The National tribune., 1899-06-01

| horttes OF men, trains of wagons, herds of
cattle, innumerable horSes, countless mules,
mountains of boxes, barrels, and bales. I'M
mediately around them was n wilderness of
| trains, with noisy locomotives and shouting
men, Regiments returning from veteran fur
| Tough, or entirely new ones, were disembark-
ing with loud cheering, which was answered
| from the camps on the hillsdes. On the
river front steamboats, were whistling and
| changing their bells
| The boys too much awed for speech. clus-
tered around ST and Sherry, and cast anxious
! glances ut their faces
Great Jehosephat, murmured Shorty.
"They seem to be all here
NO" answered ST, as the cheers of n
newly-arrived regiment rang ont, the back
Townships are still comm in.'
Monty Scruggs found tongue enough to
quote:
And ships by thousands lay below,
And men by nations, all were his"
"Where in time do you s'pose the 2O0th
Injianny is in all this fresbet OF men and
mules and HOSES % said 81, with an anxious
brow. The look made the boys almost terror
stricken. They huddled together. and turned
| their glances toward Shorty for hope. But
Shorty looked as puzzled as 81.
Possibly" he suggested to 81, the con-
ductor will take us further up into the town,
where we kin find somebody that we know,
who'll tell US where the rijimint is"
"No,n said the conductor, who came back
at that moment; Il can't go no further with
you. Just got my orders. You must pile
right ont here at once. They want the engine
and empties in five minutes to take n load
back to Nashville. Git your men out quick
as you kim"
"Fall in," commanded 81. "Single rank
Foller me and Corpril Elliott. Keep well
| closed up, for if you git separated from US
goodness knows whatil become o. you in
| this raft o. men,"
"Babes in the woods over agin," sug-
gested Shorty.
The frightened boys struggled to see
which should get closest to the partners. Of
course, Gid and Harry got to the head, and
| then would have had mill between them
selves as to which should walk Immediately
after Shorty, but that the space between the
two cars was too narrow to admit Of
pugilism.
"Please don't lose me, Sargint Klegg."
called out little Pete Skidmore from the
rear "I'm doin' all kin to keep up"
The passage through the crowded, busy
railroad yard was bewildering, toilsome, ex-
the tracks was scarcely more than wide
enough for one man to pass, and the trains
| on either side would be moving in differen.
directions. On the tracks that the boys
crossed trains were going ahead or backing in
entire regardlessness of them, and with many
profane yells from the trainmen for them to
get out of the way and keep out 81 only
kept his direction by occasionally glancing
| over his shoulder and setting his face to walk
in the direction away from Pulpit Rock,
which juts out from the extremity Of Look
| ont Mountain. Shorty was boiling over with
| rage. He had got angry at the first train
| men that had dashed by them, had replied
| to their billingsgate in kind, and had become
angrier with every succeeding lot. At in
teryals he would fling chunk of coal or a
piece of iron at a particularly aggrayating
| crew, who would clatter on at the rate of 10
miles an hour, jeering at him.
After a series of hair-breadth lodges 81
drew up his squad in an open space where
the tracks crossed, and proceeded to count
| them. At the rear he found little Pete Skid
more in boyish tears.
Come my boy" he said kindly. "Don't
cry. You're a soldier now, and soldiers
don't cry. Stop it"
"Dod durn it, blubbered Pete, 81 amt
kase I'm ateared you'll lose me-. 1 know
burned well you'll lose me yit, with all this
foolin' around'
''NO, we won't" ;" 81 assured him. You
Just keep with US and you'll be all right
Here, you bim-blammed, moon-eyed
suckers, git often that 'ere crossin'," yelled
at them fireman whose engine came tearing
down toward the middle of the squad
Haint you got no more sense than to stand
on crossing?
He hurled chunk of coal at the squad,
which hastily followed Si to the other side of
the track.
Hello, there; where are you goin, you
chuckle-headed clodhoppers? 2" yelled the
men on another train rushing down from a
different direction. This aint no bayfield,
Go back home and drive cows, and git out o.
the way o men who're at work"
There was more scurrying, and when at
last 81 reached a clear space, he had only a
portion of his squad with him, while Shorty
was vowing he would not 90 a step farther
until he had licked a railroad man. But the
engines continued to whirl back and forth in
apparently purpcseless confusion, and the
moment that he fixed upon any particular vic
tim of his wrath, he was sure 10 be compelled
to jump out of the way of locomotive
ANU
interposing train of freight cars between
him and the man he was after
ST was too deeply exercised about getting
his squad together to pay attention to Shorty,
or the jeering, taunting railroaders. He
became very fearful that some of them had
been caught and badly hurt, probably killed,
by the remOrseless locomotives.
''This's wuss'n battle" he remarked to
the boys around him. "I'd ruther take you
out on the skirmish-line than through them
trains agin."
However, he had come to get some COM
prehension of the lay of the ground, and the
movements of the trains by this time, and
by careful watching succeeded in gathering
in his boys, one after another, until he had
them all but little Pete SkidmOre The
opinion grew among them that Pete had un-
wisely tried to keep up with the bigger boys,
who had jumped across the track in front
of locomotive, and had been caught and
crushed beneath the wheels. He had been
seen up to certain time, and then those who
were last with him had been so busy getting
out of the way that they had forgotten to
look for him. 81 calmed Shorty down enough
to get him to forget the trainmen for awhile,
and take charge of the squad, while he went
to look for Pete He had become so bewildered
that he could not tell the direction whence
they had come, or where the tragedy was
likely to have happened. The farther he
went in attempting to penetrate the maze of
mOyinp Trains the more homeless the uuest