The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-22

write about this. II was too horrlole- W e
burned the bedstead and dropped the ashes
int the canal. We took up ths4natting OF
the room and treated that. in the same
way went off to village and borrowed
two big hees-I did not want the villagers
to help-while the major arranged the
other matters II tookus four hours hard
work to make the grave. As we worked,
we argued out whether it was right to say
as much as we remembered of the burial OF
the dead We compromised things bRsay-
ing the Lords prayer with private unof-
fetal prayer for the peace OF the soul Of The
Boy. Then we filed IN the grave and went
iRto the veranda-not the hocse-to lie
down TO sleep. We were dead tired
When he woke the major said, >wearly;
"We can't go back till tomorrow We
must give him decent time 20 die in He
died early this morning, remember. That
seems more natural" So the major must
have been lying awake all the time, think
ing.
1 said; "Then why didn't we bring the
body back to cantonments1"
The major thought for d minute: Be
cause the people bolted when eSey heard Of
the cholera. And the ekks has gone"
That was strictly true. We had forgot
ten all about the ekka pony, and he had
gone home.
So we were left there alone, all that stf-
ding day, in the canal rest house, testing
and re-testing our story of The Boys death
to see if it were weak in any point A ma
tive turned up in the afternoon, but we
said that a sahib was dead of choIeFa, and
he ran away. As the dusk gathered the
major told me all his fears about The Boy,
and awful stories Of suicide or nearly car
ried out suicide-tales that made ones hair
crisp. He said that he himself had once
gone into the same valley of the shadow
as The Boy, when he was young and new
TO the country; SO he understood how
things fought together in The Boys poor
jumbied head. He also said that young
sters, in their repentantmements. consider
their sins much more serious and iDefface-
able than they really are. We talked to-
gether all through the evening and re-
hearsed the story of the death of The Boy.
As soon as the moon was up, and The Boy,
theoretically, just buried, we struck across
country for the station. We walked from
s till 8 O'Clock in the merning; but though
we were dead tired, we did not forget TO go
to The Boys room and put away his re
NOlNcI Win bLk1 pIOpC1 ukAtOA SoAbA4AeSN
in the pouch; also to set his writing case
on the table. We found the colonel and
reported the death, feeling more like muir
derers than ever. Then we went to bed
and slept the clock round, for there was
no more in us.
The tale had credence rs long as was
necessary, for every one forgot about The
Boy before a fortnight was over. Many
people, however, found time to say that the
major had behaved scandalously in not
bringing in the body for a reyimental
funeral. The saddest thing of all was the
letter from The Boys mother to the major
and me-with big inky blisters all over the
sheet. She wrote the sweetest possible
things about our great kindness, and the
obligation she would be under to US as long
as she lived
Al things considered, she was under an
obligation; but not exactly as she meant
Rudyard Kippling.