St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-06-19
A Decoration Day Incident.

''I tell We it makes one feel like
stormin' ~ calculated old Simeon Brant
coming in warm and tired from Cedar
Cemetery, where the people of Dexter
had been keeping Decoration day
"MOst makes me wonder that some o.
the dead don't rise up from their
graves, seem them young pOpiniays
lOungin' round the cemetery, putin
cigars an tiirtin' with the girls, as il
all the day was meant for was to give
them good time"
"Softly, Simeon, SOFTLY" interposed
his wife, laying her hands on his
shoulders ''yOu can't expect these
boys, that were babies twenty years
ago, to have the same feeling about it
us you old veterans that fought and
bled on a dozen battle-fields "
"No, ! don't expect nuthin' o. the
kind" said Simeon, dOggedly, giving
IN impatient thump with his crutch, q,
AS he dropped into his barrel arm
chair; call ask is that they'd show
due respect to the time an place, an
remember that it's holiday bought
with blood. But tell ye, Polly, they
amt no more reverence for the past,
The present risin' generation amt than
if they hadn't any past to be proud of.
| amt for fosterin' no hard feelin's
| tween the North an South. but when
| | think of the thousands of graves
where our soldiers are buried of
'em where there can't any one but the
angels find 'em-an' the thousands of
brave men goin' through life on
crutches, with maybe an empty coat
I.ls Il ny I H.
me feel as if I'd like to march IA few ~
those rOwdies up to the lannon's mouth,
an let 'em see what it is to be IA SOL
der"
"Softly, softly, Simeon - said his
wife again. ''They're soldiers sons,
and they wouldn't finch when the time
came for 'em to face the battle"
81 don't know about that" said the
old man, with another thump on his
crutch. "They don't act much us if
they realized that they're soldiers sons
Some of 'em was swaggerin' around,
riippim' off clover heads with their
canes, an talkin' an titterin', as if they
thought the cemetery was IA theater :;
an there was young Jim Parsons, set
Tin on a railin' puffin' cigar, an
gassin' to one % them Hustled girls,
the whole time the parsOn was prayin' !;
an right under his feet, Almost, was
the grave of the man that saved his
fathers life. His father-yOu know old
Jim Parsons was in the army along
with Ezra Reed, but it was Stephen
Reed that saved his life; twas while |
was down on the Potomac. Maybe
| y0u don't remember Stephen, Miss
| Carter, seein' you was nuthin' but II
! slip of girl when the war broke out,
an you've been gone from Dexter so
long that more'n likely you've never
heard his story"
! "lndeed | do remember Stephen,
! Uncle Simeon" | cried Simeon Brant
and his wife are uncle and aunt to
everybody in DeXter-'I remember
| just how he looked, with his frank,
boyish face, and his masses of soft
brown curls; and | remember, too,
| how he used to whistle Annie Laurie :;
we children thought him the prince of
whistlers. But ] went away before the
war began, and have never known
much about our Dexter soldiers,
beyond the fact that they fought
| bravely."
"Aye, they were brave set,r said
Simeon, heartily, ''an' there wasn't Il
Drawer one among 'em than Stephen
Reed. Bat bless your heart he was
Just as brave in his every day life as
he was on the battlefield, an that's
more'n can he said o. some that wears
stars an eperlets. remember once Il
party of the young folks was goin'
home from Long Neck Pond, where
| they'd been skatin' by moonlight, and
just as they was passin' the graveyard
white figure run by 'em an darted in
| among the tombstOnes and every one
of 'em took to their heels-every one
but Steve. He just walked up to the
ghost an said good evenin' and who
should it be but that poor half-witJed
Nancy Stubbins, wanderin' around in
her night clothes. She was half sister,
perhaps You recOllect, to Jonas Hills
| first wife, an Steve he took her by the
arm an led her home as gentle as if
he'd been her mother. That's the kind
% boy Steve was. Well, when the war
broke out he was just turned o. t.Venty-
one, an was wild to enlist, an there
wasn't nuthin' special to hinder, if only
his brother Ezry'd stay home an take
care of the old grandmother an the
| two little sisters-their father. YOU
know, died at sea, an their mother
dropped down in faint when she
heard of it, an didn't live week, so
it fell to Ezry an Stephen to take care
of the family. But Ezry, too, was bent
on enlistin', an of course, bein' the
oldest, he felt as if he had the first
right.
:" III tell you what I'll do, Steve,
says he; If you'll stay at home an lei
me enlist for year, when the times
up I'll come back, the Lord sparin' me
an let you have a chance
80 Stephen stayed but Ezry hadn't
been gone more'n six months when til,
word came that he'd been shot an wa.
lyin' at the point O death in the hospi-
tai at --. Steve was for startin' at
once to go to him, for there never wa.
two brothers that set more store by
each other than he an EZry; but tn,
grandmother, bed-ridden an half
blind, took on so about bein' deserted
in her old age that | don't think bu
he'd had to stayed if it hadn't been fo
: Annie Lacy. Annie an he'd been a
good as engaged ever since they wer,
children perhaps that's why he wa
so fond o. whistlin' Annie Laurie ;
. Annie, you remember, was Squir'
Lacy's youngest daughter the on,
with the big brown eyes. Ezry',
always wanted her, an sod half
HnZan nthar. naxtar hnNs for