The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-12-14

Vel, John Wtdaif nfst saw janet on !
board a Kennebec steamer,-literally on |
board, if you will rightly consider the deriya-
ton Of that term. John Wildair was sitting |
on the deck, at Bath, watching as the pas
| sepgers came on board. And two men |
| brought an old lady, in a chair, down the |
wharf and upon the deck; and Janet came
with her, and wrapped her up warm, and
| codded her, and made her feel quite at home.
| Then the old lady wished she had some of |
the oranges which German woman was
selling on the wharf; and Janet ran ashore to
buy them. While the German fiddled about
| the change, the boat cast OFF, the captains |
bell struck, and they had fairly pulled the |
eanovay in. when Janet came running back
with her fruit
Did she stop? Not she
Please run it on again. she said; and the
wharf hands obeyed her,-just as Dan obey
ed her in the pasture. And the little bird,
| as | called her before, ran right over the
| board.-the boat moving the end along stead
| ily as She did so,-and sprang upon the deck.
as perfectly unconscious as if she had been
walking the floor. Years after John Wildair
tried to make her remember it; but she did
not remember it all said. indeed there was
nothing to remember. She said there was
no danger, and consequently no courage;
that the plank would remain on the boat
fully five seconds, and the sowest woman in
| Chrstendom could have crossed in two Still
John Wildair wondered when he saw her do
it: and, as believed, admired her then and
there, that she did not spend ten seconds fist
IN inquiries OF the wharf-n,en whether or no
1T would be safe to cross the gangway.
But John was destined to see her again
far, far away.
Tom Trevor went to the war in the Forty
seventh Maine Rifles. Tom was the wildcat,
black-haired brother that dared everything
and went everywhere. And after that hor-
rid carnage at Bells Ford, when the lists of
the Forty-seyenth were printe /; Toms name
was among the missing. Dead perhaps?
Janet said, ''No, not dead.'' She was sure
he was not dead. Ii he had been shot, some
man would have seen him fall, and would
have told fit; for they all liked Tom. No:
jane, with all her own clear-sightedness,
which is what Mr.. Billings and call "Con
fidence," pronounced that he was in rebel
prison. Then the next thing for her to do
was to go and find him. Her father would
not hear of it; for, as l said he worshipped
Janet. But, because people are fain to obey
those whom they worship, he had to do as
Janet babe him before he knew it; and in
fewer days than ii has taken me to tell his
story, as We say when we write in the Dime
Series, Janet was at Washington, besieging
Knapp at the Sanitary, and Stanton in his
den, and Gen. Townsend in his, for some sort
Of pass that would carry her across the lines.
there was no pass tor her of any kind or sort;
and they all told her, with great tenderness.
that she would have done much better to
stay at home
But Janet did not go home. By this time
they knew and she knew, that Tom Trevor
was in Richn' ond, in Hospital No. 21, where
were our wounded prisoners. Whether he
was there because he was sick or because he
was wounded, she did not know nor could
anybody learn; but he was there. What
Janet did was to go up to Harper's Ferry.
Then she turned up at Stanton and Lexing-
ton, and, one fine day appeared in Lynch
burg,-qute comfortably within rebel terri
tory,-very seedy, and speaking very bad
Engl sh and very good French She called
on all the ministers in Lynchburg: she wait
ed at Lynchburg till she could be sure wheth-
erthey would not want her as a teacher in
! the academy. Meanwhile she knit stockings
like fury for the wounded; and in the hos
pital there was not a volunteer nurse as
ready and careful as Janet, nor so universal
favorite as she. And so it happened that
when, in the spring of'64, Butler struck in
so suddenly at Bermuda Hundred, and fought
the battle OF the fog; aud when the wounded
began to be sent to the rear from the Wilder
ness and Spottsylvania; when DR.. MacGre-
gor and Mr.. Harris went down to Richmond
with fresh spring vegetables for the wounded,
Mile. Lacretelle, whom you and | know
| DCttCl do cdHct, went VIII GueW WlCu ex-
| press charges to look after certain wounded
OF the Twenty-ninth Virginia. Nobody
could go in without DR.. MacGregor's pass;
but he would take Mile. Lacretelle any
| where.
That was the way that it happened that ia
net, after she had carried to Adam Clement
the stockings his mother had sent, and to
| Jesse Burton the headrest Mary had sent,
and the boxes of home-baked bread to 10.
Stratton and Walt. Victor, and the letters to
twenty others, whom she found in one hos
pital and another, appointed herself to duty
one day at Hospital No. 81, with note from
Dr.. MacGregor to our good friend, DIR. Sam
pie, who was in charge there. The note said
that she was perfect nurse, and could speak
French and German well. Sample had little
to do with French or with German; but he
had no surplus of perfect nurses And so it
was, that one morning when Tom Trevor
was waiting for his breakfast of mush and
molasses, it was brought to him, not by the
nice red-turbaned black woman who brought
it Monday, but by a tiny little white woman
| in the full dress of a sister of charity. Tom
hoped foot off his bed when the sister of
charity turned round on him; but the sister
OF charity magnetized Tom also, so that his
"Janet" died unspoken. But from that
moment, L can tell you, Tom began to get
well.
So did John Wildair, who lay in the next
| UCu, anu 81 ulu JLe OLllGllS ana The
| JoneseS and the rest with whom this story
has nothing to do. Never was there such a
sunshiny place as was that ward of No. 81,
till they were all packed up and packed off,
and sent back into the country.
And then! Why, by that time, Mile. Lacre-
telle had her way as perfectly as any red tip
ist of them all. Not DR.. Sample nor DR..
MacGregor could draw up acquisitions with
more formality, insist on precedent mere GER
than Ia
never asked for anything that was not rght
and when she asked for anything, she asked
| as il she were certain it was to be granted.
So the end was, that it always was granted
| Tom Trevor was assigned to Lynchburg.
Dear me! how John Wildair wished that he
could be assigned to Lynchburg. He would
have given his hand had he dared ask her to
assign him to Lynchburg. And the only rea-
son he did not dare was his fear that she
would find out, by his asking, how it was a
matter of life and death for him to 90 there.
Queer human nature! He hoped she knew
she was all in all to him: and yet that was
the one thing he did not tell her, and was so
afraid she would find out. WHY was he
afraid? Why? Oh! it is the old old story.
What if she did find out, and then moved
Tom into Ward A, ard let Rebecca come in
to Ward b in her place,-what would John
Wlldair do then, poor thing? So John Wild
air did not say one word; and so he was as
signed to Lewisburg, when they were assign
ed to Lynchburg.
Die OF broken heart, not bit of it, He
did not die at all: he got well. He bribed
black brother TO let him out of window;
and he stole horse and rode him thirty
miles before daylight. Then he slept all
day in barn; then he stole another
horse, and then another: and so he turned
up at Harper's Ferry; and so he was
III Battery Seven in front of Petersburg;
and SO he marched under Ord to Appomat-
tox Court House; and so, when Janet
brought poor Tom, still limping, down to
our lines, and hunted up the Forty-seventh
Maine, John Wildair was in command, be-
cause he ranked every officer left in the field.
And did not John Wildair tell her then how
glad he was to see her?
Yes. And she was glad to see him! And
John had her and Tom sent back to the field
hospital in an old carryall, ana in the even
ing came down to see how Tom had borne
the journey. And after that he took Janet
out to see the sunset behind the river; and
they walked and they walked, and John told
her how desolate all life had been to him
since she and Tom To T