Part 62 (2/2)
”Thank the good Lord, grandma, they didn't shoot you!”
The sweet old lady was strangely quiet, and her eyes had a queer set look. She bore the strain without a break until they entered the wreck of the stately parlor. She saw the slashed portrait of the Colonel lying on the floor and sank in a heap beside it without a word or sound.
Jennie succeeded at last in obtaining a pa.s.s to New Orleans, consigning the body to Judge Roger Barton. She stepped on board the little steamer absolutely alone. Every servant had gone to the camp of the soldiers or had entered the service of the crowd of marauders who decided to return to Fairview and occupy the house.
Jennie had gone through so much the tired spirit refused to respond to further sensations. She obeyed orders in a dumb mechanical way.
The officers at New Orleans opened her baggage and searched it without ceremony, or the slightest show of interest on her part.
They were administering the ”oath” of loyalty to the United States. She would have to turn Yankee to do this last duty of love. She covered her face with her hands and prayed breathlessly for the boys and for the Confederacy while the words of the oath were mumbled by the officer--
”So help you G.o.d?”
Jennie's only answer was to close her eyes and pray harder.
”So help you G.o.d?” the officer shouted again.
The girl lifted her tear-stained face and nodded, closed her eyes again and prayed.
”Help them, O G.o.d,--my brothers Tom and Jimmie and Billy and d.i.c.k Welford--and--and the man I love--save them and their cause for Jesus'
sake--I don't know what they made me say--I only did it for poor grandpa's sake--I didn't mean it. Forgive me, dear Lord, and save my people!”
The Judge met them with a carriage and hea.r.s.e. He slipped his strong arm around the girl, drew her close and kissed the waving brown hair again and again.
”Dear little sis--you're at home now,” he said softly.
A s.h.i.+ver ran through her figure and she sat bolt upright.
”No, Big Brother,” she answered firmly, ”I'm not. New Orleans is in the hands of the enemy. I'd set it on fire and wipe it from the face of the earth to-morrow if I could sweep old Ben Butler and his men into the bottomless pit with its ashes--”
She paused at the look of pain on his face.
”Except you--dear--you're my brother, always my dear Big Brother and I'll love you forever. What you think right is right--for you. You are for the Union, because you believe it's right. I honor you for being true to your convictions--”
”You can never know what it has cost me--Honey--”
She drew him down and kissed him tenderly.
”Yes, I do know--and it's all right--even if you draw your sword and meet us in battle--you're fighting for the right as G.o.d shows it to you--but I've just one favor to ask--”
”I'll do anything on earth for you I can--you know that--”
She looked at him steadily a moment in silence and spoke in hard cold tones.
”Get me out of New Orleans inside the Confederate lines--anywhere--a guerilla camp--a swamp--anywhere, you understand. I'll find my way to Richmond--”
He pressed her hand in silence and then softly answered:
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