Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-10-31

uOuIS u uncertainty III TIE SOHIuOe OF
her own chamber.
Through the papers there came
rumOrs OF hurried marcheS.and Drepar-
ations, and then the news of a terrible
slaughter, from the shock Of two great
armies meeting in deadly conflict Oh,
how eagerly, yet apprehensively, she
sought for a fuller and more complete
list of the killed and wounded; but so
fearful had been the havoc, that only
the most limited and insufficient re
ports could be made out from the i'm
perfect information cleaned by the re-
portorial staff.
Lieut.. Pullman escaped with slight
musket shot scratch on the ankle. He
sent home report, so far as his own
personal observation extended, which
was not beyond the limits of his own
company, that was more reliable than
any general newspaper report could be,
because it particularized. Among the
names Of the twenty-nine killed and
wounded and missing, was that of Tom
Sterling. He was simply reported as
missing, though not having turned up
at the date Of the dispatch, he was ma
turally supposed by the lieutenant to be
dead. The information in question was
forwarded by Lieut.. Pullman to his wife,
and through her Mrs. Sterling received
the terrible news, which served no other
purpose than to PROSTATE her upon bed
of sickness. She, however, recovered
from the shock to a certain extent,
though her former elasticity Of spirits
was gone.
She rarely smiled, and never mingled
with the gay and thoughtless society of
which she had once been the acknow-
lodged pride and ornament, though,
from the beginning, she persistently de-
clared her disbelief in the accredited
supposition Of her husbands death.
Corporal Hicks, wounded and hardly
conval escent from hospital, returned
home on furlough, and reported that
Tom had fallen by his side, as ne sup
posed, MORALLY wounded; but so far as
his knowledge went, the body had not
been recovered from among the slain.
Six months later, Fred Ashton, Toms
dearest friend, came home with his arm
shattered. He visited Susan, and made
his report in due form. On the first roll
call after going INTO the fight Tom did
not answer to his name. He was a good
soldier, he said, and it was the first time
he had been known to miss roll call.
A manly tear coursed down the young
soldiers cheek at the remembrance,
and he hastily gulped down something
that seemed to be rising in his throat.
With others he had gone out on the
battlefield to look after Tom. He found
one poor fellow with his head shot
away, whom, it was inferred, might be
Tom, from the fact that the ring found
upon his little finger was the exact cOun-
terlart of one known to be the posses
sion of his friend. There were no papers
or anything of the sort, by which the
body could be more fully identified
But the ring, if not his, was precisely
like it. Would she recognize it if she
saw it?
Susan glanced at the speaker Gag
erly. She was quite sure she would
know it.
81 removed it from his finger" said
Fred, "before we buried him!" and he
drew it from his pocket, deeply moved
by the recollection, and handed it to
her,
She bestowed one swift eager glance
upon the tiny trife-so minute vet so
important WITHSTAND without q
word or a moan she sank insensible
upon the hard floor. She had recogniz-
ed the ring as the one he had worn when
at home. Fred was alarmed at this I'M
expected turn, and called in assistance.
She had merely tainted, and was quickly
restored to consciousness on the appli-
cation of cold water
There Is no positive proof it was
Tom" said the young soldier, soothing
ly. "There might have been a score
of rings of the same pattern
upon thesame battlefield. There is no
inscription upon ia plain gold ring
by which it could be distin-
gulshed from any other of the same
fashion. He may have been taken
and if SO, it may be reason
able to infer he may yet return. [
have never quite reIinouished the
hope that Tom would yet turn up.
Stranger things than that are happen
ing every day in the army Of the
Potomac. You recollect al Houghton?
He was missing in the same fight. and
his body was not recovered. Everybody
supposes he was taken prisoner: and,
but for this ring, which to my mind is
no positive proof at all, it might be lust
as reasonable to infer that Tom has
met with the same fate.
Susan listened to these remarks with
the profoundest interest. There was a
possibility of truth in the hope thus
held forth, and she grasped at it as the
drowning man graspS at straw. For
a few days she seemed to brighten up
under its influence, but as no further
evidence appeared corroborative of
this hopeful supposition, she gradually
relapsed into her former state of
melancholy. Still; at no time did she
quite relinquish the agreeable hope
which Fred had awakened, though she
became thinner, paler, and
more spiritless as time progressed. Her
occupied a house directly across
the street from the depot, and the high
est enjoyment that she now took was
to sit at a window and watch the in
coming trains, till it became not only
habit but necessity to her mOntOn-
Gus existence. To Susan Sterling the
station house opposite was becoming as
much an object of insane interest, as
were the precincts Of the Chancery
Court to poor little Miss. Elite. No one
knew better than she-not even the CON
ductors themselves-what time the
trains would be due in Fulham: and
if she beheld a returned soldier mingl-
ing with the freshly arrived passengers
on the platform, oh! how eagerly She
longed to address him, thinking that
perhaps he might have come from