News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-08-10


Pallid and wan the first faint CLEAN of
the coming day was stealing slowly into
the eastern skies. Far away down the
broad valley the mist was creeping from
the slow moving, silent stream. Peace
and slumber an1 solitude hOvered over
the wide acres where the tasseled corn
had waved in the summer breeze and
the bearded rye and bristling wheat had
ripened and bleached under the fervid
touch of the summer sun. In the barn
yards and sheds the cattle still crouched,
browsing and huddling for warmth. In
the orchards and among the naples and
beeches the Dluebirds and jays and be-
lated robins still perched among the
autumn leaves, their heads tucked away
under sheltering wings. Under dew
laden hedgerOws the mother bird nestled
her little brown brood, and Bob White
still dozed away the dark hour that pre-
cedes the dawn. All over the placid,
populous valley without the reservation
lines the wings of night were spread.
All through the streets of the thriving
county town only the tread of the watch
man walked the echoes, only the glim-
moon, dim, mist bedraggled crescent,
had peeped up over the shadowy forest
down the eastward valley and climbed
slowly toward shefer1ng bank of
cloud and there seemed to halt and hide.
Putting and painting, long, long train
had wound under the wooded bluffs and
was kissing at the station platform at
the foot of the curving road that led to
the broad plateau of the fort. And now
lights were dancing and cleaning every
where along the train; men in cavalry
overcoats and topboots were busily,
rapidly, silently leading horse after
horse up the wooden ramps, or chutes,
and Snto the dark depths of the cattle
cara Many a trooper stopped a moment
after lashing his halter strap to the rail
and murmured a few caressing, reas-
surfing words to his wondering charger,
patting him on neck or shoulder and
striving to explain to him how it hap
pened that he was stirred out from his
warm stable at this unseemly hour and
marched into a prison pen on wheels be-
hind those black, kissing monsters up
ahead. Silence and order and discipline
prevailed. Only when some excitable,
nervous steed balked and refused to
climb the chute was there unusual
Yound. Then the sharp crack of the
stable sergeant's whip and a stern 'Hup,
there!" brought the brute to his senses,
and he plunged along up the wooden
ramp, his iron shod hoofs laundering on
the boards, his troopers arms nearly
wrenched from their sockets.
The division superintendent had been
better than his word, for it was only
four o'clock when the train came kissing
in, and in ten minutes, in long ghostly
procession, Rolfe's men were leading
their chargers, curveting and prancing
in the keen air, down the winding road
to the valley, the quartermaster's
wagons following with chest and box
and bale and bundles of tentage and
camp equipage. In fifteen minutes more
the word went up to send down the next
troop, and the train pulled forward four
car lengths, so as to bring the next lot
of horse cars opposite the platform and
chutes, while Thorpe's handsome sorrels
were led wondering from the dimly
lighted gangway; and so, by few
minutes after five, even the officers
chargers and the spare horses of the first
battalion were all aboard and some
where across the stream just as the
major acknowledged the. report, ''Ai
aboard and secure,-===s.--,,-iin Hazlett's
soldierly tones, sprightly chanticleer,
whose ears had at last caught those
muffied sounds of hoof and voice over
under the garrison bluffs, concluded it
time to challenge, and woke the echoes
with shrill cOck-a-doodle-doo whereat
there came ii low chuckle of delight
from Hazlett's men.
Every good, sir. Now get aboard all
your baggage as quick as you can"
"All aboard now sir"
'"Then march up to quarters for coffee
and breakfast-the others are at theirs
now-and form under arms right after
ward"
Precious little. sleep has there been
this night-no time among the men, no
inclination among the women. Wives
and daughters who had devoutly
thanked heaven that only the first bat
talon was to go were soon undeceived
and found that but ten hours respite
was to be theirs. All the night long the
note of preparation could be heard in
barracks and in quarters. The colonel,
with his adjutant and quartermaster,
hardly left the Office at all. Berrien
hustled from barracks to his home from
there to stables. AT two o'clock, find
ing all his own campaigning kit in per
feet readiness, and Winifred and her
mother still huddling over the parlor
fire, he noted the pallor in his daughters
face, the deep trouble in her pathetic
eyes, and, taking her in his arms, he
kissed her fondly again and again.
$50 to your room now, little daugh-
ter" he said huskily; "'go, dear, and try
to sleep. | will not leave without COM
ing to say bye-bye, just as | always did"
She shivered and hid her face and clung
to his neck, saying no word, shedding
no tear. Gently he unclasped her hands
"Yes, my child, do as bid you now;
want to speak with mother awhile"
And then reluctantly she turned, but
the one brief look into his aves was so