Our Village in War-time

BY THE AUTHOR OF ALLAN CAMERON, ILVERTON RECTORY, ETC.
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.
The incidents in the following narrative are real, and have actually occurred in the present struggle for our national life, though not precisely in the order here indicated. Liberty has been taken in locating and arranging them, and names and places are assumed.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by the American Tract Society, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
OUR VILLAGE IN WAR-TIME.
“Would you believe it, Mrs. Glenn, the Tyrrell House is sold, and a family is going to move into it right away? The painters and carpenters have been there for a week. I didn’t know the house, it looked so lively. It seems too bad to have that place shut up from the public, for we all enjoyed it so much; but I suppose the owner had the best right to it, after all. I haven’t found out who the family are, but I shall hear all about it to-morrow, and then I will let you know; for Aunt Prudence is going there to clean the rooms, and get them ready for the furniture.”
As Miss Letty paused to take breath, I expressed my interest in the news, which, to confess the truth, had affected me rather unpleasantly.
The Tyrrell House was the “show-place” of Beach Hill, a rambling, aristocratic mansion, built by a wealthy Englishman, who, after a series of domestic troubles, shut up the house in disgust, and left the country. It was his wish that no one should reside there; consequently the house was out of repair, and the extensive grounds, laid out originally by a landscape gardener, were overrun with weeds. Still it was a lovely spot, and the dwellers on the hill held annual picnics there, and lovers strolled through its shaded walks by moonlight, and altogether we had come to look upon it as public property, held for our special benefit. Great was our astonishment, therefore, when we heard that the house had been purchased, and was fitting up for a family, who were to take immediate possession. It was felt by us almost as a personal loss; and woe to the new-comers, should they fail to atone by the charms of their society for the deprivation we were to suffer.