Union Down A Signal of Distress Author:Scott Campbell General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1893 Original Publisher: Arena Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select fr... more »om more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. THE WISEACRE FAMILY. It was a royal hill, when viewed from the sandy sidewalk of the sandier street. Looking from its summit in the month of August, one might see, a good half-mile away, the blue waters of Massachusetts Bay; and, when the day was remarkably clear, a long faint line upon the horizon indicated where the sandy cape, like a huge bended arm, lay low upon the surface of the sea. Along the shelving shore, where the wavelets lost their motion in a rippling song upon the air, could be discerned great patches of bright green thatch, waving in the breeze and rolling rhythmical with the blue waters of the bay; also huge isolated rocks, landmarks for generations, yet slowly crumbling under the resistless teeth of time. Nearer yet was a broad stretch of marshland, dotted by tall stacks of brown salt hay, standing like gigantic insects upon innumerable legs; a wide stretch of lowland, interlaced by winding creeks, like huge twisting serpents glistening in the sunshine. And nearer yet were dark-green meadows, rich with food for the kine, standing with round distended sides, and gazing with lazily longing eyes over the gray stone-walls at the bounteous cornfields and waving seas of yellow grain. While seemingly at one's feet lay the dusty, sandy road, cut deep with ruts and winding away toward the heart of the town, the roofs and spires of which could be seen a mile or more away. Within a hundred yards of this hill, from whose summit might have been viewed the scene we have imperfectly pictured, there stood an old farm-house. It was situated somewhat back fro...« less