Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-07-12

contest between lflcHuSHlp ana HoH-
or upon the one side, and love upon
the other.
All! who will undertake to say
who will be the victor?
'Ben Granger, you are u brute, "
he would say to himself, almost
fiercely, as he went moodiIy about
his duties.
And this seemed to be about the
only conclusion he ever came to in
the matter.
AT last came Sherman's march to
the sea and with it the terrible bat
tie of Resaca.
Many noted the wild, reckless
courage with which Ben plunged
into the thickest of the fight on that
day.
When it was over, he was lying,
pale and faint, upon the sanguinary
field, with q terrible wound in the
shoulder.
"Poor fellow! A bad easel" said
the surgeon, as he went the rounds
that night and found Ben sleeping
after his wound had been dressed.
"But what is this?' picking up q
small pocket diary that lay upon the
table.
"That," said the waiter, sis some
thing that fell out when they took
off his coat. Perhaps you had bet
ter keep it till he RECEIVERS"
"Ah! / sce," said the doctor, "and
picture; sister or sweetheart, per-
haps. Pity she isn't here to nurse
the poor fellow"
And so he went oneround, taking
the picture with him, a picture that
reminded one wonderfully of the
girl away off among those Northern
hills-the girl with misty violet
eyes and sunny hair.
The same who, two days later,
looking over the paper, saw in the
list Of the wounded in that terrible
battle the name that was dearcr to
her than any other.
The same who, five days later,
knocked at the surgeons office Of
that hospital and made inquiry for Il
wounded soldier whose description
Ben answered precisely.
"Stay moment" said the sur
gcon, and he produced the little bit
of paste board. 81 found it in one
of the rooms; your face brought it
to my memory"
"Show me where you found this"
But what need to prolong my
story?
Perhaps every one would not
have taken that great brown hand
in thcirs, and kissed that pale fore
head as little Ella did, when u few
moments later she was ushcrcd in
to where Ben was lying.
But she did, and he, great awk
ward fellow that he was, actually
cried as she sat there and told him
of his mother, who was unable to
come when they read the news, and
Of poor, dear Charley sleeping so
quietly in the churchyard at home.
With her to nurse him, he was
soon able to travel, and not many
weeks later found them again at
home.
But it was long before he was
again the same great, strong-breast-
ed fellow that he had once been.
But both health and spirits seem
ed to come back to him more rap
idly, after certain day in the early
spring, when he and Ella had gone
to see Charities grave, and sitting
there by his headstone, she had told
all about the poor fellows death,
and of his little sweetheart away
down in the "Sunny South,' and Of
the message he had left for her, to
be sent with his picture.
All this she told him sitting there
by the little green mound-and
morc-for when he gathered the
little hands within his own, and
looking again into the misty depths
of the violet eyes, asked her if she
could love such q great, old, awk-
ward bear rs he was, she told him
yes.
And gathering the weeping form
to his heart, he felt that he was in
deed rich in the legacy which his
friend had left him.