No more than just that—so little, yet so much.
“He is gone, Margaret, your father is gone,” said Mrs. Helmstedt, passing her arm over the head of the maiden and drawing it down to her bosom—“he is gone—gone!”
“I know it, dear mother, I know it; but so also is every good and true American gone, on the same path.”
“True, my dove, true,” said Mrs. Helmstedt; but she did not say, what farther she felt to be true, namely, that from her he had gone forever.
That afternoon following the departure, Ralph Houston, with affectionate thoughtfulness, came over to cheer the lonely ladies.
He had accompanied Mr. Helmstedt from the Bluff to Belleview, and witnessed the embarkation of himself and his company, on board the schooner Kingfisher, bound for Alexandria and Washington, and after thus seeing them off, he had ridden back as fast as possible, and crossed to the isle. Mr. Houston spent the evening, planned some amusement for the next afternoon, and took leave.
Ten days of weary waiting passed, and then Mrs. Helmstedt received a letter from her husband, announcing that they had reached Washington; that he had received a captain’s commission; had reported himself and his company ready for service; and that they were then waiting orders.
“Has my father any idea where he will be sent, mamma?” inquired Margaret, after this letter had been read aloud.
“No, my dear; at least he has hinted so; we must wait to hear.”
Ten, fifteen, twenty more anxious days passed, heavily, and then came a second letter from Mr., now Captain, Helmstedt, postmarked New York, and bringing the intelligence that upon the next day succeeding the writing of the first letter, he had received orders to depart immediately with his troops to join General Van Rennselaer on the Canadian frontier; that the suddenness of the departure and the rapidity of the journey had prevented him, until now, from writing a line home; but that they were now delayed in New York, for a day or two, waiting for a reinforcement from the State militia.