I could only grasp her honest hands with tears in my eyes, and bless her for her kindness to my dear ones.
“You needn’t go to talk ‘bout kindness,” said Mrs. Bemby, wiping her specs on the corner of her apron. “Your mother’s done a sight more for me’n I ever kin do for her, an’ I want to keep a doin’ long as God will let her live, which I’m afeard it won’t be mighty long, for she’s poorlier to-day ‘n I’ve seen her yet.”
To divert her from such painful remarks I asked if the Yankees had molested them since they had burned the house.
“Not such a mighty sight. They’ve tuck my chickens and vegetables, tho’ they wan’t nothin’ in the garden but turnips, but we’ve got some meat an’ a little corn. The wuss trouble we has is a continuwell fear they is goin’ to break in on us. Mr. Bemby he’s gone to town to-day to git a guard.”
“A guard!” I exclaimed, in much alarm; “then if we are discovered here you all are ruined. Ben and I can settle with half-a-dozen by ourselves, but I am truly alarmed for you.”
“Never do you mind, John,” said Ben, as he trotted a little white-headed scion on his knee; “she’ll fix all that; the old man aint coming back till to-morrow no how, and we’ll be off by light.”
Off by light! how the words sounded like a knell on my ears; off, to leave a dying mother and an unprotected wife and child in the lines of a merciless foe; off to fight, perhaps die for a now hopeless cause, leaving all I loved to misery and want. Ah, Mercy! let thy white wing oftenest shield the poor deserter at the stake, and Justice will have less complaint!
Carlotta now appeared at the door of mother’s chamber, and beckoned to me. Walking softly, with a bowed head and prayerful heart, I entered a small dark room, dimly lighted by a single candle and a flickering fire on the hearth. On an humble bed in the corner, with her crushed head bound with cloths and liniments, lay my mother, pale and thin, her sweet face illumined with bright surprise yet strange bewilderment.
“Be careful,” whispered Carlotta, as I paused on the threshold, “her mind is not perfectly clear.”