Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-10-14

and lion-like soldiers, with the face OF
his scarcely-kissed wife ever before
him, he had not been improyident, and
ere long they were snugly settled in
their breezy home. Absalom went i'm
mediately into the superintendent OF
JoePs mills by the river, and with
the flight of q sunny tweivemonth
he might have been seen sitting upon
the Veranda of the cottage, like some
gigantic unclassifed kind of moth tn at
had been walloving in pollen, with q
little blinking Heater upon either knee.
That this subdued and purring person,
weH-nigh eclipsed by the twins and
corn-meal and flour, could have been
one of the Gvelest and bravest of sol
diers in the Army of the Potomac
seemed in the face of appearances
something doubtful. However, that
was his reputation; for though he never
could be inveigled into recounting his
own valorous deeds, there were those
who never tired of talking of his
bravery and daring. Among these
testimonials it was told how, lying in
the trenches before Petersburg where
every moving object was in danger of
being riddled by the watchful foe, Abb
SALON. became FESTIVE upon a certain
occasion, and leaping upon the breast
work ran for half a mile along its top
in a rain of leaden hail and
jumped again into the trenches,
remarking that he felt easier
after it, Again it was told that when
he was Lieutenant his Captain was
wounded and left upon the field in one
of the charges before Richmond in
which the Federals were repulsed and
driven back into the trenches. Absa-
lom. discovering this, sprang upon the
breastwork, looked sharply where his
superior had probably fallen, and dart
dead-strewn field. A blaze gushed
along the line of the foe. and he ran
forward into the teeth of a tempest.
His cap was shot from his head, his
sword and scabbard were carried away.
but he brought the fallen officer from
the field and laid him down in the
trenches and said never a word. Thou
sands of throats sent up cheer after
cheer for the brave deed. and the
sword he carried in his hand when he
came home to Openstone was the
sword that his company gave him when
he was made Captain. Whether or
not these "reminiscences, for there
were others of kindred nature, had
got somehow a tinge of eXaggeration,
could not at this distance be fairly
passed upon But certain it is that one
seeing this alert and herculean fellow
go about his daily business, might not
unreasonably suppose him capable of
a deal of bravery. But in the hands of
the twins, or more correctly with the
twins in hand. he was as helpless as
one could well imagine. Ether for a
long time lowered about on such occa-
sions with kind of breathless trepida-
ton, seeming well nigh as solicitous
for the safety of the father as for the
twins. For at sundry times those
doughty bits of humanity being en-
throned upon either of his knees, each
with one of his huge hands rayed out
behind its back, had blinked and
gurgled and shot forward shifting their
heads together. and Absalom. in his
frantic efforts to save them, lad ended
by letting them run through his fingers
upon the floor in musical
and tangled mess. For some mo-
ments thereafter he would have a
very wild expression. and for hours
would be seemingly weak and I'M
strung, and twice after similar mis-
haps he had rushed sweating from the
presence of the twins. However, in
the main he was happy; especially on
those occasions when sitting by Ether
upon the veranda, he held the twins
successfully. Here the Popps often
came singly and en- masse. Yeslit, an
exceedingly volatile and high-spirited
creature, quite comely of outline and
feature, with a rather moist, large
mouth that talked unutterably fast,
and ever and anon emitted little &C.
static shrek, came a great deal. Saloo,
who in those days began to take on a
kind of sloping-shouldered, angular
phase of manhood, came quietly,
like his mother, though with Il
somewhat CHASTITY display of cuffs and
collar. Julius. too, put in uncomfort-
ably frequent appearances, and as faith
er, grandfather and father-in-law. was
gaseous to the limit of expression.
Joel also sometimes came, and occa-
sionally the stately Mrs Whitney
trailed her silken plumage into the
breezy abode. But Absalom's proud
est moments were when 1.-The kids, as
he never ceased to call them, came on
Sunday afternoons and sat with him
upon his veranda while he had the
twins displayed, and his happiest when
Ether set the table upon the porch
with his growing beauties bolstered up
in double high-chair beside it, and he
looked across the snowy board and saw
Ethers bright cross-eyes and curly
head against a background of green
tree-tops, glinting mill pond, white
and the blue and billowy
reaches of the far off prairies.
CHAPTER XII.