e point of
interrupting the speaker, but for some reason forbore.

"Such being the case, we cannot but feel that the burden ought to fall
upon the entire community, and not wholly upon any particular portion.
The heaviest sacrifices must undoubtedly be made by those who leave
their homes and peril life and limb on the battlefield. When I propose
that you should lighten that sacrifice so far as it lies in your power,
by voting them a bounty, it is because I consider that money will
compensate them for the privations they must encounter and the perils
they will incur. For that, they must look to the satisfaction that will
arise from the feeling that they have responded to their country's call,
and done something to save from ruin the institutions which our fathers
transmitted as a sacred trust to their descendants. Money cannot pay for
loss of life or limb. But some of them leave families behind. It is not
right that these families should suffer because the fathers have devoted
themselves to the sacred cause of liberty. When our soldiers go forth,
enable them to feel that their wives and children shall not lack for the
necessaries of life. The least that those who are privileged to stay at
home can do is to tax their purses for this end."

"Mr. Chairman," said Squire Haynes sarcastically, "I infer that the last
speaker is intending to enlist."

Mr. Frost's face flushed at this insinuation.

"Squire Haynes chooses to impute to me interested motives. I need enter
into no defense before an audience to whom I am well known. I will
only inquire whether interested motives have nothing to do with his
opposition to voting bounties to our soldiers?"

This was such a palpable hit that Squire Haynes winced under it, and his
red face turned redder as he saw the smiles of those about him.

"Impudent puppy!" he muttered to himself; "he seems to forget that I
have a mortgage of eight hundred dollars on his farm. When the time
comes to foreclose it, I will show him no mercy. I'll sell him out, root
and branch!"

Mr. Frost could not read the thoughts that were passing through the mind
of his creditor. They might have given him a feeling of uneasiness, but
would not in the least have influenced his action. He was a man loyal to
his own convictions of duty, and no apprehension of personal loss would
have prevented his speaking in accordance with what he felt to be right.

The considerations which had been urged were so reasonable th