ating heart for the sound of his
voice. Ah, little he dreamed what a tumult he had raised in the heart
of that young being whose imagination had been so stirred by all that
she had read and heard of war, and the part taken in it by their own
young men of Leauvite. That Peter Junior had come home brevetted a
captain for his bravery crowned him with glory. All that day Betty
went about with dreams in her head, and coursing through them was the
voice of the wounded young soldier.

At last, with the slow march of time, came the proclamation of peace,
and the nation so long held prostrate--a giant struggling against
fetters of its own forging, blinded and strangling in its own
blood--reared its head and cried out for the return of Hope, groping
on all sides to gather the divine youth to its arms, when, as a last
blow, dealt by a wanton hand, came the death of Lincoln.

Then it was that the nation recoiled and bowed itself for a time,
beaten and crushed--both North and South--and vultures gathered at the
seat of conflict and tore at its vitals and wrangled over the spoils.
Then it was that they who had sowed discord stooped to reap the
Devil's own harvest,--a woeful, bitter, desperate time, when more
enmity and deep rancor was bred and treasured up for future sorrow
than during all the years of the honest and active strife of the war.

In the very beginning that first news of the firing on Fort Sumter
flew through the North like a tragic cry, and men felt a sense of doom
hanging over the nation. Bertrand Ballard heard it and walked
sorrowfully home to his wife, and sat long with bowed head, brooding
and silent. Neighbor Wilcox heard it, and, leaving his business,
entered his home and called his household together with the servants
and held family worship--a service which it was his custom to hold
only on the Sabbath--and earnestly prayed for the salvation of the
country, and that wisdom might be granted its rulers, after which he
sent his oldest son to fight for the cause. Elder Craigmile heard it,
and consented that his last and only son should enter the ranks and
give his life, if need be, for the saving of the nation. Still,
tempering all this sorrow and anxiety was the chance for action, and
the hope of victory.

But now, in this later time, when the strength of the nation had been
wasted, when victory itself was dark with mourning for sons slain, the
loss of the one wise leader to whom all turned with uplifted hearts