the Leesburg road and ascertain the condition of the heights in the vicinity of the enemy's battery near Goose Creek. This was performed in dashing style. They came upon a Mississippi regiment, received and returned its fire, and brought off a prisoner.

Keep cool now and fire low, and the day is ours!" All at once, as if moved by one impulse, a sudden sheet of fire burst from the curved covert of the enemy, and Edward Dickinson Baker was promoted, by one grand brevet of the God of Battles, above the acclaim of the field, above the applause of the world, to the heaven of the martyr and the hero.

When with dirges due I saw him borne to his grave, with the dull cadence of muffled drums, with draped banners, and slow-pacing soldiers, and all the solemn adjuncts with which affection seeks to alleviate and homage to ennoble death, I could not but think of what Douglas said last year. When the October elections had made a Republican success an event beyond contingency, Douglas, always a magnanimous man and a true friend, said in conversation, "We Springfield people will take the capital next year. Lincoln in the White House, Baker, and M'Dougal, and I in the Senate-we will make Washington jolly in spite of politics."

Alas, for the dead hours of honest friendship! the goodly fellowship of noble spirits! Where are the good fellows who were friends at Springfield in the happier days? Hardin's spirit went up through the murky canopy whose baleful shadow hung over the battling legions at Buena Vista - Bissell passed from lingering pain to Paradise, honored in the highest by the State that he had honored-Douglas lies under the prairie sod in the dear old State, whose halfestranged heart burned with more than the old love for him before he died-Baker rests glorious in death, a precious offering to the Spirit of Freedom to which through life his worship was paid-and Lincoln stands, lonely in his power, a sadder, silenter, greater man than of old, time beginning to sift its early snows upon the blackness of his hair, his heart heavy with the sorrows of a nation, his mind and soul pledged to solemn and self-abnegating effort to keep from detriment in his hands the costly treasure of Consti

Meantime Colonel Devens had discovered the error in regard to the supposed encampment, and had been attacked by a superior force of the enemy and fallen back in good order upon the position of Colonel Lee, who had been posted to support him on the bluff. Presently he again advanced, his men, as General Stone reports, behaving admirably, fighting, retiring, and advancing in perfect order, and exhibiting every proof of high courage and good discipline. At this juncture Colonel Baker, who early in the morning had conferred with the commanding general at Edwards's Ferry and received his orders from him, began transporting his brigade across the narrow but deep channel that ran between Harrison's Island and the Virginia shore. The means of transportation were lamentably deficient-three small boats and a scow, which the soldiers say was miserably heavy and water-logged. With such means the crossing was slow and tedious. While they were toiling across, Devens and Lee, with their little commands, were in desperate peril in front, the wide battalions of the enemy closing exultingly around them, with savage prudence availing themselves of every advantage of ground, and flanking by the power of numbers the handful of heroes they dared not attack in front. Baker was not the man to deliberate long when the death-knell of his friends was ringing in his ears in the steady, continuous rattle of the rebel musketry. He advanced to the relief of Devens with a battalion of his Californians under Wistar, the most gallant of the fighting Quakers, and a portion of the Twentieth Massachusetts. With this devoted band, 1720 men all told, for more than an hour he stood the fire of the surrounding and hidden foe, as from the conceal-tutional Government. ing crescent of the trees they poured their murderous volleys. Bramhall and French struggled up the precipitous banks with a field-piece and two howitzers, which did good service till the gunners dropped dead, and the officers hauled them to the rear to prevent their falling into the enemy's hands. Every man there fought in that hopeless struggle as bravely as if victory were among possibilities. No thought was there of flight or surrender even when all but honor was lost. Their duty was to stand there till they were ordered away. Death was merely an incident of the performance of that duty; and the coolest man there was the Colonel commanding. He talked hopefully and cheerily to his men, even while his heart was sinking with the sun, and the grim presence of disaster and ruin was with him. He was ten paces in their front, where all might see him and take pattern by him. He carried his left hand nonchalantly in his breast, and criticised the firing as quietly as if on parade. "Lower, boys! Steady there!

For this Douglas toiled and Baker died. High examples are not without their uses; and, perchance, from the grave of the dead Senator may spring the living flowers of sacrifice and bright endeavor. Let no man now excuse himself from the service of his country by paltry suggestions of rank, of position, of diverse usefulness. Baker sacrificed more than others can. He was a Senator; he became a recruitingofficer. He was a man of extensive affairs; he neglected all for the camp. He was a man of delicate and scholarly tastes; he forsook books for bayonets, and slighted letters to study tactics. He had a family, which he tenderly loved; he bade farewell to his wife, and enlisted his son in his regiment. He enjoyed life with the intense vitality of a perfect manhood; he gave his life for his country.

And all with no bravado, no barbaric thirst for excitement. He obeyed an imperious mandate of duty; and warfare with him rose to the dignity of religion. Through the storm and

gloom of the present his prophetic spirit caught the distant sunshine of a righteous peace, to which the war was a necessary and painful introduction. Let us all remember those eloquent words of lofty cheer with which, standing in his place, bronzed in the summer weather, his fatigue uniform travel-stained and dusty from camp and field, the warrior-statesman closed his reply to the sneering cavils of the fallen angel of Kentucky-and let them end this sketch of him whose memory may safely be confided to the jealous keeping of impartial fame: "There will be some graves reeking with blood, watered by the tears of affection; there will be some privation; there will be some loss of luxury; there will be somewhat more need for labor to procure the necessaries of life. When that is said, all is said. If we have the country, the whole country, the Union, the Constitution, free government-with these will return all the blessings of well-ordered civilization; the path of the country will be a career of greatness and glory such as, in the olden time, our fathers saw in the dim visions of years yet to come; and such as would have been ours to-day if it had not been for the treason for which the Senator too often seeks to apologize."

"W

BLUE YARN STOCKINGS. WHAT have you there, Katie ?" asked a young man, in the familiar tone of an intimate acquaintance, touching, as he spoke, a small bundle resting on Miss Katie's arm.

“Guess." A smile, sweet but serious, went rippling for an instant about her lips, and then faded off. Her calm eyes, clear and strong, looked steadily into her companion's face. They had met, casually, and were standing on the

street.

From the beginning of our troubles Katie Maxwell's heart had been in them. Her father was a man of the true stamp; loyal to his country, clear-seeing in regard to the issues at stake, brave and self-sacrificing. He had dispensed liberally of his means in the outfit of men for the war; and more than this, had given two sons, yet of tender age, to the defense of his country. Katie was living, therefore, in the very atmosphere of patriotism. She drank in with every breath the spirit of heroism and selfsacrifice. "What can I do?" was the question oftenest on her lips; and when the call came for our women to supply stockings for the soldiers in time for the approaching winter campaign, she was among the first of those who responded. It was only on the morning of this day that the Quarter-master-General's appeal had gone forth, and already she had supplied herself with blue yarn and knitting-needles.

"I didn't believe you were such a little-"” The young man had uttered so much of his reply to Katie's "Of course," when she lifted her hand with a sudden impulse and said, almost sternly,

"Take care, George!"

"Take care! Of what?" He affected to be still amused.

"Take care how you trifle with things that should be held out of the region of trifling." "Soldiers' blue yarn stockings, for instance! Ha! ha!"

"Laugh if you will, but bear in mind one thing."

"What?"

"That I am in no laughing mood." Her clear strong eyes rested firmly in his, with something of rebuke in their expression.

"Tut, tut, Katie! don't look at me so seriously. But indeed I can't help laughing. You

“Zephyr ?” And he pushed his fingers into knitting blue yarn stockings! Well, it is funny.'

the bundle.

"No."

"I give it up." "Blue yarn."

"What?" There was a lifting of the eyebrows, and a half-amused expression about the: young man's mouth.

**

Blue yaru and knitting-needles." Katie's voice was firm. She did not shrink from the covert satire that lurked in his tone and man

They gwaed steadily at each other for some moments, and then the young man gave way to a brief fit of laughter.

"Good-morning, George." She was turning

away.

"Good-morning, Katie," was answered lightly. "I'll call around this evening to see how the stockings are coming on.”

When Katie Maxwell left home an hour before her step was light and her countenance glowing with the heart's enthusiasm. But she walked slowly now, with her eyes cast down, and a veil of unquiet thought shadowing her | countenance. This interview with one in whom her heart was deeply interested had ruffled the surface of her smoothly-gliding thoughts. The cause of her country, and the needs of those who were offering their lives in its defense, were things so full of sober reality in her regard, that the light words of George Mason had jarred her feelings, and not only jarred them, but awaken་་( ༄།uHtss, There was no smile on Ka-ed doubts and questionings of the most painful Hode Pice, no playful light in her eyes, but a འཛོ ར ་་་བར་་་་་ ། ས་ང་ The levity shown by her David was in such contrariety to the state of mund in which she happened to be, that it hurt ot of amusing ber hurt, because he was 4 pemmon aequarutance.

Blue varm and knitting needles! Ha! ha!

Noldiers stockings, of cours

young Mason back from the very near position in which he had for some time stood, and gave Katie an opportunity to look at him with less embarrassment and a more discriminating inspection. Before, there had been a strong sphere of attraction when she thought of him; now, she was sensible of a counteracting repulsion. Language that seemed to mean little when spoken, remembered now, had marked significance.

It was observed by both Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell that Katie was unusually absent-minded at tea-time. Mr. Maxwell talked about national affairs, as was his custom, and Katie listened attentively, as was her wont. Among other things, he said:

Katie did not move nor reply. Her heart was fluttering when he came in, but in an instant it regained an even beat. There was more

in his tones even than in his words. The clear, strong eyes were on his face.

"Ha! ha!" he laughed, gayly, now advancing until he had come within a few feet of the maiden. Then she rose and moved back a pace or two, with a strange, cold dignity of manner that surprised her visitor.

"What a good actress you would make!" he said, still speaking lightly, for he did not think her in earnest. "A Goddess of Liberty! Here is my cane; raise your stocking, and the representation will be perfect."

"I am not acting, George."

She spoke with an air of severity that sobered

him.

"You are not?"

"In love of country—which involves an unselfish regard for the good of all in the country -every virtue is included. The man who is not a true patriot can not be a good citizen nor a true Christian; for love of country is that vessel in the natural mind down into which flows a love of God's kingdom; and he who loves and "No; I cautioned you this morning about seeks to establish that which is highest as God's trifling with things which should be held out of universal kingdom in the earth, helps to estab- the region of trifling," she answered, steadily. lish all that is lowest. In times like these, when "If you are not sufficiently inspired with love our national existence is threatened by a force of country to lift an arm in her defense, don't, of giant magnitude and intense purpose-when I pray you, hinder, with light words even, the all that we hold dear as a people is threatened feeble service that a weak woman's hands may with destruction-there must be, in any man render. I am not a man, and can not, therewho can look on quietly and take his ease; who fore, fight for liberty and good government; but can be lukewarm, or put even straws as hin- what I am able to do I am doing from a state drances in the way of any patriotic end, how-of mind that is hurt by levity. I am in earnest; over humbly exhibited, a leaven of selfishness so vital with its own mean life that it will pervade the whole character, and give its quality to every action. I hold such men-and they are all around us-at a distance. I mark them as born of base elements. I do not mean to trust them in the future. If I were a maiden, and had a lover, and if that lover were not for his country ---outspoken and outacting, full of ardor and among the first to spring to her defense-I would Katie Maxwell stood before the young man turn from him. The man who is not true to like one inspired, her eyes flashing, her face in a his country--and the indifferent are not true-glow, her lips firmly set but arched, her slenwill be false to all other obligations in the hour der form drawn up to its full height, almost imof trial. Trust no man who is not ready, in periously. this hour, to his utmost."

That

Katie listened, and her soul was fired. She drank in fully of her father's spirit. ovoning, as she sat knitting alone in the parlor, she heard the bell ring, and knew by the sound whose hand had pulled the wire. Her fingers grow unsteady, and she began to drop stitches. No who let the stocking upon which she was at work fall into her lap. She sat very still now, hor heart beating strongly. The heavy tread of George Mason was in the hall, Then the door oponed, and the young man entered. She did not rise. In fact, so strong was her inward disturbance that she felt the necessity for remaining an externally quiet as possiblo, in order to koop from botraying her actual state of mind.

if you are not, it is time that you looked down into your heart and made some effort to understand its springs of action. You are of man's estate, you are in good health, you are not trammeled by any legal or social hindrances. Why, then, are you not in the field, George Mason? I have asked myself a hundred times since morning this question, and can reach no satisfactory answer."

"In the field!" he said, in astonishment, and not without confusion of manner.

"Yes, in the field! In arms for your coun

try!"

He shrugged his shoulders with an affected indifference that was mingled with something of contempt, saying blindly-for he did not give himself space to reflect

"I've no particular fancy for salt pork, hard tack, and Minié bullets."

"Nor I for cowards!" exclaimed Katie, borne away by her feelings; and she pointed sternly to the door.

The young man went out. As he shut the door she sunk into the chair from which she had arisen, weak and quivering. The blue yarn Chood evening," said Mason, almost gayly, stocking did not grow under her hand that night; as he stopped into the room. Thon pausing but her fingers moved with unwearied diligence auddenly, and living both hands in mock sur-through all the next day, and a soldier's sock, prise, he declaimed,

thick, and soft, and warm, was laid beside her

Alonthly Record of