Litchfield enquirer., 1872-04-04

.sVlulte 90, when he caught at the words, blushed like girl and nodded sunny assent to Strong. From that day until tha end the s0briquet chung to him.
 The disaster at Bull Run was followed, as the reader knows, by long period of masterly inactivity, so far as the Army of the Potomac was concerned. Mcdowell, Arlington Heights. and Mcclellan, who had distinguished himself in Western Virginia, took command of the forces in front of Washington, and bent his ener- gies to recognizing the demoralized troops. It was dreary time to the peo- ] pie of the North, who looked fatuously from week to week for ''the fall of Rich mond;" it was sad, dreary time to the denizens of that vast city of tents and l forts which stretched in semicircle be- fore the beleaguefed Capitol,-so tedious and soul-wearing time, that the hard ships of forced marches and the horrors of battle became desirable things to 1 them.
 Ro1-call morning and evening, guard duty, discrepancies, and occasional re- connoissance, dominos, wrestling matches, l and such rude games as could be carried on in camp, made mp the sum of our lives. The arrival of the mail with letters and papers from home was the event of the day. We noticed that Bladburn neither wrote nor received any letters. When the rest of the boys were scribbling away for dear life, with drum-heads and knapsaeks and cracker-boxes for writing desks, he would sit sereneIy smoking his pipe, but looking out on us through rings of smoke with face expressive of the tenderest in- ! terest.
 s'Look here, Quite So," Strong would say, ''the mailbag closes ill half an hour Ain't you going to write ?"
 'I believe not today" Bladburn would reply, as if he had written yesterday, or would write tomorrow; but he never wrote. ..
 He had become great favorite with us, and with all the officers of the regiment. He talked less than any man ever knew, but there was nothing gloomy or sullen in his reticence. It was sunshine, and brightness, but no voice. Unassum- ing and modest to the verge Of shyness, he impressed every one as man of singu- lar pluck and nerve.
 "Do you know," said Curtis to mo one day, 'sthat fellow Quite So is clear grit, and when we come to close quarters with our Palmetto brethren over wonder, he'll do something devilish?"
 "What makes you think so?''
 ''Well, nothing quite explainable; the exasperating coolness of the man, as much as anything. This morning the boys were teasing Muffin Fan," Ca small mulatto- girl who used to bring mullins into camp three times week, at the peril of her life } "and Jemmy Blunt of Company K you know him-was rather rough on the girl, when Quite So, who had been read ing under tree shut one finger i'll his book, walked over to where the boys were skylarking, and with the smile of a iuve- nile angel on his face lifted Jemmy out of that and set him down gently in front of his tent. There Blunt sat speeches., staring at Quite So, who was back again under the tree, begging away at his little Latin grammar"
 it bd aboads fR, tR qfgammsG 4 He tlSg alEaES over over it's dogs-eared pages at odd intervals and in out-of-the-way places. Half dozen times day he would draw it out from the bosom of his blouse, which had taken the shape of the book just over the left breast, look at it as if to assure himself it was all right, and then put the thing back. At night the volume lay beneath his pill low. The first thing in the morning, be- fore he was we'll awake, his hand would go groping instinctively under his knap- sack in search of it.
 | A devastating curiosity seized upon us boys concerning that Latin grammar, for we had discovered the nature of the book. | Strong wanted to steal it one night, but concluded not to- ''In the first place" !" reflected Strong, "I have mt the moral courage. Quite So would placidly break every bone in my body" And I believe Strong was not far out of the way. Sometimes I was vexed with myself for allowing this tall, simple-hearted country fellow to puzzle me? City bred he certain l ly was not; but his manner, in spite of his l awkwardness, had an indescribable air of refinement. Now and then, too, he drop 1 ped word or phrase that showed his l familiarity with unexpected lines of read 'The other day." said Curtis, with the 1 slightest elevation of eyebrows, ''he had 1 the cheek to correct my Latin for me-" In short, Quite So was daily problem to the members of Mess G. Whenever he was absent, and Blakely and Curtis and Strong and got together in the tent, we discussed him, evolving various theories 1 to explain why he never wrote to anybody and why nobody ever wrote to him. Had the man committed some terrible crime, and fled to the army to hide his guilt? ? Blakely suggested that he must have mur- dered ''the old folks" What did he mean | by eternally coming that tattered Latin 1 grammar And was his name Bladburn, anyhow? Even his imperturbable amia- bility became suspicious. And then his 1 frightful reticence If he was the victim of any deep grief or crushing calamity, why didn't he seem unhappy? What bus 1 mess had he to be cheerful?
 '1t's my opinion" said Strong, ''that he's rival Wandering Jew; the original Jacobs, you know, was dark fellow"
 Blakely inferred from something Blad- burn had said, CT something he hadn't said,-which was more hkely,-that he had been schoolmaster at some period of his life.
 ''Schoolmaster be hanged P was Strong's comment; ''can you fancy schoolmaster going about conjngating baby verbs out of dratted little spelling book? No, Quite So has evidently been a-a- Blest 1 if I can imagine svhat he's been l''
 Whatever John Bladburn had been. he 1 was a lonely man. Whenever I want 8 type of perfect isolation, shall think of him, as he was in those days, moving re- mote, self-contained, and alone in the midst of two hundred thousand men. l IL.
 The Indian summer, with its infinite beauty and tenderness, came like a re- proach that year to Virginia. The foi- age, touched here and there with pris matic tints, dropped motionless in the golden haze. The delicate Virginia creep CT was almost minded to put forth it's scarlet buds again. No wonder the lovely phantom-this dusky Southern sister of the pale Northern June-ingered not long with us, but, filling. the once peace fuf glens and valleys with her pathos, stole away rebukefully before the savage en- ginery of man. The preparations that had been going on for month in arsenals and foundries at the North were nearly completed For l weeks past the air had been filled with rumors of an advance; but the rumor of to-day refuted the rumor of yesterday,