Read Online The Mirk and Midnight Hour by Jane Nickerson - Free Book Online

Confederate uniforms. Most of the onlookers smiled upon them fondly, but the sight made me shudder.
    The sound of horses’ hooves and marching feet reached us. Over the hill they came, long lines of men clad in ghostly gray, some on horseback, some on foot. Sunny, Miss Elsa, and all the others waved handkerchiefs and shouted goodbyes and God bless yous. I shrank back against the brick wall of the building behind me, watching, frozen, as my father and the soldiers moved through town, leaving us behind.
    A year ago, when Rush’s company left, newly sewn Stars and Bars flags hung from every balcony, along with paper rosettes and streamers. We showered them with flower petals as if it were a celebration. “It’ll be over in a month,” the boys had bragged, all jaunty and proud. We were free and independent. We hoped for little or no bloodshed, that they’d let us depart from the Union peacefully. We were innocent and stupid then. And sinful to be jolly over such a terrible thing. But we didn’t know. No more than Addie, the Northern girl whose letter I had read, had known as she and her friends played at war, with their military fashions and fancies.
    The good wishes hung heavy and mournful and echoing in the air. Just as the soldiers were nearly out of sight, they turned in theirsaddles and gave a resounding rebel yell, sounding like the scream of a banshee. I clapped my hands over my ears.
    Sunny burst into sobs. A little crowd gathered to pat her shoulders, offer handkerchiefs, and tell her everything would be all right.
    “I try not to be so sensitive,” she said in a choking voice, “but I can’t be like Vi-let.” She turned to me. “How can you be so unfeeling? How can you remain dry-eyed?”
    Several pairs of eyes turned my way and I went rigid under their examination. My fears and sorrows were deep, but private; I kept them to myself.
    As I silently waited for Sunny to regain her composure, my eyes were drawn to a group standing across the street, remote from the rest of the crowd. Amenze, the young VanZeldt fellow I had seen in our woods, and the older, bearded man loomed like shadows surrounding a slight man with spectacles and a forked silver beard. He wore a neat white suit and straw hat. The “improper” doctor. He appeared squat and gnomelike next to the VanZeldts.
    The shadows might well have been members of one family. All had the same loose, elongated limbs and severe, beautiful bone structure. While Amenze glowed in her shimmering garments, the two men wore shapeless shirts and ill-fitting dark trousers. I got the sense that their clothing was no more than a covering for them, that they hardly noticed what they wore. Their expressions, as they looked down their noses upon the world of men, were aloof and contemptuous, although I reminded myself not to judge too quickly; Amenze now appeared every bit as haughty as the others, yet she had tried to help me and had needed my help.
    Dr. VanZeldt must have felt my gaze, because he looked up now so that his spectacles glinted straight my way, causing me to blink. He flashed a swift, rather sweet smile and tipped his hat.
    I turned away, flustered, barely acknowledging the gesture. “Come on,” I said. “There’s Michael now.”
    Sunny squelched through the mud to the buggy, squealing, “Ooh! My shoes! My new shoes!”

“This farm has got to be the lonesomest place in the world,” Sunny said as she sulked in one of the shabby, overstuffed sitting room chairs.
    I shrugged. “Don’t worry. We won’t be lonesome once Cousin Seeley arrives. He’ll love to have you go on adventures with him all day long.”
    “Bite your tongue. I hope I never even have to see the child. Where can we keep him? The chicken house? Or better yet—aren’t little boys kind of like dogs?—can we tie him to a tree out back?”
    “Anna Bess, hush,” Miss Elsa said in her sweet, plaintive voice. “You know how wretched I’m feeling.” She seemed to be perspiring more