Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-12-20
SOLDIERS DEPARTMENT.
STORY OF skEERY LUCY.
A Noble Woman Who Risked Her Life
to Save Her Little Ones.

Noble Woman Who Risked Her Life
to Save Her Little Ones
''Skeery Lucym
That's what they called her." said
Plunkett, as he chunl,ed the fire and
seated himself in the corner.
Gas little girl at school, the teach
er called her 'Timid Lucy but all the
scholars knowed her as 'Skeery Lucy
for she went by that name among all the
settlement folks, and her own daddy
and nanny said the name suited her
character.
when she growed up and got mar
ried she was just the same. and when
John, her old man, would be little
late in getting home at night he'd find
her shut up tight in the house, with the
doors all locked and every table and
old bench piled up ergin them, and
when John would knock at the door
and tell her who it was he'd have to
stand and wait till she moved these
things away before he could open the
door, and then he'd scold her for being
such Ounce, but she'd just laugh and
say:
".You knowed I was 'skeery' fore
you married me.
1.-The name of 'Skeery Lucy chung to
her for long time, and guess she de-
served it, for she'd squeal at lizard or
a frog and take fit almost if she seed
a snake, but when old Sherman come
down here she done what most any man
would erbin erfraid to do. and they
quit calling her 'Skeery Lucy after
that, and that's what want to tell you
erbout
''She was left with four little children
to scuffle for when John went off to
Virginia, and it was mighty hard get
ting along at best, but as the armies got
nearer and nearer things got scarcer
and scarcer, and Lucy got scarier than
ever. The big guns could be heard for
a long time before we seed the Yankees,
and Lucy just looked like she couldn't
stand it, and the folks in the settlement
said she'd die some day, just from fright
and anxiety.
"But everybody had to scuffle, and
one morning Lucy walked up with not
a crust of bread in the house, and the
children were swinging onto her dress
and apron crying for something to eat,
and there was no other way but for her
to start out and get a little meal for
'em. She shut up the children in the
house and put out across the field to
the mill, and they, poor little things,
had been taught by their nanny to be
afraid, and there they sat, all in hud-
die, as scared as rabbits at every thing
that cracked or made fuss, and whis-
pered to each other.
E~x
"Sherman's army was on the move
making for the railroad-they'd got
down the night before and Lucy didn't
know it.
'.Hardee's army was moving to meet
the Yankees and to keep them from
getting to the railroad, and Lucy didn't
know nothing erbout that.
''She had just got to the mill and
stepped upon the platform when down
through the woods came Hardee's line
of battle at double quick and before
she had time to think they were past,
throwed out skirmishers and were ex-
pecting every minute to meet the Yam
KEGS.
"Sherman's line was coming towards
Hardee, and it was only question of a
few minutes till the fight would begin.
''Lucy thought of her little children
shut up in the house, and knowed how
scared they'd be when they heard so
many men marching. She didn't know
yet that it was fight.
"She started in run towards her
house, intending to get there before
Hardee's troops did. But old Sherman
was coming to meet them, and it would
only be a minute till there would be
warm times between Lucy and her
house.
THE skirmishers began to pop their
guns up and down the line, and here
come battery dashing through a road
in the woods, and numbered in
twinkling and let in, and then the fight
had started.
'Lucy's house was between the two
fines. She seed a shell hit the chimney
and scattered the bricks and rocks. She
thought of her four little children that
were huddled up and couldn't get out
and she didn't stop.
The balls were flying thick from
one line of battle to the other, but she
dashed through Hardee's line and went
up through the cotton patch the same
as deer. The soldiers screamed come
back, lay down; you'll be killed. and
SIGH like, but through it all she went
and dashed ergin the door and fell in
ermong her little children.
..'Just then bomb struck one corner
of the house and scattered splinters
everywhere. The children were cling
ing to her and er screaming at the top of
their voices. Another shell hit the house
and took away one gable end, and the
minnie-balls were pattering the same as
hail. She grabbed the smallest chile
up on her left arm and made the rest
iine hands and then took hold of the
end child's hand and out they dashed
into the open field between the two
armies.
THE Yankee line was the first to see
them as they went stumbling, falling
and rolling over the cotton rows, and
they yelled like madmen: