Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-12-19

49," -
be turned free2
Neverl
Shall he be warmed and fed7
What strengthen the enemyi When
even now brothers, cousins, uncles,
brothers-in-Iaw, husbands, sons of the
household are fronting the guns Of this
game enemy in blue2
Amid all this stir of feminine interro-
cation and invective the father entered,
summoned in haste from his classes.
Amid general hubbub he was told OF
the captive and captors at the gate.
Before all else, the father thinks OF
the mans bodily needs. 'Let us, +" said
he, 'bring him in and give him some
thing to eat for if he has been brought
from Carthage here on foot he must be
both tired and hungry"
Whereupon the storm of dissent and
of patriotic utterance began to swell
afresh.
"Well, well, well," said the father,
''we must heap Goals of fire on our en-
emy's head, you know"
"Heap Goals of fire on his head ~
thought the youngest and most bellig-
Grant boy of the family.
Awestruck this most warlike little
fellow of five followed his father down
the broad fight of front steps, among
the yard beds and down the wide walk
to where the prisoner waited at the lit
tie gate. Just before the gate was
reached the boy could no longer curb
bis curiosity, his desire to know all the
dreadful, but exciting truth, SO he
reached up and pulled his fathers coat
to attract his attention: "Fatherl fa-
therp he whispered, ''are you going to
put the Goals on now7 Are you going
to put the fire on his head right nowT'
Great, doubtless, must have been the
relief experienced by the boy when he
found that the translation of this Bib
lical phrase into fact permitted the
bringing in of the prisoner to a warm
and comfortable room, and that there
he was allowed to sit before bright
fire, to reach the soles of his feet to the
blazes thereof, instead of having the
Goals of the same applied to his head.
/ cannot but fancy that the poor
German felt somewhat pleased with
his glimpse of home life in Dixie. Ger
tainly it was pretty little dining room
into which he was carried, with its
bright flood of sunlight, its CLINT of
freight, gIeam of silver on the highly
polished tables, its dusl1y, shining faced
waiting boy who, by the way, was
fearfully afraid to wait on the Yankee
as he ate-and, better than all else the
poor German, pining for word in his
own tongue, was the talk in his own
language that he had with the doctor
and his daughter.
When the prisoner was fed and
warmed the question arose as to how
he was to be moved ON" to the next
hamlet.
Every school in the land was at that
time something of a military establish
ment, so the company of Greene
Springs schoolboys was marched out
to be guard to the prisoner little far
ther on his way The roll of the drum
and the shrill note of the fife were
heard on the Hill of Science. The
beardless soldier boys took the lone
prisoner in charge, and to the stirring
tones of "The Bonnie Blue Flag" the
little army marched down the red hill,
through Five Mile Creek swamp and
over to Harristown.
There the captive was turned over
to the Home Guard of that hamlet, and
the boys marched back to their lecture
rooms.
The doctor and the Greene Springs
home people knew that the prisoner
was well on his way toward Green's
borough, when they heard the boys
with their fresh clear young voices
strike into CHEEKY song, as their march
homeward brought them to the foot of
the red old hill that carried as its crown
one of the sweetest homes the world
has ever held. The song that the boys
sang was one that stirred their young
hearts up to desire for real marching
to real battle:
Oh, here am in the land of cotton,
The flag once honored is now forgotten;
Fight away, fight away, fight away for
Dixie's land.
But here stand for Dixie dear
To fight for freedom without fear;
Fight away, fight away, fight away for
Dixie's land.
For Dixies land I'll take my stand,
To live and die for Dixie's land,
Fight away, fight away, fight away fol
Dixie's land.
The stars and bars are waving DER US,
And independence Is before us;
Fight away, fight away, fight away for
Dixie's land.
Soon enough these boys, and all
other boys able to carry guns, were or
dered TO the front along with the old
men. 1t was not long after this that
the doctor and his second son, lad Of
fourteen years, were on their way TO
make part of the hastily summoned re-
enforcement of the shattered Confed-
crate forces. But ere these last called
troops could with all haste reach the
thunder sound of cannon and the heavy
rain of bullets the news came that the
great General Robert T.. Lee had sur
rendered, and the war was over
Martha Young in New Orleans Times
namocrat