The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1897-05-27

gypsy peddlers and gathered up every scrap
of edibles, overturning the baskets and
beating off the owners, some of whom
fought like beasts. l could never see any
glory in the black eyes and bruises of a
common brawl, no matter what the occa-
sion, and was only sad spectator here.
At the beginning of all this business l had
taken parcel of keepsakes from my peck
ct, and, Just to make sure for the TWEEN
tieth time that had no current values
about me, ran over the pile carefully. The
torn stamp was in the lot and caught my
attention, and, with a flood of memories, it
bore my Thought away from the present
scene. First, Lucy's letter and what was
she thinking now of me- There were two
heads bending over it now, for wounded
comrade stood so close that he could look
into my hand and was studying me as in
tently as 1 studied the stamp. What his
thoughts were never knew, but they were
equally distracting with mine, for we two
had not yielded to the passionate drift of
the crowd, and when these broke out upon
peddlers we alone were cool. We vainly
begged them to stop, but their slogan was
unanswerable in words:
Clown with the foreigners They have
no right herel We don't fight just to keep
up the country for tfien ~
The men were mad, and the rage must
work itself out. More than one badly
wounded man had his hurt opened afresh
in the rough and tumble encounter, and
all of them retired shamefaced from their
ignoble triumph.
said to my strange mate as 1 held out
the torn stamp, clad this been good 1
70, n
proven, ID this trouble Tears were in
his eyes, and I saw that hewas man of
sensibilities. He turned away, and the
figures on his cap, which had not noticed
before, cleaned in the sunshine, and at
once branded themselves upon my vision
-"142nd Vols"
left the scene with my companion, and,
the quicker to drop the unpleasant affair
from mind, proposed that we two exchange
one of our crutches. Such things are relics,
and mine had come from Washington S
old home, White House, Va, and my ac
quaintaHce's from Winchester, in the val
ley. We tried them, and were both suited,
but he had carved his very neatly with sew
eral designs and with his full name in old
English" Joseph Pennington. This, too,
was transferred mystically To place in
my memory and stood out boldly beside
those characters had seen on his cap, SO
that the legend now fixed there was, ".Jo-
seph Pennington, 142nd Vols" That
evening my furlough reached me, and I
was en- route for my home in the Empire
State before midnight.
My first act upon reaching an abiding
place was to write to Lucy in New Eng
land, and then began to count the hours
until time for reply. Days went by and
ran into weeks, yet none came A second
letter was written to explain the Wilder
ness case and my inability to dispatch an
other until reached home. All this was
to no effect, and finally gossip reached me
in roundabout way that Lucy had taken
up with dashing young fellow, an adj
venturer who had sent substitute to
battle to fight in his stead. The sequel to
this gossip came just before I left home
again for the front This was a package
OF letters returned-my glowing camp let
tiers OF 1868. And the first to meet my
sight, Intentionally so, was the Wilderness
letter, with a heavy line traced about my
ingenious and INGENIOUS frank thus.