| | 1 | Author: | Holmes
Mary Jane
1825-1907 | Add | | | Title: | Rose Mather  | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The long disputed point as to whether the South
was in earnest or not was settled, and through
the Northern States the tidings flew that Sumter
had fallen and the war had commenced. With the first
gun which boomed across the waters of Charleston bay,
it was ushered in, and they who had cried, “Peace!
peace!” found at last “there was no peace.” Then, and
not till then, did the nation rise from its lethargic slumber
and shake off the delusion with which it had so long
been bound. Political differences were forgotten. Republicans
and Democrats struck the friendly hand, pulse
beat to pulse, heart throbbed to heart, and the watchword
everywhere was, “The Union forever.” Throughout
the length and breadth of the land were true, loyal
hearts, and as at Rhoderic Dhu's command the Highlanders
sprang to view from every clump of heather on
the wild moors of Scotland, so when the war-cry came
up from Sumter our own Highlanders arose, a mighty
host, responsive to the call; some from New England's
templed hills, with hands inured to toil, and hearts as
strong and true as flint; some from the Empire, some
the Keystone State, and others from the prairies of
the distant West. It mattered not what place had given
them birth; it mattered little whether the Green Mountains
of Vermont, the granite hills of New Hampshire, or
the shadowy forests of Wisconsin had sheltered their
childhood's home; united in one cause they rallied round
the Stars and Stripes, and went forth to meet, not a
foreign foe, but alas, to raise a brother's arm against
another brother's arm in that most dreadful of all anarchies,
a national civil war. “Dear Mother: Pray don't think you've seen a ghost when you
recognize my writing. You thought me dead, I suppose, but there's
no such good news as that. I'm bullet-proof, I reckon, or I should
have died in New Orleans last summer when the yellow fever and I
had such a squabble. I was dreadfully sick then, and half wished I
had not run away, for I knew you would feel badly when you heard
how I died with nobody to care for me, and was tumbled into the
ground, head sticking out as likely as any way. I used to talk about
you, old Martha said, and about Rose, too. Dear little Rose. I
actually laid down my pen just now, and laughed aloud as I thought
how she looked when I treated her to those worms; telling her I had
a necklace for her! Didn't she dance and didn't Tom thrash me,
too, till I saw stars! Well, he never struck me a blow amiss, though
I used to think he did. I was a sorry scamp, mother,—the biggest
rascal in Boston. But I've reformed. I have, upon my word, and
you ought to see how the people here smile upon and flatter me, telling
me what a nice chap I am, and all that sort of thing. “My dear Mrs. Mather—I am sure you will pardon the liberty I
am taking. My apology is that I feel so deeply for you, for I understand
just what you are suffering,—understand how wearily the
hours drag on, knowing as you do that with the waning daylight his
step will not be heard just by the door, making in your heart little
throbs of joy, such as no other step can make. I am so sorry for you,
and I had hoped you at least might be spared, but God in his wisdom
has seen fit to order it otherwise, and we know that what He
does is right. Still it is hard to bear,—harder for you than for me,
perhaps, and when this morning I heard the car signal given, I knelt
just where I did when my own husband went away, and asked our
Heavenly Father to bring your Willie back in safety, and, Mrs. Mather,
I am sure He will, for I felt, even then, an answer to my prayer,
—something which said, `It shall be as you ask.' “My dear Mr. Captin Carleton:—I can't help puttin' dear before
your name, you seem so nigh to me since Isaac told how kind you
was to him. I'm nothin' but a shrivelled, dried up widder, fifty odd
years old, but I've got a mother's heart big enough to take you in
with my other boys. I know you are a nice, clever man, but
whether you're a good one, as I call good, I don't know, though bein'
you come from Boston I'm afraid you're a Unitarian, and I'll never
quit prayin' for you till I know. That's about all I can do, for I'm
poor a'most as Job's turkey; but if there's any shirts or trouses, or the
like o' that wants makin', let me know, for I don't believe your
mother or sister is great at sewin'. Mrs. Marthers ain't, I know,
though as nice a little body as ever drawed the breath. Your wife is
dead, too, they say, and that comes hard agin. I know just how
that feels, for my man died eighteen years ago last October, a few
weeks before Isaac was born. “Dear Mother: We've met the rascals, and been as genteelly
licked as ever a pack of fools could ask to be. How it happened nobody
knows. I was fitin' like a tiger, when all on a sudden I found
us a-runnin' like a flock of sheep; and what is the queerest of all, is
that while we were takin' to our heels one way the Rebels were goin'
it t'other, and for what I know, we should of been runnin' from
each other till now if they hadn't found out the game, and so turned
upon us. My dear, dear, darling Annie:—It will be days, perhaps, before
you see this letter, and ere it reaches you somebody will have told
you that your poor George is dead! Are you crying, darling, as you
read this? Do the tears fall upon the words, `poor George is dead?'
Don't cry, my precious Annie. It makes my heart ache to think how
you will sorrow and I not there to comfort you. It's hard to die
away from home, but not so hard as it would once have been, for I
hope I am a different man from the one who bade you good-bye a few
short months ago; and, darling, it must comfort you to know that
your prayers, your sweet influence have led the wanderer home to
God. We shall meet again in Heaven, Annie,—meet where partings
are unknown. It may be many years, perhaps, and the grass upon
my grave may blossom many times ere you will sleep the sleep which
knows no waking but at the last you'll come where I am waiting you.
I know I shall be there, Annie. All the harassing doubts and fears
are gone. Simple faith in the Saviour's promise has taken them away,
and left me perfect peace. God bless you, Annie darling, and grant
that as you have guided me, so you may guide others to that home
above, where I am going so fast. You have made me very happy
since you have been my wife, and I bless you for it. It makes my
death pillow easier to know that not one bitter word has ever passed
between us,—nothing but perfect confidence and love. I was not
good enough for you, darling. None knows that better than myself.
You should have married one of gentler blood and higher birth than
I, a poor mechanic. I have always felt this more than you, perhaps,
and have tried so hard not to shame you with my homespun ways.
had I lived, I should have improved constantly beneath your refining
influence, but that is all past now, and it is well, perhaps, that it is
so. As you grew older you might have felt there was a lack in me, a
something which did not satisfy the cravings of your higher nature,
and though you might not have loved me less, you would have seen
that we were not wholly congenial. I am well enough in my way,
but I am not a suitable companion for a girl of culture like yourself,
and I've often wondered that you should have chosen me. But you
did, and again I bless you for it. Never, never, was year so happy as
the one I spent with you, my darling, darling Annie, and I was looking
forward to many such, but God has decreed it otherwise, and
what he does we know is right. I shall never see you again! and
though they will bring me back to you, I shall not feel your tears
upon my face, or see you bending over my coffin-bed! Still I know
you will do this, and that makes it necessary for me to tell what, perhaps,
has been too long withheld, because I would spare you if possible. “I am not all bad,” he said; “and on that quiet morning, when
beneath the cover of the Virginia woods I lay, watching the Union
soldiers coming so bravely on, there was a dizziness in my brain, and
a strange, womanly feeling at my heart, while a sensation I cannot
describe thrilled every nerve when I saw in the distance the Stars and
Stripes waving in the summer wind. How I wanted to warn them of
their danger, to bid them turn back from the snare so cunningly devised,
and how proud I felt of the Federal soldiers when contrasting
them with ours. I fancied I could tell which were the Boston boys,
and there came a mist before my eyes, as I thought how your dear
hands and those of little Rose had possibly helped to make some portion
of the dress they wore. “Will was badly wounded,—lay on the field all night;—Jimmie
missing,—supposed to be a prisoner. I am well. “Army of Potomac, and about as licked out an army as you ever
seen. To all it may concern, and 'specially Miss Anny Graam. I
send you my regrets greetin', and hopin' this will find you enjoyin'
the same great blessin'. Burnside has made the thunderinest blunder,
and more'n a million of our boys is dead before Fredericksburgh.
Mr. Mathers was about riddled through, I guess, and the Corporal,
—wall, may as well take it easy,—I fit for him like a tiger, till they
nocked me endways, and I played dead to save my life. But the
Corporal's a goner,—took prisoner with an awful cut on his neck;
and now what I'm going to tell you is this: the night before the battle
I came upon him prayin' like a priest, kneelin' in an awful mud-puddle,
and what he said was somethin' about Heaven, and Anny,
whitch, beggin' your pardon, I think means you, and so I ast him in
case of bad luck, if I should write and tell you. I don't think he
could have ben in a vary sperritual frame of mind, for he told me to
mind my bisiness, but I don't lay it up agin him, and when them too
tall, lantern-jawed sons of Balam grabbed him as he was tryin' to
skedaddle with the blood a spirtin' from his neck, I pitched inter
'em, and give 'em hale columby for a spell, till they nocked me flat
and I made bleeve dead as I was tellin' you. Don't feel bad, Miss
Graam. Trust luck and keep your powder dry, and mabby he'll
come back sometime. “I mistrusted he was there,” Bill wrote; “and so when me
and and some other fellow-travellers was safely landed in purgatory,
I went on an explorin' tower to find him. But you bet it
want so easy gettin through that crowd. Why, the camp-meetin'
they had in the Fair Grounds in Rockland, when Marm Freeman
bust her biler hollerin,' was nothin' to the piles of ragged, dirty, hungry-lookin'
dogs; some standin' up, some lyin' down, and all lookin'
as if they was on their last legs. Right on a little sand-bank, and so
near the dead line that I wonder he didn't get shot, I found the Corp'ral,
with his trouses tore to tatters, and lookin' like the old gal's
rag-bag that hangs in the suller-way. Didn't he cry, though, when
I hit him a kelp on the back, and want there some tall cryin' done by
both of us as we sat there flat on the sand, with the hot sun pourin'
down on us, and the sweat and the tears runnin' down his face, as
he told me all he'd suffered. It made my blood bile. I've had a
little taste of Libby, and Bell Isle, too; but they can't hold a candle
to this place. Miss Graam, you are the good sort, kinder pius like;
but I'll be hanged if I don't bleeve you'll justify me in the thumpin'
lies I told the Corp'ral that day, to keep his spirits up. Says he,
`Have you ever ben to Rockland since Fredericksburg?' and then
I tho't in a minute of that nite in the woods when he prayed about
Anny; and ses I to myself, `The piusest lie you ever told will be
that you have been home, and seen Miss Graam, with any other
triflin' additions you may think best;' so I told him I had ben hum
on a furbelow, as the old gal (meanin' my mother) calls it. And I
seen her, too, says I, Miss Graam, and she talked an awful sight
about you, I said, when you orto have seen him shiver all over as he
got up closer to me, and asked, `What did she say?' Then I went
on romancin', and told him how you spent a whole evenin' at the ole
hut, talkin' about him, and how sorry you was for him, and couldn't
git your natural sleep for thinkin' of him, and how, when I came
away, you said to me on the sly, `William, if you ever happen to
meet Mr. Carleton, give him Anny Graam's love, and tell him she
means it.' Great Peter! I could almost see the flesh come back to
his bones, and his eyes had the old look in 'em, as he liked to of
hugged me to death. I'd done him a world of good, he said, and for
some days he seemed as chipper as you please; but nobody can stan'
a diet of raw meal and the nastiest watter that ever run; and ses I
to myself, Corp'ral will die as sure as thunder if somethin' don't
turn up; and so, when I got the hang of things a little, and seen
how the macheen was worked, sez I, `I'll turn Secesh, though I hate
'em as I do pizen.' They was glad enuff to have me, bein' I'm a
kind of carpenter and jiner, and they let me out, and I went to work
for the Corp'ral. I'll bet I told a hundred hes, fust and last, if I did
one. I said he was at heart Secesh; that he was in the rebel army,
and I took him prisoner at Manassas, which, you know was true.
Then I said his sweetheart, meanin' you, begging your pardon, got
up a row, and made him jine the Federals, and promise never to go
agin the flag, and that's how he come to be nabbed up at Fredericksburg.
I said 'twan't no use to try to make him swear, for he thought
more of his gal's good opinion than he did of liberty, and I set you
up till I swan if I bleeve you'd a knowed yourself, and every one of
them fellers was ready to stan' by you, and two of 'em drinked your
helth with the wust whisky I ever tasted. One of 'em asked me if I
was a fair specimen of the Northern Army, and I'll be darned if I
didn't tell him no, for I was ashamed to have 'em think the Federals
was all like me. I guess, though, they liked me some; anyway, they
let me carry something to the Corp'ral every now and then, and I
bleeve he'd die if I didn't. I've smuggled him in some paper and a
pencil, and he is going to wright to you, and I shall send it, no matter
how. The rebs won't see it, and I guess it's pretty sure to go
safe. I must stop now, and wright to the old woman. “My dear Annie,” he wrote, “I do not know that this letter will
ever reach you. I have but little hope that it will. Still it is worth
trying for, and so here in this terrible place, whose horrors no pen
or tongue can adequately describe, I am writing to you, who I know
think sometimes of the poor wretch starving and dying by inches in
Andersonville. Oh, Annie, you can never know what I have suffered
from hunger and thirst, and exposure and filth, which makes my
very blood curdle and creep, and from that weary homesickness
which more than aught else kills the poor boys around me. When
I first came here I thought I could not endure it, and though I knew
I was not prepared, I used to wish that I might die; but a little
drummer boy from Michigan, who took to me from the first, said his
prayers one night beside me, and the listening to him carried me
back to you, who, I felt sure, prayed for me each day. And so hope
came back again, with a desire to live and see your dear face once
more. Mylittle drummer boy, Johnny, was all the world to me, and
when he grew too sick to sit or stand, I held his poor head in my lap,
and gave up my rations to him, for he was almost famished, and ate
eagerly whatever was brought to us. We used to say the Lord's
Prayer together every night, when a certain star appeared, which he
playfully called his `mother,' saying it was her eye watching over
him. It was a childish fancy, but we grow childish here, and I, too,
have given that star a name. I call it `Annie,' and I watch its coming
as eagerly as did the little boy, who died just as the star reached
the zenith and was shining down upon him. His head was in my
lap, and all there was left of my coat I made into a pillow for him,
and held him till he died. His mother's address is —, Michigan.
Write to her, Annie, and tell her how Johnny died in the firm
hope of meeting her again in heaven. Tell her he did not suffer
much pain,—only a weakness, which wasted his life away. Tell her
the keepers were kind to him, and brought him ice-water several
times. Tell her, too, of the star at which he gazed so long as he had
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