The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-30
IN WARD FIFTEEN.

sI IN WARO FIE IEbN.
 William Parsons, Company E, Eigh
 teenth United States infantry, was tn
 entry in the hospital register. He oc
 cupied cot in Ward 15, together witt
 thirty other wounded soldiers, repre-
 senting nearly every regular regimen
 in the Fifth Army crops. Many o.
 them were seriously wounded; one was
 shot through the neck, several through
 the body, while others had been man
 gled by the terrible shrapnel. But o1
 all the wounded, Bill Parsons was ths
 only one who could not live. At least
 so the surgeons and nurses said, and as the regulars, through long experience had learned to put faith in what the surgeons told them, they not infre- quently forgot their wounds and looked
 over toward the white screen which
 sheltered Bill's cot and muttered some
 thing which sounded like Poor Bill
 or remarked that it was blank shame that such a good soldier should be obliged to give up his life to the bullet
 of miserable dago.
 And Bill was a good eoldier--a good Iregular-and when you have said that, you can say no more. His bronzed face,
 with it's deeply marked lines, bespoke dangers and hardships and his hair and beard were grizzled. Fighting was an old story to Bill Parsons. He had hunt f ed Captain Jack and his Modoc Indians; | he had fought the Utes Geronimo and | his Apaches, and he had been with Miles at Pine Ridge. Thirty years in | the regular army was his record, and private was the only title that had ever been affixed to his name. If he lived, however, and decided to stay in the army, he would stand an excellent chance of being called sergeant, for his colonel had seen him when he seized the colors from the dead scrgeant's hand and carried them far out on the firing line on the hillside at Fl Caney. He had had but few conscious mo- ments since leaving Siboney. They did not think he would live to make the voyage, but as he was breathing when the Seneca began to load with wounded for the first trip north he was put aboard with the rest. And in due time he was in the cool, clean ward at Belle vue. It was hard fight for life, but Bill was a good fighter, and he won.
 Weeks passed, The wound in the head had healed, but the terrible Cuban fever and the shock of his wound weak ened his body and sapped the little that remained of his great strength His bunkics had already begun to leave their cots and to gather on the sunny balcony, where they smoked their corn cob pipes and swapped badinage and stories, but Bill still tossed and moaned on his cot. Sometimes he would open his eyes and look about him in amaze ment He wondered where he was, and thought it might be the Fort Custer barracks until he looked through an open window and caught a glimpse of the slate colored waters of the East river and the green stretch of the hos pital grounds sloping down to meet them. Maybe it was fairyland or heav- en- He wondered who the sweet-faced woman standing by the next cot could be and he mafveled .that she should spend so much lime in feeding it's occu- pants with frliifs and ices. If some one would only feed him. He seemed to have vague impression that something had softly stroked his forehead while he slept He thought that possibly 1t might have been some of the angels whom he used to believe guarded over those who slept, and then he smiled foolishly and told himself that he had dreamed it. And then the windows darkened, the sky grew black, the ward and it's occupants faded away and he sank into the first sweet sleep since he was wounded
 Meanwhile the regulars and nurses had come to look for the arrival of stout. sweet-faced woman with speeta- cles and gray hair.
 Yes, ma 'am," they would say Ines q little better to-day" And then she would smile and go over to Bills corner, and if he was asleep she would sit down on the edge of his cot and smooth out the rumpled hair and bathe his temples with ice water If his eyes were open she would pass by. But whether he was asleep or awake she would always leave jar of jelly or some fruit on the l little table by the head of his cot. She | left jelly with the other soldiers, too, but | she never sat beside them or bathed | their temples-perhaps it was because | Bill looked so sick and so old.
 Bill never slept SO sweetly as now, and he often dreamed that some beau .iful being guarded over his slumbsrs. And once his dream seemed so real that 1e awoke, but he did not open his eyes because soft hand was passing over 1is aching forehead. It was not the hand nor the nurses. He vas familiar with their touch. He | 1new it was a woman's hand or an an- gels. Quite as likely one as the other, bought Bill He did not open his eyes lntil the hand ceased to bathe his fore lead. It was early in the afternoon, le knew, because the suns rays shone n neither the eastern nor the western Thereafter he always kept l. wake at that time, although he never pened his eyes. And then the surgeon hook his head and decided that Bill