Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1902-07-10


persistently to my cousin May. | did
not see the letters, but | heard of them
through my home correspondence.
knew that Brainard, who visibly wor-
SHIPPED Mays portrait sometimes when
he supposed l was not looking, and
probably hundreds OF other times, was
not the sort of man to change his re-
gard for any one, much less for a
sweet girl Some one had seen in
Hamilton's hands portrait of May.
did not know that he brought one from
Summerton. / was also troubled by
his manner toward Brainard. 1t was
not ugly, but IL contained suggestion
of condescensien not unmiXed with
contempt and | fancied Brainard no.
ticed it.
Still, what could l do in such n
matter? May was no fonder of cOun-
sci than very young women in general,
nor was she less averse to admiration
in large quantities. l could not imag-
inc her in love with any one, for she
and had been rough and tumble play
mates, and l knew only the tomboy
and fun loving side of her nature.
After much thought over the rivals
and their respective chances, | could
only hope, for the sake of peace, that
she would not give the slightest encour-
agement to either but would be won
by some other worthy Summerton
youth. | believed that both Brainard
To nlU pnnnuh To
recover from any sorrow occasioned by
the loss of something, no matter how
precious that was not their own and
had not ever been promised to them.
Our special comforts were not con-
fined to shelter and rest. Two or three
of the married men knew something
about cooking, and so did one man who
had been a logger in Maine; so the
company cook was coaxed, bullied and
fiattered until he learned to do some
thing besides merely boil the several
raw materials dealt him. a ration OF
cornmeal would sometimes be served
as fried hasty pudding and again as
Cracking bread'-cOrn bread contain
ing tiny dice of fat pork which had
been fried thoroughly and drained of
grease. Remains of a dinner of salt
beef and potatoes would reappear next
morning as corned beef hash. Boiled
rice, modified only by cheap mOlasses,
was about as unpopular as castor oil,
but with little coffee, which would
not be missed, we could trade with a
native for enough milk and eggs to
make that once detested rice so popu-
lar that there always was some man
offering his supper portion of bread
for half of some other mans rice.
Finally Hamilton, who felt that as
commissary sergeant it was his duty
to study up on cookery, electrified us
one day by announcing that on the fol-
lowing Sunday there would be des-
sert Of plum pudding. Up to that time
about half of the men had called Ham,
ilton "stuck up" Worse still, many had
called attention to the fact that never
once in our many skirmishes and fights
had Hamilton been under fire. Brain
ard had combated this story for the
honor of SummertOn, but one day he,
too, learned that Hamilton had pic
ture of my cousin May. That silenced
him. But the mention of plum pudding
caused the grumblers to recant, Mick
McTwyny going so far as to borrow a
pipe of tobacco from Phil. Our gusta-
tory anticipations were marred only by
Hamiltons statement that the pudding
would be made entirely from army ra-
tions.
"Where will he get the rasins" ask
ed one family man.
"And the suetW said another.
And the flayoring" suggested
third.
Does the quartermaster issue pud-
ding bags" another wanted to know.
Nevertheless the pudding was an ABB
sOlute success. The flour came from
the commissary stock; finely chopped
fat pork, well soaked, answered for
suet; dried apples, partly boiled and
then candied In boiling sirup made
from sugar, took the place Of ralsns.
The sauce looked as If it were only
sirup of sugar some of which had been
carameled TO give it special flavor and
color There rose from the sauce, how
ever, an odor which caused Mick Nc
Twyny to utter an eCstatic "Whoor-
rooW and Cloyne to ask:
'Is brandy an army ration, PHILIP
Yes" said Hamilton-"that is, it's
hospital ration, and got half pint
from the hospital steward by Dromls-
ing a small pudding In exchange-for
the sick, you know"
There's Just one thing | want to
ask" mumbled an eX-truck driver
through a mouthful Of hot pudding
Does the government issue pudding
bagsT
"The Quartermaster issues cotton
drawers" Phil replied, land you'll
learn, If you choose to ask, that he
charged two new pairs TO my personal
clothing account this morning. The
puddings were boiled In the legs Of
them"
"Be hivIn," said Mick McTwyny,
with an approving shoulder slap that
| nearly knocked our enterprising COM
| missary sergeant into the cooks fire,
''the likes Of ycz nlvcr was born, and
the fust money the paymaster gives
me yez shall git that dhrunk wild me
that ycZ won't know yer mout' from q
hole IN the groundr'
Thanks, sergeant" said Hamilton,
rubbing his shoulder. 81 assure you
that you're the first man who ever was
houghtful enough to make me so hand
some an offer"
But n grander feast was enjoyed one
! cool evening after Phil had announced
late in the afternoon that there would
be pancakes for supper and asked that
each man would take knife and fork as
well as plate when he went for rations.
! Hamilton had found some soda and
cream of tartar In the village. He
made the batter In half barrel. and
his griddles were an odd collection Of
frying pans, plOwsharcs, ilattened sides
of camp kettles the bottoms Of which
had rusted or burned through, stove
lid and some tin plates. AS we hu,
ried to the cookhOuse when the bugle