The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-03-06
and my mother, and then will follow

as said-and that's what he meant, too.
He didn't put off his religion when
he put on his uniform. Conky Stiles,
soldier or civilian, was always livin',
walkin' encyclopedy of the Bible, hui
man compendium of psalms and prov
cribs and texts; and had that conf
dence in him that I'd have bet he wrote
the Bible himself If / hadn't known
better, and to the contrary.
We we're with Mcclellan long spell.
There was heap of sickness among
the boys for we weren't used to the
climate, and most of us pinned for the
comforts of home. Lookin' back over
the thirty years that lie between this
time and that, 1 see one figure loomin'
up, calm and bright and beautiful in
the midst of fever and sufferin' and pri-
walton and death; see homely, earn
est face radiant with sympathy and
love and hope, and hear Conky Stiles
voice again speakin' comfort and cheer
to all about him. We all loved him;
he stood next to Mr.. Lincoln and Gen
eral Mcclellan in the hearts of every
body in the regiment.
They sent a committee down from
our town one Thanksgiving time to
bring lot of good things and to see
how soon we were going to capture
Richmond. Mr.. Hubbell, the minis
ter, was one of them. Deacon Cooley
was another. There was talk at one
time tral Conky had soft spot in his
heart for the deacon's eldest girl, Try
phena, but l always allowed that he
paid as much attention to the other
daughter, Tryphosa, as he did to her
eldest sister, and que, he hadn't any
more hankerin' for one than he had for
the other, for when the committee
come to go home Conky says to Deacon
Cooley: Well, good bye, deacon" says
he, " Romans, XVI: 12."
We had to look it up in the Bible be-
fore we knew what he meant. Salute
Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labor in
the Lord that was Conky's message
to the Cooley girls.
He wrote letter once to Mr.. Carter,
who was one of the selectmen, and he
put this postscript to j.: Romans
xvi: g." You see Mr.. Carter's wife
had been Conky's Sunday-school
teacher, and Conky did not forget to
"Greet Mary, who bestowed much la
Dor on u.s."
Down at Elnathan Jones' general
store the other day heard Elnathan
tell how Conky clerked it for him a
spell and how one day he says to Conky:
"That Baker bill has been runnn' on
for more'n six weeks. We can't do
business unless we get our money.
Conkv, 1 wish you'd just kind o. spur
Mr.. Baker up little"
So Conky sat down on the stool at
the desk and dropped Mr.. Baker a
short epistle to this effect; "Roman
j: IA; Psalms xxi IL; Psalms cxiii. g."
Next day who should come in but Mr.
Baker, and he allowed that that letter
had gone straighter to his console nee
than any sermon would have gone, and
he paid up his bill and bought kit of
salt mackerel into the bargain, so Elna-
than Jones says.
1 could keep on tellin' things like
this, day in and night out, for lots of
just such stories are told about Conky
all over Hampshire county now; some
of 'em doubtless are true and some of
'em doubtless ain',; there's no tellin';
but it can't be denied that most of 'em
have the genuine Conky flavor.
The histories don't say anythn g
about the skirmish we had with the reb-
els at Churchill's bridge along in
May of "a, but we boys who were there
remember it as the toughest fight in all
our experience. They were just des-
perate, the rebels were, and--well, we
were mighty glad when night came,
for soldier can retreat in the dark
with fewer chances of interruption
Out of our company of $50 men, only
sixty were lefll You can Judge from
that of what the fighting was at Church
ills bridge. When they called the roll
in camp next day, Conky Stiles WASH.
there.
Had we left him dead at the bridge,
or was he, wounded, dying the more
awful death of hunger and thirst?
Comrades" saws Lew Bassett, "let's
60 back for Conkyr'
A detachment of cavalry went out to
reconnoiter. Only the ruin of the pre-
cediDg day remained where we boys
had stood and stood and stood-only to
be repulsed at last. Bluecoa and
graycoats lay side by side and over
against one another in the recoDciling
peace of death. Occasionally manned
body containing just remnant of life
was found, and one of these crippled
bodies was what was left of Conky.
When the surgeon saw the mimic
hole, here in his thigh, and the sabei
cash, here in his temple, he shook his
head, and we knew what that meant,
Lew Bassett, man who had never
been to meetin' in all his life, aud who
could swear new and awful way every
time-Lew Bassett says, "No, Conky
Stiles amt goin' 10 die, for l shan't let
himW and he bent over and lifted up
Conky's head and held it, so, and wiped
away the trickles of blood, and his big
hard hands had the tenderness of a gen
tie, lovin' woman's.
We heard Conky's voice once, anG
only once, again. For when, just al
the last, he opened his eyes and saw
that we were there, he smiled feeble
like, and the grace of the Book tri
umphed once more within him and ht
says-it seemed almost like whisper
he spoke 30 faint and low: GOOD by
bOVs. Second Timothy iv.7D