ring along in the dark.

One day, I received, to my immense astonishment, a hundred and more
letters, all from the northern part of our county. I opened them, one
after the other, and--well, it is beyond my power to tell you what
varieties of indignation and abuse fell upon me. It seems that I had
voted against the bill to charter the Mendip Extension Railroad Co.
I had been obliged to vote for or against so many things, that it
was impossible to recollect them all. However, I procured the printed
journal, and, sure enough! there, among the nays, was "Strongitharm."
It was not a week after that--and I was still suffering in mind and
body--when the newspapers in the interest of the Rancocus and Great
Western Consolidated accused me (not by name, but the same thing--you
know how they do it) of being guilty of taking bribes. Mr. Filch, of the
Shinnebaug Consolidated had explained to me so beautifully the superior
advantages of his line, that the Directors of the other company took
their revenge in this vile, abominable way.

That was only the beginning of my trouble. What with these slanders
and longing for the quiet of our dear old home at Burroak, I was
almost sick; yet the Legislature sat on, and sat on, until I was nearly
desperate. Then one morning came a despatch from my husband: "Melissa
is drafted--come home!" How I made the journey I can't tell; I was in an
agony of apprehension, and when Mr. Strongitharm and Melissa both met me
at the Burroak Station, well and smiling, I fell into a hysterical fit
of laughing and crying, for the first time in my life.

Billy Brandon, who was engaged to Melissa, came forward and took her
place like a man; he fought none the worse, let me tell you, because
he represented a woman, and (I may as well say it now) he came home a
Captain, without a left arm--but Melissa seems to have three arms for
his sake.

You have no idea what a confusion and lamentation there was all over the
State. A good many women were drafted, and those who could neither
get substitutes for love nor money, were marched to Gaston, where the
recruiting Colonel was considerate enough to give them a separate
camp. In a week, however, the word came from Washington that the Army
Regulations of the United States did not admit of their being received;
and they came home blessing Mr. Stanton. This was the end of drafting
women in our State.

Nevertheless, the excitement created by the draft did not subside at
once