside, began talking to him at 
 once about the exposure of the treasonable organization, 
 admitting that there was such an order, but that its only 
 object was the defense of the ballot box — the securing of a 
 fair election. 
 
 "Why," said Clinton, after listening to Hardhead for 
 some time, "we have always had a fair election out our 
 way. Our township, at the last two elections, polled strong 
 Democratic majorities, and nobody was prevented from 
 casting a legal vote." 
 
 "Yes, but it is difi"erent here, and in some other places. 
 The Governor employs the military here to control the 
 elections — has the soldiers to vote (although its unconsti- 
 tutional) and drives Democrats from the polls." 
 
 '• Well, now, I have never heard of any man being driv^en 
 from the polls who behaved himself, Hardhead. I know 
 that Dr. Blatherskite and a few others like him have been 
 pretty roughly handled; but I have no doubt they could 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 171 
 
 have voted without any trouble if they had kept their 
 foolish mouths shut. Don't you think so?" 
 
 "Well, I don't know, Clinton. But then, look how the 
 elections have been managed in Kentucky. Maryland, and 
 Missouri." 
 
 Clinton saw that Hardhead was foiled by his simple, 
 strright-forward statement of facts, and that, together with 
 the admission that there did exist such an organization as the 
 Sons of Liberty, tended to shake his faith in Democracy more 
 than anything he had ever met. In fact, so shocked was he 
 with Hardhead's confession and attempts to apologize for 
 the existence of treason in his party, that he could not 
 endure the idea of perpetuating the conversation, and with 
 a hasty good morning, left Hardhead and went elsewhere 
 in search of information. Passing up Main street, he met 
 a number of Democrats, and out of some dozens, he only 
 found three who were not ashamed to acknowledge any 
 sympathy or affiliation with the Sons of Liberty. Drop- 
 ping into a grocery store he picked up a copy of the chief 
 Democratic organ of Indiana. Although it was a late 
 paper, it bore the appearance of considerable wear. It 
 had evidently been much handled. The very first article 
 that attracted his attention was an editorial headed, "The 
 Exposure of the Sons of Liberty." 
 
 '■'Now," soliloquized he, in low tones, "we'll hear from 
 the other side authoritatively." 
 
 And adjusting his spectacles he bent himself eagerly 
 to the task of reading. He had not read half the first 
 column when he stopped and abstractly exclaimed: 
 
 "My God! Can it be true?" while the quivering sheet 
 he held in his hand told how intense was the indignation 
 which burned within him. Besting a moment, as if to 
 gain composure, he resumed his task. As he approached 
 
172 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 the closing lines, the dark frown Trhich sat upon his 
 wrinkled brow, the keen flashings of an eye which had 
 lost little of its youthful fire by the nietamorphising effects 
 of time, told in language which tongue could not utter, 
 the outraged character of his feelings. 
 
 "Shocking! shocking! abominable!" he murmured to 
 himself, throwing the paper upon the counter, and moving 
 nervously out upon the sidewalk. "That's enough for 
 me. No use to go any further. The editor not only owns 
 up the existence of the 'Sons of Liberty,' but boasts of 
 their number and power; and winds up by pompously 
 exhorting them ^ to arms;' says the day has 'come for 
 daring deeds' May God save me and my neighbors when 
 those daring deeds commence. Sons of Liberty — heavens! 
 how much is that word disgraced, since devils use it for 
 their name." 
 
 And Mr. Clinton walked with more than usual uimble- 
 ness, in the direction of his horse. Two hours from this 
 time found him at home relating to his wife and Dora the 
 results of his forenoon's investigation. 
 
 "There haint no doubt about there a bein sich a thing 
 as you say, ole man?" asked 3Irs. Clinton, drawing up her 
 eyebrows and looking very inquiringly at her husband. 
 
 "No doubt, at all. I tell you the editor owns it, and 
 calls on the Sons of Liberty to rise.'' 
 
 "Yes, and suppose they do rise, father," said Dora, 
 "what will become of your property, and everybody else's? 
 AVould anybody or anything be safe? Don't the fools 
 know they propose a game at which two can play? But 
 there is no danger of their rising. They are not of the 
 rising kind — but, by the way, what do you think of De- 
 mocracy now, father?" 
 
TUE TEST OF LOYALTY. 173 
 
 "Oh! don't talk to me about Domocracy. There is 
 none of it any more." 
 
 That's so, ole man. It's played out, as the boys say," 
 replied Mrs. Clinton. 
 
 Dora remained silent Tvhile her parents continued the 
 conversation, noting with a high degree of pleasure, the 
 effects of the steam system of political medication as 
 adopted by her in the cure of her father's chronic disease. 
 She saw that the time was rapidly approaching when he 
 would see, as she had long seen, that the Democratic party 
 was under the control and management of traitors; that 
 those who superintended the working of its machinery were 
 directing the party against the Government; that those 
 who were opposing the Administration and crying peace 
 were the Union's worst enemies, Jeff. Davis' best friends. 
 The exposure of the Sons of Liberty did not surprise her. 
 She had long been satisfied of the existence of such an 
 organization, but had made very little effort to convince 
 her father of it, because she knew the scales of his party 
 prejudice had been too frequently inlaid by industrious 
 demagogues to allow of his admitting the possibility of 
 the Democratic party's being tainted with treason. But 
 now, that the disloyal schemes of the leading politicians 
 of the State's rights school had been authenticly exposed, 
 and that the most influential of these politicians had openly 
 acknowledged their guilt and boastfully defied the Gov- 
 ernment, she could but rejoice within herself, that such 
 developments promised the speedy deliveran.ce of her 
 father. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE PLOT DISCOVERED — THE CONVERSION. 
 
 It was a gloomy Sunday afternoon. The sun's light was 
 obscured by low, heavy clouds, from which was continually 
 falling one of those chilling mists, which impart to all 
 nature the aspect of melancholy. 
 
 The Clintons had attended church in the capital, at 
 which place, meeting the Trueman family, they had accom- 
 panied the latter home, where all were seated together in 
 the family setting room, busily engaged in conversation. 
 
 '* How many boxes did you say, brother Ingram?" asked 
 Mrs. Trueman, in a manner which denoted the most pro- 
 found interest. 
 
 "Over thirty, containing revolvers and fixed ammunition." 
 
 "And where did you say they were found?" 
 
 •'At Skulker's job printing office — some of them marked 
 type, others, books, &c," 
 
 "Who told you this?" 
 
 "One of the boys that works in the office." 
 
 "Is any body arrested?" 
 
 "Nearly everybody but the right ones, it seems. Two 
 or three who proved themselves clear of having any hand 
 in the matter, have been released, while Skulker can't be 
 found. The young man who told me, said the entire office 
 was under guard, and that some of the soldiers had made 
 (174) 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 175 
 
 a raid through some of the back rooms and had captured 
 a vest and plug of tobacco belonging to him." 
 
 "Pshaw! what's a plug of tobacco?" interrupted Dora. 
 
 "You never mind. Let me tell it my own way. As I 
 was about to say, the young man seemed considerably ag- 
 grieved over his loss, and said he was glad that the office 
 would soon change hands, so as to take it entirely out of 
 politics." 
 
 ••But, what was the object of this secret deposit of 
 arms?" asked Mrs, Trueman. 
 
 "To resist the draft. At least, that's the general im- 
 pression." 
 
 "What do you think of it?" 
 
 "Why, I think it's devilish. That's about all the way 
 I can express it." 
 
 "Then you don't go with your party when it comes to a 
 thing of that kind?" 
 
 "My party! Do you mean the Democratic party ?'^ - 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " There is no such party any more. No, I have not left 
 my party. My party have left me and every other honest 
 man, and formed a league with Jeflf. Davis and the Devil. 
 The ritual of the Sons of Liberty is enough to satisfy any 
 body of that — 'A republic upon the basis of color and 
 grades of civilization. Resistance to tyrants not only a 
 right but a duty." 
 
 "Why, brother, I'm afraid you'll get to be an Abolitionist 
 if you don't look out," said Mrs. Trueman, jokingly. 
 
 " Call me Abolitionist, or what you please. I am any 
 thing but a traitor." And Clinton lapsed into a silence 
 which indicated that he did not enjoy Mrs. Trueman's sally 
 as well as she had intended he should. 
 
 The truth is, Clinton had been for some days in anything 
 
176 THE TEST OF UOYALTY. 
 
 but a happy mood. It wa> txtrerae' y iiU;itirylM;r to him 
 to know that his old party, so illustrious in ihe liij^tory of 
 the past, so thoroughly identified v.ith the gro\Yth and 
 development of the country had, during the nations great- 
 est, most trying struggle for its own existence, passed into 
 the hands of men who had converted it into an eneni}' to 
 liberty and law. Naturally enthusiastic and adhesive, he 
 had been most devotedly attached to Democracy. There 
 was, to him, a charm in the very name. He had voted for 
 ^11 the Democratic presidents; had come to believe that the 
 only policy upon which a republic could be safely based 
 was that of his party. Under these circumstances it was 
 but natural that he should experience a melancholy regret 
 in beholding the death o<f Democracy, somewhat akin to 
 the sorrow we feel in giving up a very dear friend. The 
 discovery and capture of secreted arms and ammunition, 
 had fully confirmed all that had been said of the designs 
 of the Sons of Liberty, and exhibited a degree of fiendish 
 hazzard of which he did not think them capable. That 
 they had the control and management of the Democratic 
 party, there was not in his mind the least doubt; that their 
 intention was to inaugerate civil war in the North, and in- 
 volve every Democrat in it, there could no longer be any 
 doubt. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the woeful degeneracy of the Dem- 
 ocratic party and Clinton's abhorence of the treasonable 
 schemes of its leaders, and, notwithstanding his fixed de- 
 termination to identify himself no longer with that party, 
 there was something about the word Abolitionist which he 
 could not very well relish. Without any accurate knowl- 
 edge of the true meaning of that word, he had for years 
 regarded it as expressive of all that is corrupt and damna- 
 ble in politics. Such had be«n the number and variety of 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 177 
 
 dark, repugnent interpretations given of it to him through 
 Democratic mediums, that its very sound conveyed to his 
 mind anything but agreeable sensations. 
 
 Dora, who sat an attentive listener during the conver- 
 sation which passed between her father and aunt, was 
 thoroughly acqujiinted with the former's feelings touching 
 this matter. She had been an eye and ear witness to the 
 mental throes which his renunciation of Democracy had 
 cost him. She knew that, although he was effectually 
 alienated from his old party, there had not yet elapsed 
 sufficient time for him to form any new attachments — that 
 while he was certainly no longer a Democrat, of the modern 
 school, he was not yet a good Abolitionist. She knew that 
 her father was not a man who would humble his pride by 
 seeking an immediate change of heart at a political mourn- 
 ers' bench, and that considerable time and reflection would 
 be required to produce, in his case, a sound and thorough 
 coversion to Abolitionism. She had seen her father through 
 two or three changes during the progress of the war, and 
 had noticed that those peculiar democratic prejudices 
 against interfering with slavery, had adhered to him with 
 remarkable tenacity, under almost all circumstances. She 
 also knew that he was a man who would not endure too 
 much persuasion, nor the smallest amount of twitting; that 
 the most successful method of modifying or of removing 
 any erroneous opinions entertained by him, was simply to 
 present him with facts and allow him time to digest them ; 
 that the surest plan by which to impress him favorably 
 with any theory, either new or repugnant to him, was to 
 furnish him with the facilities for free investigation. She 
 had witnessed, with pleasure, the happy change produced 
 in him by recent developments, and was exceedingly 
 anxious that the course his mind had voluntarily taken in 
 12 
 
178 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 the direction of political progress, should not be inter- 
 rnpted by any nnfavorable influences. Hence she resolved, 
 upon her father's temporary withdrawal from the conver- 
 sational arena, to engage her aunt in his stead. 
 
 "Father is not exactly an Abolitionist, aunt; but be 
 knows that these fellows who have been, from time to time, 
 meeting in secret conclaves and purchasing arms in such 
 quantities, and under such circumstances as they have, 
 must be traitors, actively engaged against the Government." 
 
 "And, in that opinion, he is certainly right, Dora. But, 
 from what he said concerning the ritual of the Sons of 
 Liberty, I supposed he had become a real Abolitionist, 
 and was disposed to joke him a little about it." 
 
 "Father never was really a lover of slavery. You see, 
 he understands the ritual to say in substance that its framers 
 are in favor of establishing a new government with slavery 
 in every State of the Union." 
 
 "Ah! that way." 
 
 "Yes. Father was never so much of a pro-slavery man 
 as to want to live in a slave State, or to own negroes, but 
 he was always opposed to interfering with the institution 
 in States where it legally existed." 
 
 "Well, that is liberal, I'm sure. But, then, I'm think- 
 ing he'll see yet, what experience has forced me to believe, 
 against my inclinations, that slavery and liberty can not 
 dwell together in harmony in a republic; that either slavery 
 or the Government must perish. If the institution has 
 made traitors in the North, among men who have no real 
 interest in it, what may you expect of it in the South, 
 among those who have brought this war upon the country 
 solely on its account?" 
 
 This last remark of Mrs. Trueman's, struck Mr. Clinton 
 as being one of peculiar force — as containing an idea which 
 
THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 1'^^ 
 
 had never occurred to him; and as Dora and ''er auntcon- 
 tinned talking he determined to make th>s new thought a 
 matter of considerable reflection. ■ 
 
 The clock struck two, and the conversation was mter- 
 rupted by the cook's announcing dinner. Sunday d.nne 
 Ire generally late, especially with people who go from the 
 country to chureh in the city. 
 
 The repast over, the Clintons went home, the old gentle- 
 man during the drive, revolving over and over m lus m.n , 
 TheMnt dropped by Mrs. Trueman: "If slavery has made 
 raitts in the^North, among men who have no real ,n teres 
 n it, what may you expect of it in the South, -ong tho^ 
 who have brought the war on the country solely on its 
 rcconnt •• This thought finally led to several others; and 
 tie old carriage moved along, Clinton ^ound hims 1^ 
 mentally, asking and answering questions something like 
 
 '':Wll:tve injured me and my family more than any 
 bodvele. Anti-war men. Who have shown themseve, 
 Lylt friends when I was in trouble? Abolitionists^ 
 Who tried to ruin my son? An antiwar man. Who 
 Tcued my Ly from a dishonorable death? The Abolition 
 
 ^ThusTe'Ltinued musing until the family arrived at 
 home, wheh he seated himself near the jam of his o d^ 
 fashioned fire place, thoroughly convinced in bis own mind 
 rat he rebelfion was radically wrong, that the Govern 
 ment was ri-ht; that slavery is a damning curse, an enemy 
 To" an^d eace; that the war could be ende and the 
 Union permanently restored only upon the Abolition basis^ 
 That the Government must destroy slavery or be destroyed 
 by it. 
 
180 THE TEST OP LOYALTY. 
 
 George Clinton has retrieved his character in more than 
 a score of hard fought battles. The memory of his crime 
 has been obliterated by unflinching fidelity and heroic 
 deeds. He had buried the stigma of deserter amid showers 
 of cannon balls and volleys of musketry. IJe has re- 
 established his reputation for bravery in hazardous charges 
 upon massed columns of bristling bayonets. His gallant 
 services have been rewarded by gradual promotion, and 
 he now occupies the rank of adjutant, and is the idol of 
 his regiment. His heroic sister rejoices in his redemption 
 and the discomfiture of his heartless betrayer, who, strip- 
 ped of his rank, loathed and contemned, occupies private 
 rooms in Fort Lafayette. His brave uncle, no longer the 
 object of his jealousy, is in command of a regiment, while 
 his noble-hearted cousin, Albert, has been commissioned a 
 captain. His aunt and her daughters are happy in their 
 Hoosier home, secure from the devastating tread of South- 
 ern vandals. His father and caother, so vacillating in 
 their views of the great issue, so inconstant in their love 
 of country during the first, second, and part of the third 
 years of the war, have had their eyes opened to the real 
 character and designs of those traitorous party leaders, 
 in whose wake they followed too long, and are soundly con- 
 verted to the Union cause. 
 
 We are sorry to tell the reader that we can not say 
 whether any of the unmarried folks who figured in this 
 work have indulged iu matrimony. 
 
RARE BOOK 
 COLLECTION 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 AT 
 
 CHAPEL HILL 
 
 Wilmer 
 571