Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-07-17
XIII or Cure.
A STORY OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

A STORY OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.
The Major is a capital fellow, Doc
tor, | said, as we sauntered out to
smoke our cigars in the garden. after an
early dinner-''but he ought to be more
merciful to US wretched bachelors.
What with his charming wife and that
exemplary baby, he makes it difficult to
respect the tenth commandment"
= You admire Mrs Layton ?"
admire her. If she were not Char
lies wife, ! should fall head over heels
in love with her. / have seen fairer
faces, but for DEAR pretty, womanly
ways I never met her equal.
"You couldn't understand mans
thirsting for her bloOd?"
Good gracious! A wretch who
could touch one of her golden hairs
roughly deserves to be crucified.
"And yet for many days she was in
deadly peril of her life.
For her fortune?"
"She had none" ....
Don't tell me, Doctor, that an in
nocent creature like that could give any
one cause for revenge"
mo; won't tell you anything of the
kind
Il think see-some one was madfy
in love with her?"
eff you guessed till this day was out
you would not find the cause" said my
friend. Let us sit down here, and /
will explain. It's no secret; / wonder
the Major has not told you.
''Down here" was on a rustic seat
that the Majors pretty wife had made
at the end of his garden, close to where
little rill, soon to be lost in the blue
Hudson, tinkled its way through his
grounds.
During the war;" began the doctor,
Il served in the army, in the same regi-
ment with an old schoolmate. He was
as fine soldier as ever drew a sword.
Hale, hearty and sound in mind and
body; eager to see service-and he saw
plenty. / thought that he bore a charm
ed life, till one day he was carried into
the hospital tent in bad way. A ball
had entered his shoulder, glanced on the
clevicle (what you call the collar bone),
and had gone s0naeaohere. That was all
we could tell, for there was no orifice
but whether it had passed up or down,
or taken some erratic course round about
such as balls will take, we knew not.
and no probing could find out Well,
he recovered, went North to regain his
strength, and for nearly three years i
lost sight of HIM. When the war was
over, and | had begun to practice as a
civilian in New York, met him again.
But how changed He was a living
skeleton, and saw in moment that he
had become habituated to Opium. Do
you know what that means? No i? Well,
throw a bucket of water into a piano,
and then light fire under it, and its
strings will not be more out of tune than
an opium smokers nerves are out of
order. He asked me if he might call
on me at MY Office, and of course / as
| sented, but it was days before he came.
and when he did arrive knew he had
been preparing himself for fight with
| himself. Some foolish patients come
prepared to hide the truth, some to mag
Nifty their ills. 1t is part of our business
in serious cases, to examine mans
mind before we. ask about his body.
and hardened as surgeon must be- il
confess that the condition of my poor
friend frightened me. There was an ex-
preston in his eye that had never seen
in any sane being; and what made this
worse was the calm, busiuess-like man.