her all that he had to give, or possibly
having some lurking fear of Colonel Starbottle, was so far placated as
to exhibit only the average ingratitude of her species towards a regular
benefactor. She consented to the erection of a small obelisk over her
son's grave, and permitted Corbin to plant a few flowering shrubs,
which he daily visited and took care of. It is said that on one of these
pilgrimages he encountered Miss Julia, apparently on the same errand,
who haughtily retired. It was further alleged, on the authority of one
of Mammy Judy's little niggers, that those two black mourning figures
had been seen at nightfall sitting opposite to each other at the head
and foot of the grave, and "glowerin'" at one another "like two hants."
But when it was asserted on the same authority that their voices had
been later overheard uplifted in some vehement discussion over the grave
of the impassive dead, great curiosity was aroused. Being pressed by
the eager Miss Sally to repeat some words or any words he had heard them
say, the little witness glibly replied, "Marse Linkum" (Lincoln), and
"The Souf," and so, for the time, shipwrecked his testimony. But it was
recalled six months afterwards. It was then that a pleasant spring day
brought madness and enthusiasm to a majority of Pineville, and bated
breath and awe to a few, and it was known with the tidings that the
South had appealed to arms, that among those who had first responded to
the call was Joseph Corbin, an alleged "Union man," who had, however,
volunteered to take that place in her ranks which might HAVE BEEN FILLED
BY THE MAN HE HAD KILLED. And then people forgot all about him.

*****

A year passed. It was the same place; the old familiar outlines of home
and garden and landscape. But seen now, in the choking breathlessness of
haste, in the fitful changing flashes of life and motion around it,
in intervals of sharp suspense or dazed bewilderment, it seemed to be
recognized no longer. Men who had known it all their lives, hurrying to
the front in compact masses, scurrying to the rear in straggling line,
or opening their ranks to let artillery gallop by, stared at it vaguely,
and clattered or scrambled on again. The smoke of a masked battery
in the woods struggled and writhed to free itself from the clinging
treetops behind it, and sank back into a gray encompassing cloud. The
dust thrown up by a column of passing horse poured over the wall in one
long wave, and wh