Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-08-21

alone. If father or mother or grand
parents CHANGED to be out OF the room
for moment. some other trooper was
almost sure to be present. This was
misery for sentimental young men of
the class that regards lovemaking as
On absolute necessity Of daily life.
IL was great fun, however, for the
girls. Not one Of them would have
married Yankee had he been Apollo
and CrGsus combined, but it wasn't
Emphasizing to get an adorng, heart
broken glance from one not unhand
some fellow after another and to real
lie that all the sufferers were from the
enemy's ranks. used to imagine,
probably correctly, that the southern
girls looked pretter and more vivacious
when we appeared than they possibly
could do at the humdrum routine Of
housework. Most of them had lost
their slaves. In the usual manner, be.
fore our town became q military post.
and they would remind us of this when
anything in the house seemed to them
to lack proper attention or when they
invited us to sit down with the family
to dinner or supper. which they as.
sured us was not what they would
have given us in other days. They got
so many compliments, however-some
awkward but all honest--on the skill
of pretty hands and heads that don't
doubt one Of them told the truth when
she said to me in burst of confidence
that she was more than half glad that
the house servants had run away and
given her and her mother a chance to
have things just as they wanted them.
Some of these southern girls asked In.
Vulnerable questions about the duties
and diversions of our mothers and sis
tiers. and they heard enough to make
them open their pretty eyes in wonder.
But all this had nothing to do with
love. AS was natural to suppose, and as
we afterward learned, each Of the girls
was already engaged TO some good or
bad fellow in the Confederate army.
Their hearts were already disposed Of,
so they could laugh at all would be
sultors and break hearts chcerily with
the sublime consolation that they were
most vulnerable points Their manner
was as proper as that Of any northern
girl. as the more impudent of our fel
lows discovered when they proposed a
kiss at the door. The experience of
one Of these fellows was quite inter
esting to every one but himself. He
was so handsome that he had made
m nj at
home and had come to regard himself
as irresistible. He asked a little VIZ
gnian, pretty enough TO break the
heart Of an anchorite, for a kiss, bur
she replied:
only Confederate lips can ever touch
mine"
one day when this man had been on
post the relief found his place vacant,
although there was no sign of blood
Shed or struggle. AS soon as this
was reported at the reserve squad
was sent out to look for him.
Inquiry was made at every house on
the road, and at one we learned from
the hoartbreallng beauty just referred
to rhat he had stopped there two hours
before and announced that he was de-
sorting to the Confederacy.
Almost half year afterward the
rear guard of one of our scouting par
ties was harassed for the last two
miles Of its return by shots from Il
small mounted force, which scattered
and took to the woods whenever we
turned and attempted TO charge them.
our commander arranged strong am
buscade of the advance. with n view
to capturing the entire party, and this
hidden force suddenly surrounded
them when they were directly in front
of the house in which the little beauty
lived. There We're only a dozen of the
enemy, and they quickly saw that their
game was up. AS we approached them
they recognized the inevitable and
ceased fighting, but one man in gray
suddenly drew revolver, fired three
shots in rapid succession at the house,
then pointed the weapon at his own
breast. fired and fell from his saddle. We
Were upon them in Il moment, and un-
der the cap of the man upon the ground
we saw the face of our handsome de-
scrter. He gasped before he died that
he was as loyal as ever. He had de-
serted in wild desire to kiss that girl.
Now, seeing her at the window, he had
| fired to kill her and hoped he had sue
ceedcd Then he had killed himself
rather than be shot as traitor
He had missed the pretty mark he
| had aimed at. The girl was unhurt ex
ccpt from Il severe scare. We had lost
more than 20 men most unaccountably
from that post, all Of them violent adj
mirers Of that very girl. Somehow her
fathers house was burned TO the
ground that very night. l hope the
pretty girl escaped, but we were told
she did not Not one Of us attended the
| funeral. 1t would be hard to tell how
many lives on both sides were lost
| thereafter as the result Of those two
deaths.
War Is hell"