Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-02-04

he exclaimed, anal taking q step to-
wards me, lie cooked his rifle.
shut my eyes, thinking that in an
other moment l should be out of pain
| in eternity-for those boys in butternut
didn't often miss their man.
/ Bat instead, heard, after moment,
his gun flung down. Then his arms
clutched under me, and he took me up
clear OF the ground. | screamed with
pain.
"Wal, l don't blame yer for yellin'. "
be said, as he half-carried, half-dragged
me along. Then, after stopping to
catch breath, he said, reckon, Yank,
I'd been kinder to yer to gin yer the
/ bullet. For the doctors will be cuttin
and hackin' yer. Not mite O chloro-
form in our whole command. either,
they say. And eff yer do pull through,
they'll chuck yer inter some of them
blasted prison holes"
"Shoot me, then, and have done with
it," gasped. for the fire was close on
! us.
But he logged me on; and he was
scarcely as heavy man as myself.
Every few rods he had to stop. The
flames seemed spreading all around us.
and every moment or two shell would
tear through the woods and explode,
scattering fire, and whizzing fragments
of iron everywhere.
| He got me to q stone wall which
skirted the woods on one side, and
lifted me over it. There was a field
with short green grass on the other
side. Here he Put me down, partly in
the shade OF a great ash.
"Thar, Yank," he said, Eyer out of
the fire, anyhow. Can't stay by yer.
though. must git my shootin' iron
back thar in the brush. ef faint burnt
up. But Ill tell yer what, Yank, I'll
look round here to night--ef amt
dead myself fore that time, and we hold
on here"
God bless you, JOHNNY 1 ex-
claimed; "but just one sip of water if
you've got it,"
Thunderation! he muttered. Il
haint got half pint in my can, and
don't expect to get another fill-up to
day!"
But he jerked off his canteen, took
one swallow, and then put it into my
weak hands. "Thar, drink, you poor
sufferin' cuss! Yer may keep it, too.
Hang on to it eff ye can till I come
round. Fer tin wars scacer than
twenty-dollar bills in our corps, a
burned sight"
l felt him prop my head up with
something-it was his old, worn, yell
low-gray coat. The next moment he
was gone-over the wall, back into the
burning woods, after his gun.
never saw him again. The Confed-
crates did not "hold on" there, as all
know who have read the story of that
terrific struggle.
I say terrific, for it is quite the fash
ion with many of our brave stay at
homes to say that when Grant took the
command, Lee was already beaten, and
all We had to do was to chase the Con-
federates to Richmond. 1t is but an
ill tribute to the brave men we fought,
or to the fifty or sixty thousand of our
brave fellows who lie buried at Wilder
ness, SPottsylvania and Cold Harbor.
Our corps retook the ground. Litter
in the day was found and taken to the
rear.
Whether my Johnny, by whose
Christ.li pity I was rescued, survived
the succeeding battles of the campaign
or not, do not know. Often since
that day have thought that l might
have asked his name and regiment. but
| was in no condition to think of that.
To me he was simply Johnny but
n lone the less brother.
He saved my life, saved me from a
horrible death, and that, too, in the
brutal hurry and fury of battle, when
l honestly cannot say thatsI should have
done as much for Confederate lying
there in my place. Only soldier can
really understand it.
l might not, as have said have res
cued Johnny, if he had been in my
place, but after that act, I should have
done it at the risk of my life. That
rough boy in butternut taught me a
lesson Of the true brotherh hood of man,
that has influenced all my life since.
Had the war continued after I got
we'll, might have fought on from
principle, but should never have fred
another bullet in malice; and always
feel as If 1 had brother somewhere
down South.
1t will take more than any of the
bloody-shirt" politicians can say, to
make me forget the boy in gray Sho
iugged me ont Of the burning woods ct
the Wilderness.
The old battered canteen be left me
l am still hanging on to-" as he re-
auestea. If he is living to-day. and
tin war" is scarce with him, he can
have it; and with it, too, whatever else
l can give that he may need more than
l, for perhaps this little sketch may be
the means by which I may hear from
him.-[Y Youths Companion.