Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-05-14

y" W loboVS hle cOiu pain through the
dark Hume 20 the upper air. Chilled,
weak, dizzy. he stumbled along the dark
way. repeating to himself the last words of
his mother when she died "Yea, though
| walk through the valley Of the shadow Of
death, | will fear no evil thy rod and thy
staff they comfort me-" Then he grew cold.
and his senses went out from him as can.
die blown by the wind.
The cheer that arose when the wheel
started reached Old Agate, and he hasten
ed to the spot, to learn that i'm had saved
the wheel, and il alive was struggling back
through the aume.
With curse on the cowardly crew.
which made them all turn pale, he dove in
himself.
IL seemed a year to the ozpectant wait
ers before be returned, but he came at last,
staggering out, with Jim hanging limp.
wet, and apparently dead on his shoulder.
Jim was not dead, but he lay deirious
in bed for weeks, talking incoherontly of
his father aud his mother, and muttering
nothing nothing'--in his fevered dreams.
AT last ho awoke to a dim, weak sense Of
life again he thought himself in dream.
land, for Old Agate-hard Old Agate was
kneeling by his bed, kissing his pale hand.
and sobbng like child, and thanking God,
between his sobs, that his sons life had been
spared to him, and be not left quite alone.
Jim grew strong again, and Old Agate
grew grim, but the cold journey through
the aumc, and the bedside experience after,
left their two souls heuceforth as ono.
Agate & Son rebuilt the mill, and in due
time Jim brought home Jennie Strong for
his wife. Old Agate grew young again,
living with his boy and his wife, watching
Jeunie's every wish, as he had before bis
own wife's.
\ still, happy household they made, jim,
Jeunie' aud Old Agate, though odd, very
odd, the villagers called them.
Two quiet years went over their heads
worth, as they often said to each other,
life time Of labor, ending in dcsolation
when Jennie died.
Agate x Son buried their idol. The vii.
layers did not see them heave sigh or
shed tear, and was scandalized at their
lack Of feeling had they belonged to the
church their calmness might have been at.
tributed to their Christian resignation ; but
for them, never having made an "open
profession" it did seem-well, odd. to say
the least of it,
They went on, however, in their silent
way together, making money as the old
wheel turned round from day to day, and
giving much Of it away as it came to them,
and scorning all thanks.
When the war broke out, Agate & Son
sold their property and went to the front,
Old Agate as Colonel of the Fifth, and
Jim as Captain of Company A in the same
regiment.
The patriots who sought to run the war
in its early stages, | mean the home patri.
OTIS, men of influence aud wealth, ex.State
Senators, ex-County Commissioners and
other ex-dignitaries, all thought Agate too
old but the Governor who had known
him from boy, thrust aside, without ex-
PLANTATION, all other applicants, aud gave
him the position.
went out with him as surgeon, at his
earnest solicitation. Said he, +" We shall
never come back alive-we want you to
see us decenily put under ground together,
by the side Of Susie and Jeunie, you must
see it done-and we want a witness that
we do our duty to the utmost, in deeds, not
wordsn
couldn't say much, choked when
| tried to answer, for the words seemed
like prophecy to me, but in broken way
| told him Of return to home crowned
with honors. He only shook his head and
said " Do you go with US or not ?"
answered, 4" Yes"
Through fire and smoke, through broken
bones and cut, mangled, quiveriug flesh,
over corpses, for two long years, followed
the Agate regiment to glory. The end
came in the battle of the Wilderness.
cannot tell the story of that terrible
second day, it is to me now confused
horror.
sawed bones, and cut human flesh,
bound up bleeding stumps, and sewed up
gaping wounds. There seemed no end to
the mangled carcasses that were brought me
that day for repairs.
dreaded to look on each suffering face,
and gave sigh of relief that it was not
that of Old ACUTE nor jim.
The roll-call on the second night was a
dull affair; the answers were few and far
between, only Ill answered out of the 800
who went into the battle two days before.
Among the missing were Old Agate and J i'm.
got attached to relief corps sent out
to gather up the wounded aud bury the dead.
Under the guidance Of soldier of the
regiment we followed the track, as they
fought up to, and through the rebel line, to
where, flanked and unsupported, with the
woods on fire behind them, with rebels on
the right and on the left, Old Agate gave
bis boys their last command" Boys, we
are ahead of the line fight your way back,
each for himself" he should have said,
"saure qui pe,tt, but he had never learned
French fight back they did. The way of
their retreat was plain it was strewn with
dead, and red all along, and where the dead
lay thickest and the ground was reddest,
we found Old Agate and his sou. Jims
arm was under the old mans head, aud they
were sleeping peacefully, but their eyes
were glazed, their chins were fallen, and
they did not breathe Near them a wound
ed rebel soldier lay, soit-eyed Southern
boy, who told me the story Of their last
fight tell il as he told il to me:
THE WOUNDED SOLDIERS STORY.
Doctor, the old one and the young one
died game. We tried hard to take 'em
alive 1T couldn't be done for two hours
we tried ii. You'll find bullets enough in