The National tribune., 1900-08-23
3 .kls99
IF ~ W as q
~ Veteran
Copyrighted, 1894 by the publishers of THE NATIONAL
TRIBUNE.
The Boys Reach Home Safely.

for the time they had been in prison.
| "Humph, that's nice arrangement
said 81, when it was explained to him.
| "POst-mortem board-money, so to speak.
A quarter to-day for the grub you didn't
eat yesterday. Empty gizzard yesterday,
money in your pocket to-day. Wisht I'd
knowed ! was iayin' up money when We
were running light on feed in Anderson
| Vile. Don't know us this money belongs
to me by rights, nohow. Some of it ought
| to go to them darkies who helped US out. ;"
"About 4 S. bill to that old uncle who
gested Shorty, with smack of luscious
remembrance.
AT least that" answered 81. "Great
Scott how good that was! Like awfully
to have kittle of it this minute"
I'm going to lay aside $40 bill to give
Aunt ,Nervy Am when we get back down.
there" said Shorty. '.And Pete must give
her s.. too. for that whipping she took for
us. Say, 81, we've got to keep sharp
| lookout on the boys, SOS they're neither
swindled out of their money by sharpcrs
nor squander it stuffing themselves with
everything that's offered them to eat.
| They'll simply kill themselves eating the
stuff that them peddlersll bring through
| the train as soon's we get beyond Nash
Vile"
They'll kill themselves deader'n small
| beer if they eat any o them Kentucky
pies said 81, apprehensively. Kentucky
| pies is deadlier on boy than buckeyes on
a COW. You remember that them pies we
| got when we first come into Kentucky like
to We foundered the whole regiment.
Knocked lots o the boys colder'n wedges.
| Nothing else killed Jake Wheatley. Hunk
o one o them pies got crosswise in his
works, and then it was all day with him.
Healthy boy as me or you when he
crossed the river"
s.FThat'S 1,,ay hoIiaunI hot
| they mixed embark with their pie-crusts
to make 'em tough, and stuffed poke ber-
ries inside to dope the YankS."
First thing we've got to do" said 81,
is to get every cent of money away from
| the boys, and not let 'em have none of it
till we're, acrost the Ohio River. Then
they cant buy nothing, and all we'll have
to look out for is what they snouge."
The first thing was to go to the boys
with lively description of the dangers
that they would run from having their
| money taken by the thieves and robbers
abounding along the route, and a demand
| that all the funds be turned over to ST
at this, especially by Pete and Sandy and
Harry, who wanted to keep money enough
to buy some souvenirs to take home to
their mothers! But 81 and Shorty were
| obdurate. Every bill must be given up,
and this took all, for thsy none of them
had yet had time to get a note changed.
There's nothing to sell down here,
whisky. The whisky won't make a good
keepsake, and yOf Needn't waste your
money buying niggers. Pick up any one
that's straying around and take him along
He'll be gladVtO 90 for his rations and
your old clothes, and he'll eat smoke,
house empty in night. Or you might
take her home a busted siege-gun The
General II let You take all you can carry
of them old PARROTS. But the best keep
sake you can take her is your own self in
good condition. I'm going to help you see
that she has that"
81 took the money, wrapped each boys
in piece of paper with his name on it,
wrapped all the packages including his
own and ShOrty's, in big sheet of stout
paper-a blank muster-roll that he got
from the Hospital Steward-tied it up
securely with black linen thread, and sus-
pended it inside his shirt from a thong OF
a whip-lash around his neck
That's our bank" he said "Bank's
suspended payment until we cross the
Ohio River, but you'll have the cashier
him"
Trouble began almost as soon as they
had left Nashville. In the morning 81
and Shorty, with great self-denial, had
taken the boys to breakfast at the Sol
NtIS edtu lHpm Hau re-
ceiyed nothing more than a cup of coffee
and large sandwich-a slice of cold
boiled beef between two slices of soft
bread. This was only kindling wood to
the ravenous appetites of the boys, who
felt that every turn of the car-wheels was
taking them from the land of hunger and
need to that of victual abundance.
At each of the principal stations be-
tween Nashville had developed hordes of
hucksters, who were rushing along the
path to wealth by selling the passing sol
diers pies, ''snacks," and other forms of
indigestion at Klondike prices. "The
rush of customers was large, perennial,
and very uncritical. The trains from the
south were loaded with discharged men,
veterans on furlough, convalescents ct al,
who were eager to buy at any price what
ever looked like the well-remembered
home food. The trains from the North
carried new regiments and recruits, who
were eternally hungry, and bought and ate
as if trying to fill up beyond any possibiIi-
ty of suffering from short allowances at
the front. Price was no consequence for
anything that bore tolerable resemblance
to proper food, and he was very con-
scientiOus or very unenterprising huck-
ster who contented himself with seven
fold the value of his wares.
At the first stop the cars were surround
ed and invaded by a clamorous mob shout
ing:
pies N cakesr'
"Hard-biled aigs"
Homemade snacks"
Hot sassidge an salt-rnisin' breadr'
wheat bread an chicken dOin'v'
billed pork an cabbdger'
All the boys looked with keen longing
on the viands, felt in their pockets, and
then turned their gaze expectantly on ST,
who shook his head, and said firmly: "No,
boys, you mustn't eat mouth full o. that
truck. 'Taint fit for. well men, let alone
boys in your condition"
"Our conditions all right" grumbled
Pete to Sandy. I''At least, it's all right for
a piece of one o them pies, and mess O.
that pork and cabbage. My, but don't it
smell nice. Smells just like that bacon
and collards that old uncle gave us down
in Georgia" a. ~
at certainly, does,"I responded Sandy.
1T seems to me that a pound of that'd
make me 20 pounds heavier"
AT the next station the boys were much
hungrier, the hucksters more importunate,
and it seemed that the things they offered
looked much more homelike and appetiz.
ing. Shorty saw the danger, and sternly
drove the peddlers away from their part
Of the car. But the. boys followed them
with longing eyes, and shifted apprecia-
lively at the luscious odors.
"Just wait till you get home, boys" said
Shorty, consolingly: ...sThen your mothers
for not sp'iling your appetite, and mebbe
killing Yourselves nv StufipD With thok