The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1902-06-13

merry-very, very merry. Thinkin'
back. them there Spaniards amt in it
with Injuns for putin up hot fight
not the Injuns of the old days; no, sor-
rec. Buck Bill was enj'yin' of himself
to heat poker. so he was, an in the
thick of it every time. The old troop
was out by itself under orders from
Phil to scout along the border. Daddy
liked that. Daddy was happiest when
he hadn't no reports to turn in every
mornin', but was free to do as he liked.
The Comanches was thick about US,
fghtin' foot an fightin' horse, an I'm
burned if the squaws an papooses
wasn't putin in good licks, too, so
they was. There was the night charge
ON a village with snow a foot deep an
freezin' hard. Twas before your time.
l got an arrow from a papoose that
night myself right in the shoulder.
There's devils an devils, but them was
devils.
"It was one day the old troop was
caught slick when we never thought
there was a Comanche or a Kiowa
within ten miles Of us. 'Twasn't an
ambush Zactly, for Daddy saw it in
time. but it give us the chills for an
hour or two. There was creek-see?-
an we was goin' to camp near the
headwaters of that creek, we was. 1t
was gettin' toward sundown, an we
was tired. Where the beggars come
from don't ask me, but all at onct it
looked as If the troop was surrounded.
Gee, they come! We fought an we
fought, skirmish line, mount an charge,
dismount, skirmish line, commence fir
in, rally by company, to the rear, gal
lop-oh, say, it was hot, an. by gum,
we retreated, we did. Twas a fine
moonlight night. an the moon was up
when the sun went down. We was
dead tired after a long march an no
time for chuck. an by s o'clock we was
nigh beat. Curious for Injuns, they kept
on fghtin' after dark, for it was fine
moonlight night, see? There was a bit
of a hill with scrub bushes on it back
Of the creek. an Daddy-he did it fine,
too-retreated to that hill, where we
might hold the red devils off until Phil
could come up.
1--WE couldn't get there at onct,
though. The Injuns saw what Daddy
was after, an they got there before we
| did. Well, we was fghtin' down on the
| creek side. an Buck Bill he went an
| got killed, an, worse'n that-he'd drop
ped off his horse. bein' wounded-he
got scalped. Bill was all right, he was,
an we liked him, we did. When we
tumbled to what he'd got, we got mad,
| an Daddy was mad too. We charged
| an scattered the blackguards for a
time. an we got Bills body before they
had time to mutilate it, save the scalp
in. We liked Bill, we did. an Daddy
liked him. He was a fine build Of a
man. The troop held the position. Hot
| shootin' it was. an we dug grave, an
we buried Bill to save him from mu-
tilation. We blowed taps over him, too,
an all the time the Injuns was tearin'
around on their ponies, shootin' in on
us like mad. Bein' So we hadn't time
to dig the grave very deep. but we put
Bill under. all accordin' to the rules an
regulations an revised statutes. We
was sorry. an we was mad, for Bill
was fine build of a man an played a
good game at poker.
| "Well. we had to hurry up a bit, an
then we retreated in good shape, got
over the creek, cleared out the Injuns
from the hill-lively, that was-an'
had time to think what we was doin'.
We throwed up few bits of rife pits