ate
whispered once again the tender thoughts of the love that had first come
to her beneath them. She was like a child in her happiness, and every
thought and every impulse was touched by the mystic, magic wand of love.
Few ever know the supreme joy that came to her and none can except they
walk with bleeding hearts and weary feet through the valley of despair,
bearing the burden of a loved one's life.

The first evening she was alone with her father, she came as a child
would, to sit upon his knee, and putting her arms around his neck
whispered:

"Father, I never knew until now what it means to be happy, and how good
and kind you could be to me, and how little it is in my power to pay it
all back. I can only love and care for you as long as I live, or as long
as God spares your life."

And be it said, she kept her promise.

CHAPTER XX.

PLANS FOR HAPPINESS.

Appomattox and a glorious ending of the most sanguinary war in the
history of the nineteenth century had come, and with it a few changes in
Southton.

Only a part of that brave E Company that three years before marched so
proudly away to fight for the Union ever returned, and of those the
greater number bore the scars of war and disease. Very many sorrowing
women and children were scattered through the town, whose hearts were
sore with wounds that only time could heal, and the empty sleeve and the
vacant chair were sad reminders on all sides.

The Rev. Jotham still extended his time-worn orthodox arguments to a
wearisome length, usually concluding them with more or less varied and
vivid pictures of the doom in store for those who failed at once to
repent and believe; but strange to say the sinners who were moved by his
eloquence were few and far between. It was known that he was not in
sympathy with the great majority of the North, or the principles upon
which the war had been fought, but believed in the right of secession,
and that the North was wrong in its political position. Had he kept
these opinions to himself it would have been far wiser; but he made the
mistake of giving utterance to them at a Memorial Day service held in
his church, which expression was so obnoxious to the most of his
audience and such a direct reflection upon the brave men from the town
who had shed their blood for their country that one of the leading men
of Southton arose at the close of Rev. Jotham's remarks and there and
then rebuked him. The affair created quite a