The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1894-09-05
A LETTER FROM MOTHER.
Never to Be Finished by the One Who
Received 1t.

Received 1t.
1t lacks q quarter of an hour Of mid
night as the relief guard goes trampine
down through the woods to relieve post:
9, 10 and II along h e~reek. Those have
been danger posts for the last three
nights. The enemy's pickets are scarcely
a hundred rods away, and guerrillas and
bushwhackers have been skulking on the
narrow strip Of neutral ground between.
The relief is halted, the countersign taken
and posts 9 and 10 relieved. Post No. IL
is taken by a beardless boy, who was fol.
lowing the pillow on his fathers farm only
four months ago. The sergeant looks at
him in a doubtful way No then out into
the darkness beyond. Then he turns and
whispers:
Watch! Listen! Fire if you suspect
that any one is creeping upon you. Above
all, don't fall asleep. To be found asleep
on post in the face of the enemy means
court martial and death!'
The recruit knew that it was a danger
post and for the first 10 minutes after
being left alone his heart beat faster and
his breath came with an effOrt as he peered
into the darkness and listened. Then the
babble of the brook at his feet began to
rcassure him and bring back his nerve.
The waters of a stream flowing over rocks
and pebbles and tapping at the banks give
out soothing and peaceful sounds. You
can imagine they are voices; that you hear
songs and words and merry laughter.
There is no hin Of war and its horrors, of
fierce faced men creeping over the earth
like Indians to stab in the darkness.
Somewhere out there in the forest is a
raccoon moving about. Now and then he
chatters, as if pleased at some discovery.
The recruit laughs as he hears the chatter.
That sound is a familiar one to him. Off
to the right he hears a hop, hop, hop on
the lead leaves. 1t is a rabbit moving
about, perhaps disturbed from her sleep by
the tramp Of the relief guard half al hour
ago. Now and then a FREELY comes sailing
along in its cratic way, and in the
branches of the very tree against which he
leans a sleepless squirrel is changing its
quarters and crying "Chit! chit" at being
disturbed at sue an hour.
1t is peace in the camp, peace in the
forest, peace along the banks of the bah
bling brook. Tomorrow 10, 600 men may
grapple in these woods and the waters Of
the creek run red with their blood, but
tonight all men sleep and dream of home
all but the pickets, who must stand and
count the minutes of darkness away. The
recruit had received a letter from home
thai evening. He had read it twice over
at his campfire, but he goes over the words
and lines again in his mind. 1t is the
handwriting of the dear old mother-a
cramped hand, a word wrongly spelled
here and there, and the ink none of the
best, but a letter to be carried about and
reread for days and days.
Lets see?'' muses. the soldier as he sits
down to rest his tired limbs. Father is
cutting the corn 1 helped to plant-wheat
all thrashed-hay a good crop-Cncle
William was over and staid two days
brother Ben has trapped a woOdchuck-
sister Nell isl
What is it? The soldier had caught him
self nodding. No, it couldn't be! He was
wide awake. He had passed a single min
ute in ~reverie, in a waking dream Of home
nothing more. He remembered the ser
geant's warning. No fear of his going to
sleep after such a caution as that. 1t
wasn't forbidden to sit down and lean
against a tree. He could listen and watch
as we'll as if standing up
Lets see? Sister Nell has passed ex-
animation as a teacher-the Taylors have
sold their farm and are going west-tho
Henderson boys talk of enlisting-light-
ming struck the big elm tree across the
OoA CtIIu Nb1 oAO 40 ~ NOHoA "
so on and so forth. 1t was a mothers letter
to her boy far away, and she tried to men
ton everything that might be of interest
to him. In his minds eye the soldier had
a picture of the dear old farm-the build
ings-the orchard-the cider mill-the-
And he slept. Sleep stole upon him like
a shadow. The raccOon chartered in a
shrill voice, as If sounding an alarm, but
the picket on post No. II heard no sound.
The rabbit came hopping through the
brush to the creek and drank of its waters,
but no movement alarmed it. A quarter
of an hour went by. Then the bushwhacker
who had been creeping nearer and nearer,
pausing every foot or two to locate the
picket, made him out through the gloom.
There was nO sound to be heard 10 feet
away-nO dCathCry- no musket shot. AT
2 o'clock the relief guard came again.
There was no challenge-nO one to be re-
lieved. There was a corpse at the foot OF
the tree, and when the sergeant had flashed
the light of his lantern upon it he turned
and said:
He was asleep on his post in the face
of the enemy, but there will be no report
no court martial!' NJ. QUAD.