Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-12-30
aThose fellows souls. y said Kent. regard

the doors and windows after them. SomeA
where have read of q superstition that bodily
tenements left In this way were liable to be
entered and occupied by evil spirits, and from
this rose the custom OF piously closing the
eyes and mouths of deceased friendsn
mo worse spirits likely to get into them
than was shot out of EN- growled Abe "A
Confederate with gun is as bad an evil spirit
as ever expect to meet But let's 60 on.
Its another kind of an evil spirit that we are
interested In just now--one thatll enter into
and occupy our empty canteen.n
YOU'RE right. It's the enemy that my
friend Shakespeare says we put into our
mouths to steal away OUR brains. By the
way, what weary hunt he must have in
your Uranium for a load worth stealing
There goes that clack mill again. Great
Cesar! If the boys only had legs as lively as
your tongue, what racer the regiment
would be! Cayalry'd be nowhere"
They walked on rapidly for couple or
three hours, without finding much enconr-
agement in their search. The rugged noun
tain sides were but thinly peopled, and the
few poor cabins they saw In the distance they
decided were not promising enough of results
to justify clanbering up to where they were
perched. AT last, almost wearied out, they
halted for q little while to rest and scan the
interininable waves of SUBMITS that stretched
out Before them
"Ah, said Kent, rising suddenly, 'let's 60
on. Hope dawns at last | smell apples.
That's perfume my nose never mistakes
We're near an orchard Where there's an
orchard there's likely to be q pretty good
| style of house, and where in Kentucky
there's good style of house there's likelihood
OF being plenty of good whisky. Now there's
train OF brilliant inductive reasoning that
shows that nature intended me to be a great
natural philosopher. Come on Abe"
The smell of apples certainly did grow moro
palpable as they proceeded, and Abe muttered
that even IL they did not get ANYTHING to
drink they would probably get enough of the
fruit TO make an agreeable change in their
diet
They emerged from the woods into cleared
space where number of roads and paths
focused. To the right was little opening in
the mountain side, hardly large enough to be
called a valley, but designated In the language
of the region as hollow At it's mouth
stood a couple OF diminutiee log cabins, of the
| rudest possible construction, and rooted with
clapboards held in place by stones and
poles A long string OF wooden troughs,
supported upon props, conducted the water
from an elevated spring to the roof of one
of the cabins, and the water could be seen
issuing again from underneath the logs ut one
side of the cabin. very primitive cider
lnill-two wooden rollers fastened In a frame,
and moved by long sapling sweep attached
to one of tbem-@stood near The ground was
covered with rotting apple pomace, from
which arose the odor that had reached Kent's
nose.
"Hellol" said the latter "here's luck !:
here's richness We've succeeded beyond
our most sanguine expectations, as the boy
said who ran away from school to catch
minnows, and caught ducking, q bad cold
and licking. We've struck an apple-jack
distillery, and as they've been at work lately
they've probably left enough somewhere to
give us all that we can drink
Abe's sigh was eloquent of a disbelief that
such consummation was possible, short of
the blissful hereafter.
Inside of one of the cabins they found a
still about the size of a tub. with worm of
similar small proportions, kept cool by the
flow from the spring Some tubs and barrels
in which the lees of cider were rapidly turning
to vinegar, gave off a fruity, spirituous odor,
but for awhile their eager search did not dis
cover bit of the distilled product At last
Kent, with cry of triumph, dragged from a
place of cunning concenlnent small Jug,
stopped with il cofncob He smelled it hun
grily.
'Yes, here is some. It's applejack, not a
week old and as rank as q major general.
Phew! can smell every stick they burned to
distill it. Abe watch me closely while
drink. l magnanimously take the lead, out
OF consideration for you. If amt dead in
five minutes you try it"
30, stop monkeying and drink was the
impatient answer.
Kent put the jug to his mouth and took
long draught "Shade of old Father Noah.
the first drunkard, he said, as he wiped tho
tears from his eyes, another swig like that
would pull out all the rivets in my internal
pipings Heavensl it went down like pulling
a cat out of q hole by the tail I'm afraid to
wipe my mouth, lest my breath burn hole
in the sleeve of my blouse"
Three quarters of an hour later the spirits
in the jug were lowering and those in the men
rising with unequal rapidity Under the in
fluence of the fiery stimulant, Kent's sanguine
temperament boiled and dubbed over I'm
agination painted the present and future in
hues of dazzling radiance. Everything was
as delightful as it could be now, and would
become more charming as time rolled on.
But with Abe Bolton drinking tended to de
yelop moroseness into savagery.
"Ah, comfort me with applejack, and stay
me with flagons of itln said Kent Edwards.
setting down the Jug with the crcumspection
OF a man not yet too drunk to suspect that he
is losing exact control of his legs and arms.
"That gets better the deeper down you go.
First it was like swallowing a chestnut bur:
old kn,, a.
smoother"
"a man can get used to almost anything"
said Bolton.
into the army. / wouldn't have missed all
this experience for the finest farm in the
Miami valley
Twere worth ten years of peaceful life
To soldier Eaf day,
Sir Walter Scott Says-as l improve him.
Especially one of them soaking days when
we were marching through the mud to Wild
catn
20, those were gust thrown in to make us
appreciate good weather when we have it.
Otherwise We wouldn't. You know what the
song says:
For spring would be but gloomy weather,
If we had nothing else but spring.
SWELL for my part, one o. them days was
enough to pison six months O sunshine. l de-
clare, believe I'll feel widowed for the rest
of my life. know if pulled off my clothes
you could scrape the green mold off of my
back"
"And I'm sure that if we'd had the whole
army to pick from, we couldn't we got in
with a better lot of boys and officers. Every
one of them's true blue, and a man all the
way through. It's the best regiment in the
army, and our company's the best company
In the regiment, and fiatter myself the COM
pany hasn't got two other as good men as we
are"
"Your modesty II ruin you yet, KENT
said Abe, sardonically, "It's very painful to
see man going round undertaking himself,
as you do. If could only get you to have
proper opinion of yourself-that is, believe
that you are a bigger man than Gen. Scott
or George b. Mcclellan, I'd have some hopes
of youn
wen have one grand, big battle with the
Secessionists now, pretty soon-everything's
getting ripe for it--and we'll whip them like
Wellington whipped Napoleon at Waterloo.
Our regiment will cover itself with glory, in
which you and l will have big share Then
we'll march back to Sardis with flags fiying
and drums beating, everybody turning out,
and the bands playing See, the Conquering
Hero Comes when you and l come down the
street, and we'll be heroes for the rest of our
natural lives"