Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1898-10-20

y
TX a score of times.
X) "You might tell them
~ about the time you faint
ed dead away" suggested grandma,
with her tender. pensive smile, as she
bent caressingly over his latest name
sake fast asleep in her arms.
Yielding TO the clamorous entreaties
of more than q dozen young voices, the
veteran slowly proceeded; You see.
l was just out of Andersonville, and IA
little shaky even on an ordinary occa-
sion. and this was a most extraordinary
occasion, being the day your grandma
graduated at HolyOke.
Il first enlisted for three months, full
of fight and sure of victory, and look
ed so fine and tall in my blue uniform,
/ thought Id go and say good-by to
DR.. Millers daughter. l was only
common farmer, and she had another
beau, student at Amherst, but l re-
membered once AT party, when she
had to choose a partner, she selected
me instead of JIM so | thought I'd go
and tell her | was off for Dixie in the
morning. 1 thought maybe she'd cry
little as my mother did, or say some
thing fine about my laying down my
precious life for the dear old flag; but
she didn't say much, and l didn't stay
long, for jim was there.
"Nar+ha won't with sae out to the
gate. l reached out my big, sunburned
hand, and she took 1t in both her own
and held 1t quite a bit, and she said:
Bonnie, I'm sorry you're going to the
war; you're too young a man, and too
good man to stand up and be shot at
Then Jim appeared on the scene, and l
went away half cursing my honest
hand for being so big and so brown,
while Jim's was as white as lily with
great flashing diamond on the small
est of his slender fingers.
Talk about standing up as a 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 1 lost all
count, how many and many time
looked at my white, bony hands and
wished they were as big and as tanned
as they used to be, and when l would
have prayed for an ending of my mis-
cry, how well l remembered that Mar
tina had said L was too young to die
and the way she had held my hand
still thrilled me, and kept me alive and
out of the clutch of old Giant Despair,
and | said over and over to myself a
thousand times, with grim determine
ton, what DIR. Miller had so often re-
peated: While there is life there is
hope, and at last was exchanged and
discharged. oh, how happy L was to
be set freel l did not regain my free
dom with a sigh like the poor prisoner
of Chillon, but with great Joy that
buoyed me UP for the long, weary jour
ney home, and enabled me to assist
others who were still weaker.
"When at last the stage set me dowr
In the familiar village postoffice l was
SO weary and wasted no one seemed t.
recognize me, but looked at me in {
plying way l could not understan nd
ana SO Jiid NOT speak TO any one, bu
staggered down the hill to the old farm
house trfing in vain to scent the sup
per or thf Glove pinks. l did not know
my precious mother had been dead al
most year, but when l reached tn
gate fell the change. 1t hung by on
hinge ami swayed and creaked with
dismal sound that seemed to me lk
the groaning of a ghost 1t weakene
me so that | had to rest a while befor
going down the long walk still lined b.
my mothers flower beds; but oh, hoy
neglected they looked! AS l neared tn
porch I saw a red calf tied to a lila
BUSH one that my mother had hersel
planted on the very day she was
bride, and then I seemed to know tina
she was gone. War kills women a
well as men. she thought her only bo
was dead and she had nothing to liv
for-nothing but an empty home.
"T'hat was too good house to b
long unoccupied, and DR.. Miller ha
rented it to needy family of foreign
ers, requesting that MY room should
left just as my mother had last al
ranged it.
"Oh! how / had cheered myself wit
picture of that waiting tea table
But didn't drop down into my accus
toned place, for even the table ha
been moved)into the little, overcrowde
kitchen, and the robust woman VIII
did her best to serve me could not VI