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Duke Of Stockbridge (Notable American Authors Series - Part I)
Duke Of Stockbridge - Notable American Authors Series - Part I Author:Edward Bellamy Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. The Tavern-Jail at Barrington Peleg's information, although of a hearsay character, was correct. Perez Hamlin was coming home. The day following... more » the conversation in the barroom of Stockbridge tavern, recorded in the last chapter, about an hour after noon a traveler on horseback approached the village of Great Barrington, on the road from Sheffield. He wore the buff and blue uniform of a captain in the late Continental army, and strapped to the saddle was a steel-hilted sword which had apparently experienced a good many hard knocks. The lack of any other baggage to speak of, as well as the frayed and stained condition of his uniform, indicated that however rich the rider might be in glory, he was tolerably destitute of more palpable forms of wealth. Poverty, in fact, had been the chief reason that had prevented Captain Hamlin from returning home before. The close of the war had found him serving under General Greene in South Carolina, and on the disbandment of the troops he had been left without means of support. Since then he had been slowly working his way homeward, stopping a few months wherever employment or hospitality offered. What with the lack and insecurity of mails, and his frequent movements, he had not heard from home for two or three years, although he had written. But in those days, when that constant exchange of bulletins of health and businessbetween friends which burdens modern mail bags was out of the question, the fact perhaps developed a more robust quality of faith in the well-being of the absent than is known in these days. Certain it is that as the soldier rode along, the smiles that from time to time chased each other across his bronzed face, indicated that gay and tender anticipations of the meeting, now only a few hours away, left no ro...« less