The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-02-09


he gave it to me with grand flourish for
piece of toast. | didn't do a thing with
hat brickbat but throw it at him.
sob, you were cross when you were
sick down in Cuba" said Blanche with
surprise over the discovery.
"May be | was, once OF twice. he con
fessed.
did the toast hurt the soldier" she
pursued
mo, hecould dodge Mausers and he
could dodge that eighteen-ipch bomb he
called toast but l heard him talking to
himself. When he enlisted. he enlisted
for soldier, and not for a cook and a
surgeon and Red Cross ambulance all
in one, and he wasn't no witch, he wasn't,
and he couldn't make raw pork taste like
all the delicacies of the season no more
than the next one SO | didn't throw
any more of his delicacies' at him after
that, unless | forgot
The arrival of the lunch put stop to
the flow of "reminiscences, and it was not
resumed again until late n the twilight,
when after long sleep and some chicken
broth--the soft shell crabs were allowed
to form themselves into reserved force,
and it was decided finally not to call them
out-he walked very slowly into Me
library, leaning on Jacks stick.
''You walk like old Mr.. Meldron," said
Blanche, Waltzing in ahead of him. Mr..
Meldron was the village octogenarian.
mir. Meldronr' he exclaimed. Mr.
Meldron could beat me in a hundred
yard dash to- night without half a try"
He sat down at the desk and lit a candle.
Then he took up penholder and put it
down and leaned back in his chair. SO
it fell to Blanche's lot To report his return
to the Adjutant- General of the United
States. She discharged the task with a
delightful feeling of Importance. Was
she not contributing to the history of her
time and country? statement us dictated,
beginning, ''Sir. When she wrote the
army official Il have the honor to state,'
etc. and concluding with Respectfully,
she studied it admilingly when it was
done; that is she Admired all but the weak
scrav ling signature, al. NJ. Holiday,
Second Lieutenant, -Infantry, L. s A., ="
which undoubtedly marred the effect of
he's beautiful, precise writing,
Now that is over, said his mother,
watching him anxiousy, 'you have
nothing to do but to rest.
''No, he said, there's one thing to do
still, The hardest hing of all telling Faith.
| ain going DOVE to- night. Oh, I'm not
going to walk. The station wagon is
coming foT me at eight. | can't rest
until | see her ."
-'We1e You mean Jack when he fell?'
She asked,
He nodded. al was the second day of
the fight, he began at last, as though it
" ere relief tor him 10 speak, 81 heard
some one call Out, Oh, jimmie, Jimmie,
l III shot to pieces. II was Jack ] knew
his voice. oh, guess you re all right
said, and / looked around They were
canynI HIM to the rear in d litter
made Of tent cloth and the muskets that
they lad taken from the dead soldiers. !
went over to him and looked at him. He
WAS, just as he SAID, shot to pieces
Thele WAS no chance for him to live. a
little man came yapping up. He had A
notebook and a pencil. Married man?'
he said to Jack want to send a message
to your wife and family? Better speak
quick if you We anything to say | could
have seen a Mauser hit that little man
with pleasure. Jack was so-well, not
shy, eXactl A-Sensitive- don't know
what to call it; but you know how he was
about his feelings This is Lieutenant
Cary, | said, OF the-th infantry. He's
not d married man. Then the little man
hustled off. He seemed to think only a
married man could have anything to say
Jacks face was covered with blood. You
couldn't tell " neither he was young or old
| went up and leaned over him. He tried
to smile, to speak; perhaps he conld have
spoken again latel-to me. dom know,
but an older came to me from another part
of the field. l had to leave him. The
i i -
speak again. He died an hour and half
later. l cabled to you about it,
1.-The message never came" said his
mother. at seems as though events had
conspired to keep up poor Faiths delu-
sion. His death was not reported until
the seventh. Then she reasoned when
your letter came written, on your birth
day, without mention of Jack, that if
he were not alive and well you would Ger
tainly have said something's
81 was half out of my head when l
wrote that letter. he interposed. "But
now that Jack will come back?'
Yes" said his mother. 'It sounds
incredible. When | saw her this after
noon she read me his last letter to her,
dated June 29:h. His last sentence is
Hope for the best. Good by, good by,
good by and she is taking it too literally,
hoping for the best against the strong est
arguments to the contrary
''Sunday, the third" said Blanche,
"when we thought the fight was still 60
ing on we sang hat hymn in church that
has in it, don't You know
Zone army of the living God,
To his command we bow;
Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now
Fen now to their eternal home
There pass some spirits blest
While others to the margin come,
aiting their call to rest
''Tactful in whoever chooses hymns, to
pick out a thing like that at such time, -
he gre aned.
''They didn't think" said Blanche:
''and anyway they had to sing it without
any help from me. But Faith sang it,
and after church she said she felt badly,
of course, thinking about those other
poor soldiers, but you and Jack were safe,
she felt sure. And that's all the wal
meant to us--just you and Jack-I sup
pose, to be honest about it. You see, she
felt very sure. She wrote to an officer
she knows, who was wounded on the sec
ond and sent home, and he wrote and
told her he saw you and Jack eating hard
tack together that day, July I'd. He
didn't say what time, but Faith says il
was after the battle, because you dom
houa +;n,o +o oot x,bop bo Euhtse