This was the situation as it appeared to Squire Fambrough and his daughter. On this particular morning the sun was shining brightly, and the birds were fluttering joyously in the budding trees. Miss Julia had brought her book out into the grove of venerable oaks which was the chief beauty of the place, and had seated herself on a rustic bench that was built around one of the trees. Just as she had become interested, she heard a rifle-shot. She moved uneasily, but fell to reading again, and was apparently absorbed in the book, when she heard another shot. Then she threw the book down and rose to her feet, making a very pretty centerpiece in the woodland setting.
“Oh! what is the matter with everything?” she exclaimed. “There’s the shooting again! How can I read books and sit quietly here while the soldiers are preparing to fight? Oh, me! I don’t know what to do! If there should be a battle here, I don’t know what would become of us.”
Julia, in her despair, was fair to look upon. Her gown of striped homespun stuff, simply made, set off to admiration her strong but supple figure. Excitement added a new lustre to her eye and gave a heightened color to the rose that bloomed on her cheeks. She stood a moment as if listening, and then a faint smile showed on her lips. She heard her father calling:
“Jule! Jule! O Jule!”
“Here I am, father!” she cried. “What is it?”
“Well, the Lord he’p my soul! I’ve been huntin’ for you high an’ low. Did you hear that shootin’? I ’lowed may be you’d been took prisoner an’ carried bodaciously off. Didn’t I hear you talkin’ to somebody?”
Squire Fambrough pulled off his hat and scratched his head. His face, set in a fringe of gray beard, was kindly and full of humor, but it contained not a few of the hard lines of experience.
“No, father,” said Julia, in reply to the Squire’s question. “I was only talking to myself.”
“Jest makin’ a speech, eh? Well, I don’t blame you, honey. I’m a great mind to jump out here in the clearin’ an’ yell out my sentiments so that both sides can hear ’em.”
“Why, what is the matter, father?”