Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1900-07-03
NEW SERIES, VOL. 1xxY. NO. ~.

expectations of being set up in bust.
ness by his father. She admitted that
she Ind adored soldiers and that She
had caused hinf to enter the army for
her sake. But she had omitted to state
that the soldiers She adored were sol
1 diers who possessed the queens COM
mission and who Wore stars instead OF
a worsted stripe.
II poor White Feather was physical
coward, he was moral hero. There is
no chance of display OF feeling in a
barraek room; so, like the Spartan boy
of old; he hugged his trouble to him,
slipping the cheap little engagement
ring with which he had sealed his
I tFoth Into his pocket without a sign be-
yond the twitching of his white lips
Then lie lit his pipe with the letter. not
I out of contempt, but because there is
little privacy accorded In the corre-
4 spondence that comes to the barrack
room, and private soldier is not pro-
vided with desk wherein to keep his
faded flowers and other sentimental to-
kens of the past.
The blow was very heavy one, for
White Feather was without the world
ly knowledge that should have told
him long since that he had fixed his af-
fecttons upon a vulgar, selfish and
brainless hirt, and he still believed in
her.
Tor her sake he had learned to over
come his physical cowardice. He had
dreamed OF a possible commission In
the dim future and had rejoiced in the
recently acquired promotion as a step
toward her.
For her sake, too, he received the
news cheerfuIly when the word passed
through the barracks that the regiment
was ordered TO South Africa to meet
the Beers. He knew that he was by
nature a coward, but for the memory
of her he swore an oath to himself to
do his duty without sparlng himself in
the coming fight.
Look ere, old chap. we amt going
to call you White Feather no morew
said Trumpeter Pipes as they lay to-
gether behind the shelter of large
bowlder, against the face of which the
Boer bullets were pattering like
heavy rain
In full sight of the whole army their
squadron had crossed the Boer front
amid hail of bullets which had
brought 20 men to earth.
White Feathers horse had been shot
under him, and, at the risk of his life,
he had carried the wounded trumpeter
into the shelter of the powders. He
was unhurt, but trembled in every
limb from fear and great exertion.
From between two powders he peep
ed out and saw, amid the bodies OF men
and horses that Uttered the plain, a
wounded man erawling on his hands
and knees amid spatter of bullets
that We're Kicking puffs of dust from
the dry earth all around him.
1t was his captain.
White Feather watched him for n
moment; then he saw him stop and lie
down ON his side despairingly. He
could crawl no more.
81 will, for her sakep' he murmured
between his clinched teeth, and, rising
from the shelter of the rock, he faced
the hail of death that pattered to the
earth around him.
As he walked into the open faint
cheer reached his ears from the Brit
ish troops half mile behind him. The
4NOS III uTIitleFN- DdckeQ ulI1 WIFI u
shrieleing fight of shrapnel, which
whistled for moment overhead, then
burst over the Boer lines quarter of
a mile away in a shower of bullets that
for a moment quelled the storm around
him.
He reached the wounded man, lifted
him on his back and returned step by
step to where Trumpeter Pipes lay hid
den.
The trumpeter gave him faint
''Bravop as he staggered and fell with
his burden into the kindly shelter of
the rock.
That was White Feathers reward.
On a distant hill the British COM
mander shut his heldg1asses with a
snap.
.'Tell the general to keep down the
fire on the right there and to get those
men in from behind those bowlders,"
he said to his aid, "and bring me that
mans name. If he is alive. tell him
that saw IT MI and that I'm going to
recommend him for the cross.
Never saw a finer show of fire disci-
pline in my lifeH added the command
er to himself as his aid galloped of
White Feathers eyes gllstened as he
received the message and heard the
cheer that swept along the lines as he
was carried In