Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-04-12
Max Rander's War Story.

IN Europe-father, mother, Thad and /.
Thad's my little brother, you know, two
years younger than / am.
WE'LL we had been in London with its
Jolly cabs and TO Paris, with its funny sew
ers, and were on our way back from little
Switzerland, with its big mountains, when
father took 1t into his head TO stop for a
week in poky old town somewhere in
We had been in this dismal place for
three or four days, when one morning mother
woke up with one of her nervous spells, so
instead of our all going off for long walk
in the country, father stayed at home with
mother, and sent Thad and me TO take a
stroll through the streets near the hotel,
where there was not any danger Of our get
ting lost
Well we started out and walked twice
around the market-place, stood gazing for
five minutes at some dusty cakes and candy
in confectioner's window and spent ten
minutes more in watching the German boys
play their stupid games during recess at the
Gymnasium, which is not gymnasium at
all, but a grammar school. Then when they
all went back to their books again, we were
left out in the roughly paved street with no
sidewalks, nobody in it to look at, no horse
cars to ride on, and the sun shining as
n i u
time and were hoping it would not rain.
"Oh, how these stones hurt my feet " ex-
claimed Thad, when we had stumbled in an
aimless sort of way for block or so. "Let's
go out in the country" And into the coun-
try we went.
] was pretty positive, to be sure, that
father would not have approved Of our go
ing outside the town, but what else could
we do to amuse ourselves
"It's better than bothering mother, any
way" finally decided and so we walked
and ran, played tag and counted trees, until
we grew tired, when, spying nice shady
spot under the brow of hill, told Thad
that we had better rest there awhile before
starting back again for dinner.
"Its a valley isn't it Max ?" observed
| my brother, as we stretched ourselves out
beneath large tree. He had Just begun
the study of geography, and feeling that l
| should never neglect any opportunity of
training his young mind in useful knowl.
edge, at once began to point out all the
geographical divisions within view, and was
much encouraged by the respectful atten-
ton Thad appeared to pay, until ] suddenly
| discovered that he was asleep.
"Poor little chap !" | muttered; /" I won
der If | ought not to wake him upP" and
while / was trying to guess whether we had
come one mile or three, in order to reckon
how long it would take us to return 10
to town,-well must have fallen asleep too,
for the blue sky and the green grass and the
yellow sun finally got so mixed up in my
mind that | wasn't sure of any of them,
and then all was blank, as authors say in
book when they don't exactly know how to
describe persons feelings in an upset or
runaway.
| all I lau in bat ~ pf hpll
place in the bank, with the tree in front of
me and Thad at my side, for an hour or two,
| guess.
Of course | don't know what went on
around me during that time, so | shant at
tempt to tell all / know is that when j had
the natural use of my senses once more,
heard such a horrible noise right over my
head as nearly made me lose them again.
Bang, bang, bang, and boom, b rr r, bang
What on earth could it all mean ? /
rubbed my eyes and felt of my ears to make
sure they were in good working order, and
then ventured to peek out around the tree
which | have said stood directly in front of
the little hollow in the side of the hill which
l had chosen for resting place.
There they were, whole regiments of
them, standing on the edge of the field OPP
posite, Just where it sloped down to form
|
He had been walked up too by this time,
and when he saw the troops over there blaz-
ing away right for the spot almost where we
were crouching, he looked pretty we'll scared,
can tell you.
"What are they doing, Max 2" he asked,
grabbing hold Of my jacket, and squeezing
up closer to me.
al guess they're fighting" replied.
"Who are they fighting with ?" But Just
then another bang, bang, banging over our
heads answered the question, and revealed
10 us the terrible fact that we were between
two fires.
won't pretend to say that | wasn't fright
ened, for was, and I'll put it to any other
fellow of eleven if he would not feel sort of
trembly about the knees to wake up from
nap and suddenly find himself between two
armies firing away at one another for dear
: life.
, "But didn't know there was any war here
now" continued my brother, when there
was slight pause in the hostilities, as the
newspaper writers say.
ooh, you never can calculate on countries
over here" | returned, as | wiped the per-
SEPARATION from my forehead. al spose the
emperor's got mad with France again, and
they're going to kill off several thousand
poor chaps who don't feel mad bit, to fix
matters. Those are Germans over there;
/, can tell by the uniforms, so of course the
French must be on our side. Now" But
at that instant the firing began again worse
than ever.
The smoke filled the little valley in clouds,
80 we couldn't see how many men fell and
when it blew away, there was nobody lying
on the ground SO we concluded they must
have cleared the field of the killed and
wounded under its protection.
Sometimes in the pauses of the shooting
we could hear the captains and generals
shouting and the drums beating, and see
the flashing bayonets, and the flags flying
proudly.
"Perhaps they won't find us, after ALL"
said Thad, during one of these peaceful lulls;
and indeed ! had already begun to indulge
myself in the same hope, when what should
the Germans do but rush down the oppo-
site bank, and prepare to charge right for
our tree.
On they came, plunging over stones and
bitches, swords waving, bayonets flashing,
fury cleaning from their eyes.
DIDN'T cry, Thad," | whispered, when
there was only few feet left between us
and the advancing army. "Come let's stand
out in front of them, so they won't trample
on us, anyway :" and summoning all my
courage, took my brother by the hand, and
stepped out from behind the tree, facing the
whole battle 'front.'
As soon as the colonel or captain, which
= ever it was, caught sight of us, he shouted
, out at the top of his voice but of course
neither Thad nor | understood a word, al
though supposed he was calling on us to
surrender.
Thinking this a much more comfortable
way of ending matters than by being put TO
4 the sword, screamed out as bold as could
!: "If you please, sir, we're Americans and
: hope you'll whip the Frenchmen all to
pieces"
didn't expect he'd understand all said,
of course, although | was pretty certain of
: Americas being nearly the same in German
as in English.
But what do you think the man did? He
L said something to the soldiers then turn.
ing to me, he pointed to an opening in the
ranks he had caused to be made Just in
front of us, and at once understanding what
q he meant, Thad and ran for it, never stop
y ping until we had left the soldiers far be-
d hind us, when thought 1t would be as well
to call halt, and consider as to the quick.
est way of getting back TO the hotel, for il
= was by this time long after dinner hour.
However, we managed TO find the road
after while, and then we made for the
| TOWN a fast nc wa nnnld