. It is not needed now
to save their property and their rights. You must remember that a man
like Hibbard, the deputy at Pine Forest Prison, who allowed men to be
shot down like dogs and starved like wild beasts, is now looked upon
with more consideration and favor than Uncle Daniel, who gave his whole
family as a sacrifice for his country. Did not this same Hibbard travel
all through our country last Fall making speeches? Was he not received
with shouts by our very neighbors, within a stone's throw of this dear
old man, whose son was starved near unto death in Pine Forest Prison by
this man? Has he not held high positions in his State since? And I would
not be surprised to hear that he had been appointed to some Foreign
Mission, in order that he may represent our country abroad in the true
Christian spirit of our advanced civilization!"

"Yes," said Uncle Daniel; "when he was North on his stumping tour I
mentioned the fact of his inhumanity, and only received jeers from those
who heard me--some young students who were not old enough to be in the
war, and now feel that it must never be mentioned except in a whisper.
It seems that all the treason, infamy, and the barbarities and cruelties
practiced during that bloody period are now condoned, and the persons
who practiced the greater wrongs are made thereby the more respectable.
Oh, that I had not lived to see these things! It makes me almost doubt
my own existence. Sometimes I feel that it is all a dream."

Maj. Clymer, in order to draw the aged man's mind away from this
unpleasant theme, inquired if he knew what became of Mrs. Lawton.

"I cannot tell," said Uncle Daniel; "she and Seraine corresponded for a
number of years after the termination of the war. The last we ever heard
of her she had married with an Englishman and located in Canada. God
knows, I hope she may yet be living and happy. She was a noble woman. I
fear, however, that she, too, has passed away, as we have had no tidings
of her for many years."

Uncle Daniel at this time becoming weary and very melancholy, we excused
him for the present, and asked permission to return again, when
he promised that he would continue his narrative, and, bidding him
good-night, we left, with an increased desire to hear more from his
honest and truthful lips.

CHAPTER XV.

PLOTS TO POISON AND BURN.--FIRE AND POISON.--THE PLOT TO
BURN NORTHERN CITIES AND SPREAD DISEASE.--THE SCHEME
AVENGED.--PART O