Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1902-06-19

mention one of them to the other. To
my great surprise, they were not even
acquaintances. This fact or some
other seemed to surprise the one 1
spoke to, and when brought them to-
gether and introduced them they did
not look and act at all as imagined
old comrades i'll historic battle would.
Thinking perhaps they preferred to re-
view old associations In private, L left
them, after which they began to chat
quite freely, and when neNt | met one
of them he told me they had identified
each other at last, and glad they were
to find they were old friends. 1t was
a long time before I could get Cloyne
to take the slightest interest in them,
but he finally eyed them, first careless
ly, then curiously. Later l saw him
in earnest conversation with one Of
them, and when / joked with him
about 1t he put on queer smile and
patted me on the shoulder in q patron
izing manner that exasperated me.
Our reception at the camp Of the
Thirty eighth was not what I had eX-
pected. The veterans of the regiment
did not turn out to cheer the brave
youths who had come to help them
put down the rebellion. They did not
even offer us something to eat, al
though it was long after breakfast
time and our haversacks had been
empty since the night before. A few
sauntered over to the adjutant's tent,
to which we had been marched, and
looked at US as IL In search of familiar
faces, but 10 one took special interest
in us except the orderly sergeants of
the various companies, whom the ad-
jutant had the sergeant major summon
by bugle call. The company In which
we had enlisted had not yet been
organized, so we were allotted tenn
pOrarily among the older companies,
and the orderly sergeants swore fright
fully, as they marched us off, at the
trouble they would have to squeeze an
extra man or two into every tent of a
lot already well filed. The men In the
tents did not do much to make us feel
at home, although one or two put on
some appearance Of friendliness as
they asked us If we had brought down
anything in pocket TASKS.
We Summerton boys were not made
any more comfortable by being sep
arated, as we chanced to be. No three
Of us were assigned to the same COM
pany, much less to the same tent.
There seemed nothing for us to do or
see either, for no drill was ordered
during the morning. Before dinner
call was sounded had lost all inter-
est In the service and the war. l could
think of nothing but our farm at Sum-
merton and the people who occupied
1t. My father had promised to visit
me In camp before winter IL the au-
thorities would permit. How hoped
he would not do it! should have been
glad to have him see the camp Of the
Ninety-ninth, but the cavalry camp
was very different. There seemed no
end Of detached tents and huts, with
no particular purpose that could dis
cover. Nothing was as | had expected.
After dinner we boys had an oppor-
tunity to see each other again. We
enjoyed the meeting, but not its pur-
pose, for each new recruit was given
shovel and set to digging post holes
and bitches for some new stables that
were to be built. I could have had
plenty of digging without coming sew
eral hundred miles from home, for my
father had long intended to set new
fence. An excitabIe young French
man among the recruits seemed some
what of my way Of thinking, for he
suddenly dropped his shovel and shout
ed:
81 will not dig re hole! 1 enlist for
la glOlre, not for dirty work like zIs."
"Ah, you wants glory, eh2" said the
German sergeant who seemed engineer
in chief. "Den better 1t is you go back
to your own country, we're dey aln't
got no sense"
The Frenchman said something be-
tween his teeth and thrust out his fist.
The sergeant collared the Frenchman
and kicked him all the way to the
guardhOuse. There were no protests
after that Post holes and bitches In
creased rapidly, and | was somewhat
astonished to discover that the short
ditch dug by Phil Hamilton was the
most shapcly Of the lot
We recruits got some comfort after
supper In criticiSing the movements of
the cavalry at dress parade. They
marched with less style than the most
awkward company OF the Ninety
ninth, and looked shabby by the lack
of resemblance in their hats, no two
Of which set alike, although all were
of black felt.
Signs Of hospitality continuing to be
invisible. some of us Summerton re-
cruits concluded to spend the night on
the quartermaster's Say pile. Virginia
dews, however, h;'H grown cooler in
the month that had elapsed since the
Ninety ninth went north, and we had
to arise in the middle Of the night and
indulge In violent exercise to warm
our blood. We talked great lot, too,
so much that the sergeant Of the guard
came over to see what was the matter.
When we told him why we were there
and how uncomfortable we were, he
said:
Serves you right Men who'Ye been