The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-22

"smasher' Tapping over his face A rifle
rests in the leather bucket by his side,
and to prevent the water trucking down
it's barrel he has improvised a miniature
hampton by Within down piece of thorn
branch. Tommy walking squelches
through soaking grass, his rifle slung
over his shoulder, muzzle down his
hands deep in his greatcoat pockets his
head bowed before the pelting rain, and,
like his mounted comrade, a pipe gripped
tenaciously between mis- Neth-a pipe
requiring much dextrous relighting.
To see Atkins to advantage you must
see him under the most HOPELESS cond-
tons You must see him on such day
this, with baby waterfalls dropping
from his hat brim, and little water
courses winding down his coat collar,
and small but uncomfortable pools lodg-
ing near the nape of his neck. See him
when he is wet through, when he hasn't
got one dry rag on him, and you will
see the most cheerful and profane in
dividual you have yet had the fortune
to meet-unless. indeed. you have met
him before under similar conditions.
And so the column moves; detected
horses, plodding mules phlegmatic ma
tives, and, before all, cheeful Tommie.
Observation-Disclosures.
H
the ground firmer, and the going gener-
ally easier. Sometimes the road is hacked
out OF solid rock, and is such that you
cannot help thinking that the engineers
who cut it surely intended 1t for a flight
of steps, for here it is that the mules
gasp and the whips whrr and crack
loudest. Here it is that with bloody
shoulder and broken wind the weaklings
of the team discover themselves, and the
-.
is being embarrassed and dragged to the
side of the road
Sometimes it is a drift, a swollen
stream and a muddy ascent. The slopes
on each side have been tramped to
liquid mud-mud, with a treacherous even
surface, hiding the rock that throws
the near wheel up the hole that drops
the off wheel down, and the drop be-
yond that throws the wagon over
Once more the column stops. this time
with loud curses, while the men, who
could not get wetter II they tried. wade
into the stream The overturned wagon
is put right with much labor. but on the
opposite bank the mules refuse to pull
any further. 1t Is a steep bank and miry,
and the mule knows his limitations, so
other teams have to be embarrassed from
the loads they are pulling and fastened
on to the wogan that is strickland as
every otnCr wagon sticks, each drift
negotiated on such a day as this Is to
be approached with a certain amount Of
anxiety and no little foreboding. And
so the day drags on. Bad road. good
road hard road, soft road, rocky hill,
muddy hill. SLUT and drift-only the
weather doesn't change; II rains all the
time Morning bleakness TO monday
muggness; monday mugginess 10 even
ing chillness, and then camp.
His Duty sleep.
Still raining. but Atkins has got a bit
Of dry wood concealed somewhere about
his person and within a few minutes OF
his being dismissed a dozen little fires
are hickering desperately The dozen
INsle fires. encouraged by more dry
wood blaze forth defiant Of wind and
rain. and Tommy. unbucklng his can
teen. burned black and dented and crush
ed out OF ils PimlicO shape. prepares his
evening meal.
While the water is boiling the house