Frank\'s Campaign, or, Farm and Camp
CHAPTER I. THE WAR MEETING The Town Hall in Rossville stands on a moderate elevation overlooking the principal street. It is generally open only when a meeting has been called by the Selectmen to transact town business, or occasionally in the evening when a lecture on temperance or a political address is to be delivered. Rossville is not large enough to sustain a course of lyceum lectures, and the townspeople are obliged to depend for intellectual nutriment upon such chance occasions as these. The majority of the inhabitants being engaged in agricultural pursuits, the population is somewhat scattered, and the houses, with the exception of a few grouped around the stores, stand at respectable distances, each encamped on a farm of its own. One Wednesday afternoon, toward the close of September, 1862, a group of men and boys might have been seen standing on the steps and in the entry of the Town House. Why they had met will best appear from a large placard, which had been posted up on barns and fences and inside the village store and postoffice.
attire, and, sinking down in the waterways under the lee of the gunwale,
was soon sound asleep -- a sensible proceeding, which, as soon as
everything was secured, we hastened to imitate.
We had arranged our plans for the morrow in the following manner. Before
dawn, the whale-boat was to land all the party, including Lizzie, with the
exception of the pilot and his two men. He was to return to the 'Daylight'
after having put us ashore, and, getting under weigh as soon as the wind
was strong enough, was to take her round to a small inlet on the island,
some distance down Rockingham Channel, and there await either our arrival
or further instructions. Our expedition was to join him there in two or
three days at the farthest, perhaps sooner; but, whatever happened, he was
to remain with the cutter at the rendezvous, and on no account, nor under
any inducement, was he to quit until he either saw or heard from us,
however long the time might be. During the daytime the whale-boat was to
be kept hauled up alongside the cutter, with the carbines belonging to the
crew loaded and triced up under the thwarts, ready for immediate service,
and a bright look-out was to be kept on the channel, in both directions.
If the natives attempted the smallest communication with the mainland, the
whale-boat was to give chase immediately, and either intercept and capture
the canoes, or compel them to return to Hinchinbrook Island.
Such was the rough plan we sketched out for the guidance of the 'Daylight'.
With regard to ourselves, we could make no standing rule, for the country
was comparatively unknown to us, and we must, Micawber-like, trust to
something turning up and, in the pursuit of this happy event, must follow
CHAPTER I. THE WAR MEETING The Town Hall in Rossville stands on a moderate elevation overlooking the principal street. It is generally open only when a meeting has been called by the Selectmen to transact town business, or occasionally in the evening when a lecture on temperance or a political address is to be delivered. Rossville is not large enough to sustain a course of lyceum lectures, and the townspeople are obliged to depend for intellectual nutriment upon such chance occasions as these. The majority of the inhabitants being engaged in agricultural pursuits, the population is somewhat scattered, and the houses, with the exception of a few grouped around the stores, stand at respectable distances, each encamped on a farm of its own. One Wednesday afternoon, toward the close of September, 1862, a group of men and boys might have been seen standing on the steps and in the entry of the Town House. Why they had met will best appear from a large placard, which had been posted up on barns and fences and inside the village store and postoffice.