Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1898-07-29
A WAR STORY !

A WAR STORY.
so you youngsters want a war story.
sighed Grandpa Sawyer, CHANGING fondl
over the merry group. Of children an
grandchildren that had assembled to cele
brate his sixtieth birthday. Yielding t
the clamorous entreaties of more than
dozen young voices, the veteran slowly pro
oeeded: r. = s
"When enlisted, I thought I'd 60 an,
say goodby to DR.. Miller's daughter.
was only common farmer, and she hat
another beau, student at Amherst, bu
l remembered once at party when she
had to choose partner she selected me in
stead OF Jim, SO I thought I'd 20 and tell
her was of for Dixie in the morning.
didn't stay long, for Jim was there
Martha went with me out to the gate.
reached out my big sunburned hand, and
she took it in both her own and held il
quite a bit, and she said: Bonnie. I'm
sorry you re going to the war. You're too
! young man and too good a man to stand
up and be shot at Then Jim appeared
on the scene, and went away half ours,
ing my honest hand for being SO big and
SO brown, While Jim's was as white as
lily, with great flashing diamond on the
smallest OF his slender fingers.
"Talk about standing up as target for
bullets! That's nothing, nothing at all
compared with lying down to starve in a
foul prison. AS the days passed into weeks
and the weeks, SO long, into months so
much longer that l lost ali count, how
many and many time I looked at my
white bony hands and wished they were
as big and as tanned as they used to be, and
when would have prayed for an ending
OF my misery, how well I remembered
that Martha had said was too young to
die, and the way she had held my hand
still thrilled me and kept me alive, and
said over and over to myself a thousand
times, with grim determination, what DIR.
Miller had SO often repeated, while there
is life there is hope, and at last was ex-
changed and discharged. Oh, how happy
! was to be set free! J. did not regain my
freedom with SIGH like the poor pris-
oner OF Chlllon, but with a great JOY that
buoyed me up for the long, weary journey
home and enabled me to assist others who
were still weaker.
when at last the stage set me down in
the familiar village postoffice, I was so
weary and wasted no one seemed to recog-
nize me, but looked at me in a pityine
way could not understand, and SO did
not speak to any one, but STAGGERED down
the hill to the old farmhouse, trying in
vain to scent the supper or the Glove pinks.
did not know my precious mother had
been dead almost year, but when I
reached the gate felt the change. It
hung by one hinge and swayed and creak-
ed with dismal sound that seemed to me
like the grooming of a ghost. 1t weakened
me so that had to rest awhile before 90.
ing down the long walk, still lined by my
mothers flower beds. But, oh, how neg
lected they looked As neared the porch
l saw red calf tied to lilac bush, one
that my mother had herself planted on the
day she was bride, and then seemed to
Know that she was gone. War kills WON.
en- as well as men: She thought her only
boy WIS dead, and she had nothing to live
but an empty home.
'That was too good house to be long
unoccupied, and DR.. Miller had rented It
to needy family Of foreigners, requesting
that my room should be left just as nv
mother hati last arranged it.
"Oh, how l had cheered myself with a
picture Of chat waiting tea table! But
didn't drop down into my accustomed
place, for even the table had been moved
into the little overcrowded kitchen, and
the robust woman who did her best to
serve me- could not understood my simple
language, but She did cemTashend my sor.
row and WEAKNESS and bitter disap0int-
ment, and after I hoe taken a. glass of
milk she allowed EHe to 60 right up to my
own airy 9dfsltAber, where everything was
sacredlY fanasliar. How deliciously soft
and clean ehe bed seemed, and cried N.Y.
self TO eseep like tired, homesick baby.
"ghe first thing heard in the morning
Wais not the chirping of the robins, as in
Rhe olden time, but the loud bawling of
that steer calf under my window. Gov
cred my head with the bedclothes and W
the poor, weak baby over again. WI on +
awoke later in the day, good DR.. <Milh%
was sitting by my bedside. He t.e(ped, fha
dress and took me home to harasxaast.
where the talking as we'll as @he Cooking
was all United States, but. skHaehow I
wasn't hungry and longe0 10 ask what
had become of Martha.-]
II soon found out, - Hsr Father was 90
ing to Holyoke the next DAY to hear her
valedictory, and be tcJk me along with
him. 1t was'a kontz dive, but we took it
slow and easy and 4 'kad my fill Of fresh
a1r and reeoSsteered my appetite. We were
q ht*le la:te to'the exhibition and found
the charel ,alteady crowded, but the good
doctor finally 1itoceeded in getting q seaa
well up In iff0fnt, and there; right before
w., was<AmAerst Jim, just as slim and
whitetaste$sr. He fingered his watch chair
and tpetttted his mustaohe and msae hi
diamoad glisten and devoured the plat
form with his eyes, just as he used to IL
{ thesdld red schoolhouse when Martha wal
:g1mg to speak her piece. Now he was
1ifull fedged physician and Nr. Millerl
tpbartner. We had long time to wait. Thi
essays were lengthy and learned, ant
Martha's was the last. The other gradu
ates wore white but size was all in black
with Grape collar. hooked questioning
" into her fathers face. He put his arm
around me and whispered, She wear
mourning for your mother-and for5you.
"For my mother and for mech, tn
pain of it. Oh, the joy:ofit! Andwhethe
it was the pain or the JOY, or the erowde'
| ..-,,, ~, tho 1vox, Ii,,, Looked af- Martha