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.
ascent from them is toilsome. Nevertheless, the road leads to the blue
mountains of endless fame, which you see far away on the horizon. They
cannot be reached without labor; in fact, there is nothing worth having
that must not be won by toil. If you would have fruits and flowers,
you must plant them and care for them; if you would gain the love of
your fellow men, you must love them and suffer for them; if you would
enjoy the favor of Heaven, you must make yourself worthy of that favor;
if you would have eternal fame, you must not scorn the hard road that
leads to it."
Then Hercules saw that this lady, although she was as beautiful as the
other, had a countenance pure and gentle, like the sky on a balmy
morning in May.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"Some call me Labor," she answered, "but others know me as Virtue."
Then he turned to the first lady. "And what is your name?" he asked.
"Some call me Pleasure," she said, with a bewitching smile, "but I
choose to be known as the Joyous and Happy One."
"Virtue," said Hercules, "I will take thee as my guide! The road of
labor and honest effort shall be mine, and my heart shall no longer
cherish bitterness or discontent."
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.