for closing, Oliver Gilbert, the postmaster, ceased his halting tramp up and down the narrow length of the office, head and ears thrown

e, or, this choice space being limited, overflowed into the open room at the back of the post-office, with its work bench, chairs, and battered desk, topped by book shelves; for, in addition

book on which he could lay his hands, had given Gilbert the ability to draw up a wil

possible in the fields that lay to the southwest, and the wiseacres, one and all, predicted an early spring. But in a single night this vision had vanished and winter returned in driving snow that, turning to rain, coated everything heavily with ice. Roadway, fences, and the sedate white colonial houses that flanked the elm-bordered main street absolutely glittered in such light as a

hose invincibility had given birth to the union of states that it now sought to preserve,

te hands, that, by closely sheathing the wooden vessel with metal plates, had converted her into a deadly ram which no wooden ship could

s invention of Ericsson, a craft that to the casual observer looked as harmless as any harbor buoy, going from New York u

Mills were waiting and listening for the mail-train that did not come,

a locomotive headlight, gaining in power after every disappearance, flashed a

f you go down to meet her and come back with the mail-bag. It's

ely have it from the train crew or some passenger), wave the light above your head as you come back." This to a

crowd and found himself alone in the now dimly lighted post-office, except for old Selectman Morse, white-haired

elton ladies come back, I guess we'll have a telegraph operator right at the station, at least that's what Wheeler their foreman told me yesterday. You see, both Mr. Esterbrook and John Angus are directors in the Railroad Com

rpet-covered rocker of strange construction. "Dan had turned forty when he went, and now little Dan has run off to follow him and he's scarce sixteen, s

d was fumbling among some papers in an absent-

me, and he and the Lord have got to be of one mind

tter from Lincoln was in the town, much less right here in the post-office that's public property, so to spe

his lips, hesitated a moment, and then pulling a stool fro

an old flint-lock, worm-eaten in stock and rusty at trigger. Below it, at one side of the desk so that it came face to face with the

hat, to the casual glance, seemed merely an ornamental panel, took out two letters and a double daguerreotype case that held the pictures of a young woma

ir by our Senator. Of course it was done the right way I suppose, with this and that claim for consideration, but I'd never known it was me it spoke of, and somehow it didn't seem quite square, for I'm nobody. So I thought I'd just send a few words to the President, explaining things, if word of such small offices ever reache

came and in with it, this-" carefully ope

ton, Apri

iver G.

dear

een lonely and have lived in books. I

hfully

Lin

me to write something. So I says I guess I'll write Lincoln that I'm sorry, and that I understand his trouble because of Mary's leaving me ten years ago, and Marygold the next year

" and Gilbert unfolde

ton, Marc

er G.

Fri

If the Lord's Will has stayed your joining in this conflict, be sure

atef

Lin

ese letters and why I shouldn't brag of them, for t

w him as President, he wrote a long letter, that cost eight shillings to deliver, to my grandmother, telling her of his visit to Mt. Vernon. One part I've always remembered, I've heard it read so often; it ran thus: 'His whole demeanor was so full of dig

hington was fit to match with kings, Abraham Lincoln is humble enough to be a man, a brother of the Man of Sorrows, who well knew loneliness

it with fingers that trembled, and reached the door with his old friend, in time to see the little pr

if next month saw the war end. Hey, Gilbert, now's the chance to run your

print very small, and the large captions of to-day lacking, it took Gilbert some time to locate the desired news. Meanwhile the boys pressed closer and closer until, as he stopped for the second time to ad

ert, with some asperity. "I bel

. to-day the Merrimac, accompanied by two wooden steamers, the Yorktown and Jamestown, and several tugs, stood out toward the Minnesota and opened fire. The Monitor met them at once and

y now, get the finish firs

next page,"

onitor! The Ericsson battery finally succeeded in forcing a long hole in the port side o

every coast town at this period had its quota, banging on the floor with his cane, cried: "It isn't only a blow to the rebels but to wooden ships as well; I didn't think so much scrap-iron

blue black of the sky set with stars seemed only a degree less cold and burnished than the ice-coated earth over which the

ill and against the wind," said 'Lisha Potts to Gilbert, as he helped hi

t come natural to-night, though I've been mighty interested getting into the workings of the wars of the ancients, all about the way Xenophon managed

pen spaces of life that some call loneliness, shook his head in an emphatic den

edge, there's small use choking it down their throats. Not that the best of learning comes out of books, f

two selves and have a smoke by the fire. I don't often do it these days, haven't felt peart enough; but to-night, somehow, I feel skittish, like I did forty years ago when a pair of yearling

lowed Gilbert through the partly roofed grape arbor that made a passageway between the post-office and the slope

ee sturdy pewter candlesticks, proceeded to distribute them between the various rooms, not forgetting the icy "spare chamber" u

e pie, crullers, biscuits, and spice snaps in the pantry. I think this time o' night when we're wakeful anyway, we might as well have hot coffee to mix and blend the vittles and put some ginger in us. Mebbe you'd prefer hard cider, but since I

the postmaster's sister, Satira Pegrim, a bustling widow of forty, came down from her little hill farm to officiate. Why she did not stay on and keep house for her brother had been a subject of much speculation during the year after the baby Marygold had followed her young

rds are snatched away, leaving him deaf at heart, work is the only consoler that can gain even his ear. So Gilbert had baked and swept and garnished, kept the geraniums and the calla lilies

te. He was fully six feet tall with close-cut, iron-gray hair, bushy eyebrows, and long, gray beard that reached his waist, and so frequently got in his way that he twisted it up and fastened it under his chin with an elastic band, or hairpin, a

off their clumsy shoes, in unison, spread feet covered by blue yarn socks before

hrough after they stopped being Scotch, should stand for slavery," mused 'Lisha. "Do yo

ver presumed on that. His father left him fully two hundred acres of land, mine left me three; but it stood something like a nose on the face of his holding, coming in the south front of it. He seemed to think all he had t

ll he could to keep you fro

, he has all his mail sent to Wes

a. "I didn't think he'd

ot a grand place here, a city home, and money; he's been senator, and, they sa

sant spoken. I remember selling her quai

hat keeps singing till after dark, and then quits sudden as if he was lonesome. After living up there for ten years, she, that at first had a laughing face and skin like a peach, grew thin and white as marble, and then all of a sudden, she left him and died away in England, they say, about a year ago. Some claim he was always reproaching her because

ly going on a short journey. As she passed the shop, she plucked the coachman by the coat to stop him and came in to ask me to fit a key to her watch. I

I'm going away and never coming back, a

f, so young and frail, that before I knew it, I had taken her cold little hands in mine and was telling her that I should miss her, and that I never should forget the soft white slip made w

f I'd been her father. Before I got my wits again, she was in her carriage and away, and now she's dead and gone. They say that the Miss Feltons have heard that John Angus is to be marr

d coffee filled the kitchen, and the men drew the table toward the stove before si

regulated, struck twelve with different emphases and in three different keys before Gilbert had made a bed for

t, pausing as they came do

off the heap on the stoop,

t, giving a decided start, as the noise was repeated and this

pen the door. At first he saw nothing, the change from light to darkness was so

made him cautious, he called, "Bring the lantern,