NORTH--PLOTTING EVERYWHERE--OBJECTS OF THE TRAITOROUS
LEAGUE.

"The bay trees in our country are all withered,
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven--
The pale faced moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-looked prophets whisper fearful change,
Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap."
--Shakespeare.

"The loss of little Sarah had spread such a gloom over our household
that I felt a desire to be out at David's farm, away from the house, as
much as possible. Peter also seemed much depressed and showed a great
desire to return to his regiment. On one occasion, when Ham and I
returned in the evening, the conversation drifted in the direction of
the absent ones in the army, and to Harvey, who fell at the battle of
the Gaps. My wife at once alluded to her dream, which seemed to be
preying upon her mind almost constantly. Peter was silent, but I noticed
that he dropped a tear. After a moment he said:

"'Mother, you should not be constantly thinking of your strange dream.
You will become morbid on the subject, unless you drive it from your
mind. There is nothing in it that worrying will or can change. There can
be nothing sure in dreams, and if there is, you can only discover it in
the future. The war will reveal it all to you should there be anything
in it."

"Ham must speak; it was thought by him to be his time.

"'Yes, missus, de wah 'splain it all. Massa Peter and me talk 'bout dat.
No danger come out of dreams, you know.'

"'Why, Ham,' said Aunt Sarah, 'I thought you dreamed about Peter, and
said he was all right. You assured us of it; and you said that you
always knew by your dreams when matters were all right.'

"'Yeas, yeas, missus; but, you see, I be fool on dat. You see, Massa
Peter come back wid a so' foot, shot up putty bad. I got fool on dat
dream. You see, Marfa allers tells me 'bout de dreams. So you see, I
jes' thought I could tell, too. I miss it. Yeas, I miss him dat time.
Marfa, she know, she do. She tell you all 'bout dem when she comed.'

"Then he laughed a regular darky laugh, as I found he was sure to do, if
he concluded he had drawn you off on a 'false scent,' or heard anything
that pleased him.

"Aunt Sarah was relieved. The fact that Ham admitted that he was
humbugged by his own dream seemed to quiet her nerves; so she did not
allude to her dream again for a great while. But I could see plainly
that Peter was very much depressed wheneve