The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-05

AN not bein' a responsible charakter, We
might have been bobtailed and gone on
the bum, having as you say no trade an
too old to larn. Ye're in luck. But bet
ye'd die. BY rights, because the doctor
said it, We ought to have died"
THE worst of it," said the convalescent,
lis the pain in my toes
Your toes?" cried the recruit.
"They always feels it, said the cor
poral, more or less. 1t depends on how
they buried your legs. III look yours up,
and have them buried right. There was
old Mahoney, who went railroading, and
got smashed up by an engine, with his leg
cut off He suffered terrible from his toes.
an his son had the buryin' OF the leg.
It's buried proper, dad says he, but the
old man doubted it an got friend to look
1t up Sure enough, the boy had just
put it in the ground. and the earth was
pressing hard and heavy down on it. Ma
honey's friend put it in a box where it
had room, an the pain left Mahoney.
knew says he, the boy hadn't buried 1t
proper; it hurt so.
The recruit laughed. but the cripple said.
anxiously:
Look mine up Corp will you? I'm
thinkin' mine amt put away right"
"Yere tough" said the corporal, harp
ing on the subject of the soldiers vitality.
Most fellers would have died. Some
fellers is mighty hard to kill. There Is
Buck Bill. He's with the Twenty-second
now. 1 mind when we blew taps over his
grave down on the Washita."
Howl" said the recruit II thought
you said he is with the Twenty-second
doughboys?"
AN so he is. I'll tell you how it was
See, in them days, the boys was havln'
hot times with the Comanches and the
Kiowas down in the old Southwestern
frontier. 1t was in them times when l
was enjoying myself like rookie for fair,
and all things was new to me and l never
thought but what I'd wind up as a major
anyhow. Like him there. You amt so
old as me, but you know how it is
The convalescent nodded grimly. He
wore two service stripes on his sleeve.
The recruit looked dreamily out of the
farther door of the hospital tent. He
was very young. and-some day there
might be a war worth calling a war. not
a campaign. He had hopes.
1--WE are all bucks. of course" the cor
poral went on, but this Teller Bill was
called Buck Bill poor-purr-there's a
foreign word, rookie?"
"Par example?" the recruit suggested
timidly.
Right. guess. In matters of the
United States language, 1 don't take no
corrections from no one, but in foreign
talk, my rookie, you may know more'n
me. He was Buck Bill always. He had
the most extrorny bumps behind his ears.
frennigist--"
"A phrenologist?" the rookie meekly
inquired.
THAT amt a foreign word" said the
old corporal, angrily IT'S good United
States, and il goes, see? / eaid fren-
nlgist Amt that right?"
| The convalescens nodded and the re-
cruit was humbled.
This here frennigist felt onct Of Bill
head and drawed a paper OF It, Says
| he to Bill he says. You've the most
amazing bump of vitality l ever seed.
he says. Them was the bumps behind
Buck Bits ears he meant see? Mine
ain't remarkable. but / guess yourn arc"
| The patient felt behind his ears and
opened mis- eyes wide.
by geer he snid. You're right,
Corp; I've got 'em big 4"
Thought So" said the corporal ''or
you'd never have pulled through this
rastle Guess you'd give the yeiler fever
itself a hot time to down YOU"
The recruit fet at the back of his ears
with alarm.
II fancy" he said thoughtfully, "tha,
Il wouldn't pay me to have both legs
cut off"
'well, sir" the corporal said. Buck
Bill was q thing Il was the hardest OF
hard 20 kill. He got cut up by a cowboy
in Cheyenne and lived. In the hospital
he broke out on a bitter cold night. got
drunk, caught cold got eerriesipples-
shut up rookie, that's United States. too
and the doctors gave him up, but he
lived through. He was shot in the stom-