The weekly examiner., 1901-05-25


 'tAbel went to one day,
 Dropped his gun and ran away"
 Abel Tut cried out aloud:
 Anything but that! Sooner death! Give me strength, O Lord! Give me courage!"
 The incident passed in less than a min ute. Then the two muleteers lashed on the pack mules. The distance to the battalion was but few hundred yards, but these yards were black with the shad- ow of grinning death. The pack mules also were so mad with the noise and the clouds Of earth shot up by shells that they ran here and there and made the dis ]tance twice as long. The younger mule iteer was afiame with rage and excite ment. He rode like horse breaker. He circled like an Indian. He kept his pack mule pretty straight, shouting, cursing, cheering with every breath. Abel fol- lowed steadily, but he was no expert. His charge broke hither and thither, and every moment the bullets seemed to fall faster. At last the young man rose in his stirrups with a triumphant yell and waved his hat at the Spanish with gesture of contempt. Too soon he crowed He was but 70 or 80 yards from bluff which would shelter him, where the soldiers were eagerly waiting and cheering him On. The pack mule was inn mediately in front of him and Abel many yards behind. The ordained shell ar rived. It crashed fairly into the boxes of ammunition packed on the mule. A rock rending explosion followed. When the earth cloud vanished, the mules and the muleteer lay in ghastly heap, and the ammunition was scattered far, and most of it had taken part in, the explosion. Then the major and the men were aghast yxySf nd icTn a moan of sorrow swept the ranks. They turned their eyes to Abel, their only hope. The coward had seen, and his pulses all most had ceased to beat. Round him the missiles were falling thick. In another minute he would be like that unhappy fellow of his, torn, bloody, mutilated. He turned faint, and his impulse was to drop from his saddle and creep away in the long grass and hide and shelter his poor coward flesh. Roaring noises were in his ears. Things swan before his eyes. With a mighty effort he broke away and cried again with a martyrs cry:
 ''Give me strength, O Lord! Give me courageY'
 He received it. He spurred his mule; he guided the stampeding pack mule. He charged through the he'll in front of him. He saw the cheering soldiers before him and very near. Then something shrieked Ill tue dlr, Tell ana dQQ dS LQO Ddck mule was caught by the soldiers and the all needful cartridges were torn from it's back Abel sank, grievously torn by a piece of the bursting shell, into the arms of the major.
 ''Thnnk you, thank you, my man"' cried the jubilant officer. You've saved the position. That last dash was grand, magnificent! You're hero, and the folks at home shall know of it, promise you."
 Abel tried to speak.
 "Please, sir,' he gasped. "Wil you will you tell the children?'
 He lived awhile and was sent home and in the village which mocked him died of his wound. There was no mocking then, but much honor was paid the cow ard, for the major made good his word, and the newspapers spoke much of the obscure muleteers timely bravery.
 Memorial day came after Abel was laid in his grave. For long, long, lonely years the day had been the unhappiest day to him of all. Now the veterans of the civil war and the returned volunteers of the Spanish war stopped remorsefully at his headstone and sorrowed that they had jeered at him. And the children came in little crowds, silent and fearful, and the scornful rhyme was forever banished from their lips, and Abel Tutt's mound was hidden by very many best loved flow CTS. Thus he, too, was permitted at last to take part in the solemn celebration
 There are divers sorts of bravery, but l he who is bravest of all is the coward | who conquers his cowardice.-St. Paul ] Pioneer Press.