The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-04-23
strangely found friend, he burst into

strangely iOuQQ ITlCuO. nc OuTSI5lutC
very unsoldierlike tears.
s.Why, my dear Freddie began, but
the wornout boy had tainted and now
lay senseless upon his ola schoolmate'l
breast
Owing to the hasty manner in which
Herbert had been obliged to leave tue
water he had not refilled his canteen,
and now he had not so much as a drop
to force between the swollen lips of his
unconscious comrade. Yet not mo-
ment must be lost! He saw that Fred 8
right leg was shot through above the
knee, that he was utterly exhausted by
loss of blood and might die before other
! help could be brought, and, besides, his
| own business would not admit of delay.
| So, with infinite care and tenderness,
| he drew the motionless form ont to the
road and placed it across his saddle.
Then, remounting, he held the light
| weight fairly in his arms and, putting
his well-trained charger to an easy
canter. carried poor Fred safely. and
without jolt, to Crooks headquarters
where, by the aid Of cautiously admin.
istered sti1nulants, he quickly revived.
The shattered limb was then properly
| attended to and in the course OF the
next twenty four hours Herbert heard
his friends story from his own lips.
It seems that, three days before,
Sergeant A;nslie (for Fred had been pro-
| inoted) had been sent out in charge Of
a foraging party, which, being wa! laid
by a greatly superior number Of con-
federates, was obliged, after receiving
a volley Or two, to beat a hasty retreat,
leaving the sergeant and several pri-
Yates, supposedly dead, upon the field.
Fred, however, who happened to fall
close to the thicket where he was
found, had presence of mind enough to
crawl into it's shelter and in the confr1-
sion was not noticed by the enemy
thus escaping capture and saving his
uniform. For seventy-two hours he
had lain there without food or drink,
except one ration Of biscuit and sin
gle quart of water which he had brought
with him. and but for Leslie's oppor-
tune arrival he must have persisted be-
fore the dawn of another day
A single remark made by Fred after
he had told Herbert of the various bat
ties he had been in while the latter WAS
laid up in New York, will serve to show
how greatly a mans nature may be
changed by habit and discipline and a
realizing sense Of responsibility and
duty. ''You remember, Herbert, u
said he, show terribly scared was at
the very idea of being obliged to fight,
and how. but for you, would have
wrecked, perhaps lost, my life in that
vile attempt at desertion you SO nobly
frustrated and even after SO generously
concealed. You remember, too, how,
when we came under fire at the Wilder
ness, was utterly paralyzed by terror
until you cheered me up. To you, not
TO me, should have fallen all the luck,
but you were shot down at once and
thus missed all the glorious opportl1ni-
ties have had to serve our country;
and I grieve over my present wound,
only because it will keep me out of the
field for awhile r.
''God bless you Fred, you have made
me very happy" replied Herbert-and
he stopped down and actually kissed
the boy as if he had been indeed very
own brother.
Trooper Leslie went back next day
to his own squadron, and Sergeant
Ainslie was sent to the hospital at
Fredericksburg where he was nursed
back to health by his mother and sister,
assisted quite often by Miss Jessie
Glynn, whom no one would now have
thought a butterfly" though she was
notwithstanding her serious and thor
oughly discharged duties, the brightest,
most CHEEKY and happiest little soul in
the place.
About two weeks after Fred was
brought in Miriam, one morning, an"
nounced that an officer of Wilson'S cav
airy brigade had called to see him.
Fred tidied himself up as well as he
could to receive the unexpected visitor,
and presentlya handsome young fel.
| low, in brand new, full-dress uni
form, was usbered to his bedside and
roguishly introduced by Jessie Glynn as
"Lieut. Herbert Leslie!'
Fred. however, got even with the
girls by sole1nnly affirming, then and
ever afterwards, that this joyful sur
prise did him more good, and more
greatly FASTENED his recovery, than all
their codd]ing and nursing put together'
And perhaps it really was so; for Ger.
tain it is that in less than four months
the young man was again on duty; but
this time as a sergeant in his friends
troop, and the whole army could boast
of no better soldier than was he.
When (January 81, 1869 the constitu-
tional amendment abolishing slavery
was passed, all men saw that the end OF
the fratricidal strife was near; and al
ready the matrons and maids of our
war-worn land INDUCED in fond hopes
of speedily welcoming to peaceful homes
those of their dear ones who still sur
vived-though, alas! many brave men,
on both sides, were yet to fall.
In several Of the greater or less inn
portant battles occurring in the follow
ing month of March, our young heroes
took part, and at that of Five Forks,
fought on April 1, both won promotion
by conspicuous gallantry in the field.
In this battle, as everyone knows, the
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