Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1901-10-24
How Love Came. !
ny CHARLES w. LAMB

BY CHARLES w. LAMB
Copyright, 1901, by Daily Story Pub. Coz
When Jimmy Marshall went back
10 the regiment after long leave, 1t was
with a heavy heart and sad spirit
that caused him to look with glad
gaze to the war cloud hanging over
Cuba.
Jimmy had come In from the regi-
mental station to spend the first long
leave since he had laid aside the acad-
emic gray with the mother and the
old friends he had scarcely seen since
his boyhood. For seven y ars he had
worked hard and faithfully in the his
toric old regiment he had elected to
join and now with his first lieuten-
ants bar on his shoulder, had come
home again. There IL was that he had
renewed acquaintance of the old days
and made new ones and it was one OF
these new ones that was sending him
back to his regiment, sad and weary
and welcoming war
She, who was the cause of 1t all,
was a newcomer to the old town, pet
tite. blue-eyed and authenticated. and
Jimmy had surrendered, hilt to front,
before he even essayed to draw sab"r.
He was her knight from til, start and
even the sainted mother was neglected
in the short campaign that ended in
his rout. for when he came to the
fatal question, it was laughingly,
heartlessly, but, oh, so emphatic, no.
NO hope, no future, no PRESENT, no
past, only a winter of re- 'et.
So scarcely two months ter he was
welcoming the hot sun, ito fever. the
thirst. the hunger, the bu cts OF CUBA
and receiving honorable cntion and
recommendations for bravery in the
affair at FL Caney and for faithfulness
in his care Of the fever S ricken men.
Then 1t was the old post again, refit-
ting, recruiting, whipping in the new
men. packing and away across the
westward ocean, and within the half
year OF his home leaving he was with
the old company In the field against
the little brown Tagals Of Luzon; still
with disappointment ranking In his
heart and driving him into the ex-
element OF the war with fevered en-
crgy.
Jimmy had gone through his four
years OF cadethood without a single
love affair and IA consequence had
won and still wore the class sobriquet
of the Bachelor" His seven years OF
army life had not produc any better
results to the credit Of the anti-mar-
tial god who is believed to be especial
ly fatal to martial heroes, and while
there had been many char hing women
and many pretty girls In whose society
h had found much TO please him, he
had. until that fatal long leave, found
none to take his serious thought. SO
now he marched through the iungles
and cane brakes of the far off Philip
pines with but one thought in his
mind, and that a painful thought he
was trying to drown in hard, active
service. service that had already
brought him recommendations like
those spread upon the records of Ell
Cansy.
| There came day when the old
company went wading over the rice
paddles and through the jungles. one
of those murky, wet days of the rainy
season, Just such a day as had seen
the Filipino bullet strike brave, big
hearted Lawton. The company had
routed out from the abandoned, rain
soaked nipa huts in which 1t had slept
the night, when the first light Of the
short tropical dawn announced day
and pushed forward over the mud
filled road, water covered rice paddles
and dripping Jungles. the rain running
c. the battered, gray SLOUGH hats ! I'd
soaking through the equally battered
blue shirts and the mud squashing into
and out of the shoes as IL dragged
along. only the disciplined formation
and the business looking Krags dis
tinguishing them from mob of coun-
try tramps and marking them for an
army.
Slowly the wet, tropical day wore
on. Noon. mid-afternoon passed and