HOW THE BREACH WAS HEALED.
By Belle V. Chisholm
"WELL, Abby, the Wilmot cottage has a tenant at last, and I am sure you will be rejoiced to have new neighbors," said honest John Mathews as he plunged the carving knife into the nicely-browned turkey that his wife had just brought dripping from the oven. "Humph!" exclaimed Mrs. Mathews a little out of temper, "that is altogether owing to what kind of neighbors they are. What do you know of them?" "Very little, indeed," answered John between his sips of coffee. "The most I can tell is that the man is an invalid, and that their name is Hamilton. They hail from the South—North Carolina, I think." "Rebels, I'll warrant. The very name of the South fills me with horror, and I wash my hands of them even before setting eyes upon them," retorted Mrs. Mathews with an angry flush tingling her cheeks. "That is jumping at conclusions, Abby," said John. "You are by no means certain that they are disloyal." "What else could you expect from Carolinians? I'll have nothing whatever to do with them, as I said before," said the little woman with a decided toss of her head that told her husband that further remonstrance was useless. By noon the next day hot-headed Mrs. Mathews could read the titles of the new neighbors to slow-going John in such a way as to make him open his eyes in astonishment. "They are out and out rebels," she declared. Mrs. Browning told her all about them, and she had it from good authority. Mrs. Hamilton's brother was a colonel or general in the Southern army, and Mr. Hamilton had left an arm on Antietam's bloody field. "You see how it is, John; that gate between their lot and our own must be nailed up at once. I'll have no rebels drinking out of the well that my children are compelled to use. I have not forgotten that a rebel bullet pierced the heart of my twin brother." "Is this right, Abby? You know Wilmot's tenants have always had water privilege. He sold me this property with that understanding, and it is unfair to go back on him after this fashion; besides, you are aware that the more water taken out, the better it becomes," persuaded John. "No matter about that, John; the boys can pump it out if necessary; but right or wrong, not a foot of these aliens shall cross our yard," declared Mrs. Mathews emphatically. "These unkind feelings should not be harbored, Abby, now that the war is over. It is like bringing up old scores that have been settled. We should learn to forgive and forget," said Mr. Mathews soothingly. "I do not wish to learn any such absurd lessons," quickly responded Mrs. Mathews. "How do I know but that some of these people killed my precious brother? No, I'll have nothing to do with them." And so John nailed the gate tightly before he slept that night, and Abby herself fastened an iron bar across it. The gossipers were not slow in repeating the new order of things to the strangers. The invalid husband smiled patiently, but the black eyes of his wife flashed indignantly at being thus prejudged, and she requested her informer to politely assure Mrs. Mathews that she should not be molested. "Better send no message, my dear; you may be very fond of your new neighbor when you know her," suggested Mr. Hamilton. As the winter passed away, the gulf between the two families widened, until without knowing each other they became bitter enemies. Frank Mathews and Elliot Hamilton formed a slight acquaintance at school, but Elliot's politeness and gentle disposition made him too much of a favorite to gain the love of a boisterous lad like Frank. One warm morning in spring Elliot carried his dead rabbit into the kitchen, and with tears in his dark eyes told his mother how Frank Mathews had killed it. "I saw the children setting a trap, but thought it was for rats instead of for my poor white pet. Frank cut the hole through the fence for the rabbit to crawl through, and I overheard the woman telling him to aim low. I'll poison that dog the very next time it comes into our yard," he said in an excited tone. "I would not blame you much," his mother replied hastily. But the next day when she saw it writhing in its death agony, she was sorely grieved that her passion had caused her to utter such ill-advised words. And so she assured Frank when he hopped over the fence and came storming to the fatal spot where the dead dog lay. "No one but a rebel would have the heart to kill an innocent dog," he cried wrathfully. "And no one but a tyrant would shoot a harmless rabbit," returned Elliot in grieving tones. "Why didn't you keep it away then?" retorted Frank sharply. "You know you coaxed it into the yard on purpose to kill it," Elliot replied, watching his enemy closely. "Never mind, Elliot. I am sorry about the poor dog, and I will pay Frank for his loss," said Mrs. Hamilton quietly. Just then Mrs. Mathews appeared at the gate, and commanded Frank to come home, adding in a loud, angry tone, "Your life is not safe among such lawless ruffians." "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones," began Elliot, but his mother stopped him promptly, just as a bucket of dirty suds came dashing over the fence, bespattering him from head to foot. "Take that for your impudence, you young rascal," cried Mrs. Mathews in an angry voice. "Are you a woman?" said Mrs. Hamilton, trembling in every fiber; but a sight of her suffering husband at the window stopped the angry words which she was about to utter. Hurrying Elliot into the house, she closed the door upon her adversary. Though his clothes were changed for dry ones almost immediately, the boy took a severe cold, which was followed by a fever that kept him indoors for several weeks. After his recovery there was no communication whatever between them, and the grass over the path was suffered to grow rank, shutting out all the evidence that had existed of the good will between the Mathews and their former neighbors. The summer waned, and bright autumn had changed her many-hued dress for the snows of winter, when a malignant type of scarlet fever broke out among the children in the village. So fatal did it prove that it was almost impossible to secure nurses for those attacked. John Mathews' children were among the first to be seized, and the neighbors, unwilling to expose their own little ones, left the family to suffer for want of assistance. It was a dark, stormy evening, that Mrs. Hamilton, looking from her own window across to her neighbor's smitten home, determined to conquer her own feelings and go to her enemy's assistance. There was nothing to hinder, for Elliot had gone to the city to escape contagion, and good, faithful Margaret could be trusted with the invalid, who really required very little attention. I am sure that she would not have ventured even after she was ready had not the little white coffin she had seen carried out of the house that day reminded her painfully of the time when the death angel had called for two of her own birdlings in the same night. Knocking timidly at the door, a faint voice bade her "come in." "I have come to see if I can be of any service to you," she explained in a low voice. "Have I not trouble enough without your coming to taunt me?" cried Mrs. Mathews in amazement. "Hush, Abby, hush," said John kindly. "I come only as a friend," began Mrs. Hamilton in faltering tones. "After all the evil I have done you?" but Mrs. Hamilton stopped the piteous wail, holding her arms out for the little limp form the tortured mother was carrying. "Give me the baby and do try to get a little rest. I know just how you feel;" and then she went on to tell the stricken woman how she had closed the eyes of her own two little girls in the same hour, and how her mother heart had bled when she saw the little coffin carried away from the smitten home that morning. The two women mingled their tears together over the memories of their precious dead; then the poor, worn-out mother, yielding to her new friend's entreaty, left the sick children in her care, and, throwing herself across the bed, took the first sound sleep that had come to her since her loved ones had fallen ill. Though another little grave was dug in the churchyard before the plague was stayed,10Mrs. Mathews had a friend to help her bear her trials, and she fully agreed with the physician that the recovery of her other children was due in a great measure to the good nursing they had received at the hands of her new neighbor; and long before the cloud was lifted from the shadowed home the offensive nails were drawn from the long closed gate, and all the barriers between the two families, North and South, had been broken down. When the time came that they could talk of the old war troubles, they were charitable toward each other's beliefs, and their tears mingled together over the Blue and the Gray of their kin who were sleeping far away on the battle field.—Christian Work.