Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-10-03
A REDEEMING ACT.

Dave was a coward, and he had al
ways borne the reputation Of arrant
cowardice ever since he had crawled
over the side of his dugout cradle to
wallow along with the underfoot world
on the white sand before his parents
cabin door. Though country born and
bred, a passing thunderstorm struck
him with terror, and the sight of the
black waters Of the "crick'' caused a
remarkable agitation Of his knees. He
was a coward pure and simple. The
bristling of a coon routed him uncondl-
tionally, and a determined possum could
rob the henroost before his very face.
Indeed, Dave was a coward, and his
cousin, Sue Spivey, laughed uproarious-
ly when the poor fellow perpetrated his
initial and only act Of Boosting. He
had said to her one day very solemnly
and no doubt sincerely:
"Toe purtec yo' honah an happiness
I 'ud th'ow away my wuthless life.
Ordinarily Dawes speech was unpol-
ished and provincial, but on this occa-
sion it rose to the dignity of what he
felt the occasion demanded.
Sue knew full we'll his timorous dis
position and would have thought it safe
to count on his poltroonery in any
event. But a day was sadly near which
proved to her the full worth of the poor
fellows grandiloquent assertion.
Long before the late unpleasantness
and until this day Honeypath was only
o siding, whore occasional trains took
water and passed each other. Two or
three log shanties, without special pre-
tensions to any architectural dissimi-
larity, marked the site of the town, dis
tinguishing it from the vast area of inn
penetrable swamp that backed it and
the arid waste of sandy bottom through
which the glistening, polished rails of
the grand trunk line writhed and sinu-
ated. Along that glowing metal high
way troops of both armies passed and
repassed, gazed at ~cnriously by the few
old women and senile males left in the
village, but exciting no other emotion
than a blank curiosity that died ont
even before the white mist of the fine
sand stirred by the soldiers feet had
settled behind the ~retreating bands
Dave was a native of H~oneypath and
lived with AN aged father in one of the
shanties. Sue dwelt with her mother in
another near by. Dave's father was a
hot blooded southerner, whose patriot
ism answered to the first call to arms,
but Dave was tlmid, fearful of the smell
of powder and refrained from action,
preferring to suffer the op~probrious epi-
thets which were literally bestowed up
on him and the contempt of the county
generally to facing he knew not what
horror upon the battlefield He was not
a philosopher and could not plead in ex-
tenuation of his neutrality that the
martial slaughter of his brother mar
was a crime and that the wholesale sac
rifce of human life was immoral.
Dave was simply a coward and accept
ed meekly the obloquy which the con.
dition imposed, not ever the taunts and
cutting sarcasm of pretty Sue Spigey
being able to rouse the instincts of bat
tie in his craven soul.
Before the strife ended Sne's mother
was gathered to her fnal rest, being
put ont of sight in the little sandy
graveyard, with only the comment of
the two remaining neighbors. And then
Dave and Sue toiled early and late in
order to wiring from the starving acres
an UNMARRIED livelihood of yams, corn
bread an bacon, more often the corn
bread wi. aout the establishment of po-
\ tatoes and bacon, particularly during
the weeks after a hungry ~foraging party
had passed that way.
One day Dave was working among
the young potato vines in an open arid
field behind the cabin, when Sue ran
ont to him in troubled haste.
''Oh, Dave, I'm pow'ful skeeredt''
she painted.
EsSkeered o. what?'' he asked, with
out intermission Of the bent labor.
"Some-some soldiers just went down
the road, an they spoke to me--sassy
like" She hesitated, and Dave looked
up to see her pretty face scarlet and her
brows bent together i'll angry lines.
"Well, what did they all say?'' he
demanded in his accustomed slow drawi
after waiting in vain for her to proceed.
"They lowed they all was a-comin
back"
"Who was they ennyhow?" he asked
une2Slly, Ills idCG DldlcI4AB III dul1C1-
patton of the martial visit.
"They was Mosby's men, / lowed,
an they was five of 'em."
"Our fellers?" a little surprised and
Strengthening his back. Come ON back
to the house, Sue" and, shouldering
his hoe, he trudged stolidly on before.
Don't you be skeered. " he continued
as they reached the yard. II reckon
they won't do nothin."
OF the two it would have been mani
fest to the most casual observer that he
was the wort '.skeered, but he walk
ed on till they reached the house, and
Sue cried out:
''Yonder they come now--all five.
Dawes face blanched TO a sallow
whiteness, but he pulled her quickly in
side the Goor.
"What you gwine to dor" Sue asked
r~srvously, keeping near her cousin, but
he apparently did not hear. He had