Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1897-02-17

Young Jimmy Stevens went from
the pillow to the bayonet, with little in
teryening time In which to prepare for
the handling of his new implement.
The Intention had been that young
Stevens should stick to the pillow, for
his father and mother were getting old,
and the two elder brothers bad already
gone to the war, expecting to be home
in three months, and now two years
had passed without their return; one of
them, indeed, 1t was guessed would
never come back, although his name
was not In the list of dead, but In the
apprehensve roll-call of the missing.
Much as the farm needed Jimmy, his
country appeared to need him more,
and 1t called out his name blindfold,
by means of the draft. There being
no money In the Stevens family to buy
a substitute, Jimmy let go the handle
of the pillow and shouldered gun.
There was little time to waste In the
camp of instruction, for the country
was loudly calling for more men, and
a farmers boy can stop bullet as
well as the most expert soldier, even
though he may not direct 1t with much
accuracy. So with the farm-yard cries
scarcely out of his ears, Jimmy found
himself in the rough and ready turmoil
Of the camp, flung unprepared into sol
dierlng; splendid material to make a
warrior of in time, through the hard,
unsympathetlc handling Of that great
machine, the army. 1r but the bullet
that was searching for him failed to
find him for some months, what with
marching, countermarching and sleep
ing In blanket, Jimmy would be as
good soldier as the rest of them, ready
to Kill or be killed.
Hard as farm work may be, it is at
least regular, and in the quiet of the
country man gets good nights sleep.
Jimmy found that the only regular
thing about soldering was Its irregu-
larity. He had been up two days and
q night on the cars, he had marched.
not knowing where he was going coun-
ter-marched, halted, slept when he
could, bugled up again, as 1t seemed,
almost before he had lain down, and
of all things on earth that Jimmy most
wanted was one uninterrupted good
nights sleep; but grim fate, who was
waiting for him, decreed that Jimmy
should be sent out from midnight till 4
o'clock as sentry, where, most import
ant OF all things he was not to do, he
must not fall asleep. The Captain had
the unfortunate idea that young fel-
lows fresh from the farm, or from the
workshop, made better sentinels THAI
tricks of the trade.
1t was ten minutes to II when jim
my was awakened by rough shake
from rough hand grasping his shout
der. He was drunken with sleep, and
would have given anything for another
hour of 1t, but he was marched through
the camp, and then across a narrow
field to the edge of plantation; here
he relieved man whom he could not
see in the darkness, and who had been
standing under tree.
Jimmy's instructions were that he
was not to march up and down nor TO
move from the foot of the tree; he was
not to fire his gun unless directly at
lacked, but IL he heard anyone ap-
proach he must make for the camp as
silently as he could and give warning.
II suddenly surrounded, he was TO fire
his gun, but 1t was impressed upon him
that the great point was to keep the
enemy In ignorance of the fact that he
was there; therefore he must not walk.
nor move, but stand with his back
against the tree and keep his ears wide
open.
The relieved man of the guard walk
ed nolselessly away, and Jimmy was