Mam' Sarah told Roberta that she was going down to the tobacco fields,
early Sad-day morning, July 4, '63, and Roberta coaxed her mamma to let
she and Polly and Dilsy go with her. Although Federal cannon were planted
along the bluff overlooking Green River, their presence occasioned no
especial uneasiness, nor suspicion of impending warfare. Mrs. Marsden as
well as everybody else had grown accustomed to them. Almost during the
entire civil war that point was thought important on account of the
bridge; army stores were constantly shipped South that way.
So the three children started off, merry as larks, with their trusty
companion.
On either side of the turnpike road were green fields flushed with light.
The morning air stirred about them, redolent in sweet scents and attuned
with the many voices of summer. They heard the drowsy hum of bees; and
butterflies were there, thick as motes in the midday sun. Roberta's
observant, nature-loving eyes roved delightedly from one point to another
of the sunny landscape, while she repeated gaily to Mam' Sarah a little
couplet. The child's memory was stored with quaint rhymes:
"A country lane between fields of clover
Rippling in sunshine over and over.
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