The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-01-06
THE sERGEANTs STORY.

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coLD IN THE eRAvE-YARD OF A FRONTIER MILL
TARY POST. E....
I tell you, pard, in this Western wild,
As general thing the dirt's jlst piled
In q rather promiscuous sort Of way
On top offs soldiers mortal clay;
An aperson'd think by that marble shan,
An the flowers a waving above the graft
That a ALajor-general holds that tomb
But the corpse down there wore a n-Iyata's
plume.
remember the day they swore Mead In;
IicvaS9 pale completed, an rather thin;
He'd bin what they calleda trampiu beat,
An enlisted fur want o. somethiu' to eat:
It's always thecase Glat new recruit
Is the buis O. tricks f n .he older fruit;
An the way thc boys tQlnented the cuss
Was real down wicked an scaHdalous!
He %. i It all with a sickly smile,
An said If they'd wait till after awhile,
Till he got fed up in some sort o. trim,
It mightn't be healthy to fool with him
An knowed by the look o. the fellows eye
Fur all he was backward, an kind o shy,
That behind skeleton sort o. breast,
A heart ike lions found q nest. .-r ---
One night as the guard, at u O'Clock, a
Relieved the sentinel over the stock,
ThecOrp'ral seem a kind Of q glare
From towards the officers quarters, thereI
Thealarm was raised, an the big gun fired.
An the soldiers, not MORN half attired,
Came arushin' out on the barrack ground,
With a wild an excited sort.Of bound.
The ColOneIs headquarters was all aAre!
An the flames mountin' higher an higher.
An what with the yells O. men, and shrielzs
o. the officers wives with their whitish
cheeks,
An the roar O. the flames, an devush light
Illumlnatin' thepitch-dark night
rTwar such sight as I've often thought
-ou eould sesin hell when itsbIIin' hoti
sn'then, with 9 Wild despairin' yell,
Ihe Colonel shouted, my God where's NellE
His wife responded, "Shes in her bedF'
Then fell to the ground like a person dead
yp through the roof the mad flames roared,
An bIindin' smokein a dense mass poured
Thro' ev'ry crevice an crack, till the cloud
Hung above Ike death-black shroud!
Qt mightn't beout Of place TO state .a
AS kinder accountin' fur this Mead's fate
That Nell was an angel, ten years old,
With heart as pure as the virgin gold
An she had kind of an angel trick
ofreadin', an sieh like to the sick; -
An many's the dainty her hands d bear
To Mead, at times, in the hospital there)
Ny God! it was 'nougn to raise the hair
On the head Of marble statue! There
Stood crowd Of at least two hundred men,
None daring to enter that fiery pen
Men that were brave on an InJun TRAIL
Whose courage was never known to fall
But to enter the buildin' was certain death
So they stood there starin', and held theiT
breath.
Then all at once, with an eager cry,
An . hull dog look in his flashing eye
This Mead rushed up to the wailin' band,
An paper thrust In the COlonePs hand,
MY mothers address" he said an then
He sOrter smiled on the crowd oemen'
An just like flash oflightnin', shot
Tllro' the door right into the seethin' pcJl
With yell ofhOrror the crowd looked on
Fur they felt with him twas good bye, John.'
But halfa minute after the dash
An upstairs window burst with a crashI
An there stood Mead, like a smilln' saint,
The gal In his arms in n death-lIke faint
He yelled for a rope, and let her down,
To terra frma-which means the groun.
Then he tied the rope to a winder-sash
Fur to follow down-but there came crash,
An the blazln' roof, with fearful din
Thr0w'd the boy to the ground IS It tumbledin!
We carried him way from the fearful heat,
A hOpin' the noble heart still beat;
But the OldpOstsurgeon shook his head,
AM said, with a sigh, that Mead was dead!
1t wasn't long afOre little Nell
Got overt the shock; as soon as well
She circulated among the men,
With q sheet O. paper, an Ink, an pen,
An axed each one fur to give his mite
In remembrance O. Meads brave work t:..t
night!
An as theresult this monument stands,
Among flowers planted by Nellies hands
An every evenin' she walks up here,
The boys llsay, fur to drop a tear!
An I've seen her, too, on her knees right there
With her face turned upwards as If in prayerl
You see that lines up above to tell
As how the stone was Erected by Nell"
An down at the bottom, there yosTl see
some Bible quOtln'-
"HE DIED FoRME"s