EVELYN'S SPOOL
"Who told you?"
"She."
"Yes," says Jon, "that makes her doubly precious."
Well, I didn't mean that.
"Why?" asks I. "No one cares whether she's Union or rebel. No one but us knows what she is. I don't suppose that makes her any more precious, does it, Jonthy?"
"Yes, it does, daddy," says Jon. "She's nearer to us all! What did you mean, daddy?"
"Well," I says, "I kind of thought that having a rebel in the house would keep us on good terms with the Confederates, and keeping loyal ourselves would keep us straight with the Unions. There wasn't much sense in it, because no one knows of her sentiments. Just a kind of a brauch. But I felt that way."
"I suppose it is the very worst way to feel," laughs Jon. "You know what always happens to people who carry water on both shoulders! I don't think that that has had the least thing to do with keeping the secessionists from both-
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