"Yes, Sir! when I first set myself down here, or a little further that way, my first house was, a pretty rough house, too, there wa'n't two settlers beside within something like ten miles round. I've seen the whole of it cleared, from the cutting of the first forest trees till this day."
"You have seen the nation itself spring up within that time," remarked his guest.
"Not exactly that question of our nationality was settled a little before I came here. I was born rather too late to see the whole of that play I saw the best of it, though boys were men in those days. My father was in the thick of it from beginning to end."
"In the army, was he?"
"Ho, yes, Sir! he and every child he had that wasn't a girl there wasn't a man of the name that wa'n't on the right side. I was in the army myself when I was fifteen. I was nothing but a fifer but I tell you, Sir! there wasn't a general officer in the country that played his part with a prouder heart than I did mine!"
"And was that the general spirit of the ranks?"
"Not altogether," replied the old gentleman, passing his hand several times abstractedly over his white hair, a favourite gesture with him, "not exactly that there was a good deal of mixture of different materials, especially in this state; and where the feeling wasn't pretty strong, it was no wonder if it got tired out; but the real stuff, the true Yankee blood, was pretty firm! Ay, and some of the rest! There was a good deal to try men in those days. Sir, I have seen many a time when I had nothing to dine upon but my fife, and it was more than that could do to keep me from feeling very empty!"
"But was this a common case? did this happen often?" said Mr.
Carleton.
"Pretty often pretty often, sometimes," answered the old gentleman. "Things were very much out of order, you see, and in some parts of the country it was almost impossible to get the supplies the men needed. Nothing would have kept them together, nothing under heaven but the love and confidence they had in one name. Their love of right and independence wouldn't have been strong enough, and besides a good many of them got disheartened. A hungry stomach is a pretty stout arguer against abstract questions. I have seen my father crying like a child for the wants and sufferings he was obliged to see, and couldn't relieve."
"And then you used to relieve yourselves, grandpa," said
Fleda.