Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-09-22

Oh press ami pulpit fell.
But old Kenyon was in his element
10 the best and kindhest of men there is
N Deing able % say Didn't | tell You
sos Joy thar surpasses the sweets of
religious consolation. 1t was something
70 hear him declaiming among the artil
lery and infantry officers during the
days that followed the announcement of
ohcial investigation at the expense of
Inc Pawnee battalions why, gentle
men said he. Il have never ceased TO
thaEk God | didn't take the chance for
promotion that came in the reorganiza-
non twenty years ago. | was one of the
senior captains Of infantry then. Icould
nave got one of those cavalry vacancies
Just as well as not-been yellow major
ten years before the leaves dropped on
my shoulders in the blue; but if by any
chance | were ordered into the dragons
today I'd swap out or quit for good.
From the time those Bloods and Piegans
got their deserved thrashing at the
hands of Tim Bakers battalion I've
known enough to steer clear of it. You
know those facts as well as do. You
know those Indians had been numbering,
robbing, burning, pillaging, for two
years. You know how all Montana
begged and implored General Sheridan
to put stop to it. There was no CATCH
ing them until winter, and then when
he sent those Second cavalry fellows ~
there with orders to thrash sheol oct Of
them, what was the result? Didn't the
papers east and west turn to ard damn
him and them? Didn't they dub him
| 'Piegan Phil from that time forthy No.
sir, no cavalry service for me. There's
only one thing harder than the knocks
that they have been getting for the last
twenty years on the frontier, and that's
the knocks they've had to bear at home. :"
But toward the end of January the old
post was beginning to pluck up heart
again, and to the keen delight of Mrs.
Berrien and Winifred their particular
major was able to drive with them,
bundled up in his furs, and lolling back
in the cushions of Berengaria's barouche,
as he termed his wife's comfortable car
riage, with that rejoicing matron by his
side distributing smiles and sunshine
and joyous mods of recognition wherever
she went. every body waving hand or hat
or handkerchief as they bowled along,
and Winifred-bonny Winifred-beam-
ing upon her father from the front seat.
| Very, very sweet Miss Berrien was look
ing just now, said all who saw her; yet
there was shade Of usefulness in her
face, a constant expression about those
deep, dark eyes that seemed to tell they
were ever on watch for one who never
came. Shattered as was his saber arm,
Curly Brewster had scoffed at the idea
of being sent back to Pawnee.
"What's the use?' he said 81 would
be utterly alone there, while here have
all the fellows about me. What better
care do need"
In the midst of all their trials and an.
noyances, in the thick of the whirl of
events that followed their sharp and
! sudden fight, the officers and men of the
! Twelfth found themselves more closely
drawn together even than before. Very
little was said when outsiders were by
as to the depth of feeling aroused in
their ranks by the unaccountable crit
icism of the press. Very little had to be
said in the official investigation of the
affair to clear them, one and all, of the
array of allegations lodged at their
doors. But that every man, from the
colonel down, bore away from the field
of their winters travail a sense of in
Jury beyond the scar of savage missile,
who could doubt, who could blame? i
did not prevent their having some quiet
finn Of their own. however. Gray haired
Farauhar was whimsical in his SYM
pathv with Rolfe, whose scalp had been
saved bv the man of all others he had
most reviled- Sergeant Ellis. Randolph
from the recesses of the hospital tent
noled no end of gibes at Ridgeway, who
had lost his eyeglasses in the morning
fpht and had been nearly run off with
nv the Sioux. As for Rolfe's plight, che
lost all the skin from the side instead of
the top of his head" laughed Gorham.
It was pitiable enough to make the
bovs forget the austerity of his past, for
to his diving day Rolfe would carry the
marks of his involuntary ''scrap with a
souaw," as Randolph termedit it. "Rolfe's
scars have come to the surface" chimed
in Warren, who never could get along
with him. They hoped that he would
Oh hack TO Pawnee with the wounded
train. and he did So, too. did Ellis,
wearing on the arm in sling the new
cheyrons of first sergeant, won, as SAID
his colonel in presenting them, together
with the heartiest recommendation for
a medal of honor | could write, for
bravery ON the field of battle" Rohe
tnrned his bandaged head away when
Holden gave him all the story. He knew
not what to think, much less what TO
saw Ellis had leaped through the swarm
If fighting braves and with the butt Of
his carbine dashed aside the unsexed
sand whose clutching claws were in the
cantain's hair, and then had fought like
tieer over the PROSTATE body and saved
tbe life of the man who had mahgned
him.
cone half second more and you were