Okolona messenger., 1902-07-09

Ef9T TSIg fore parade. My
attention was
SASA called to him by
SASSo his captain order.
ing him under arrest for being
drunk on duty. I remember him
afterwards by the way he swore as
two melf led him away to the
guardhouse after he had left bis
officers presence.
Once after that he walked back
and forth for two hours doing SEN
try duty in front Of the officers
club when happened to be sit.
sing upon the veranda in big
rocking chair reading a new maga-
zine. l looked over the corner OF
the magazine and "sized him up"
as they say in the army. He was
rather an old man, having served
in the cavalry thirty years before
he came to us. 1t was only be-
cause he Vas too old to re enlist in
the cavalry that he had consented
to come into an infantry regiment.
His face was hard and knOtty and
cut with the winds of many bitter
winters. But if you looked into
it long enough you would not call
it unkind. The eyes were very
restless, but they were fine eyes
for all that; gray with tlecks of
brown in them. Although he was
serving his thirty fifth year in the
army he wore no stripes of any
kind except the gold service
stripes upon the cuff of his dress
coat. He was a heavy man and
the best fighter in the garrison,
having at different times nearly
murdered the men who had stood
up to him. A HEAVIER drlnker he
was always, but no one had heard
him speak evil OF woman. The
fact is test he never even locked
toward them except from a dis
tance, and so far as anyone knew
he never wa sted a thought upon
the best or worst Of them. This
was counted strange in a soldier.
No one knew much about Private
MQuhirr except that he was part
ly educated and had come from
somewhere in Scotland many
years before and enlisted in the
American army few days after
he had landed in New York. 1
asked Harry WinslOw, who was
the second lieutenant of III cOmpa-
ny, of which MQuhirr was a mem
Der, what he knew about the man.
"NOthing at ALL" said WinslOw,
''except that he won't stand being
hit over the head with a bucket by
his first sergeant, who is a Swede.
The last time it happened MQu-
hirr nearly killed him, and l sent
M'Quhirr to the guardhOuse for
striking his superior officer. But
1 called the sergeant down beauti-
full all the same and told him that
il it ever happened again I'd have
the stripes off him. Can't say
that 1 blame MQuhirr for maui
ing him once in a while. M'QU-
hirr is an old man and not such q
bad kind either, but he drinks
like a fish.
That is absolutely all that the
officers in the garrison knew of
M'Quhi1r. The men knew very
little more.
But in the long cold winter
months this old soldier was not
as dessolute as it seemingly ap-
peared to his comrades. Every
evening that he was not marked
for duty he would leave the mer-
~ group that always gathered
around the big red hot stove in
the company room of the barracks,
where the men read the papers
and played cards and told stories
Upstairs he would 90 to the win
dow beside his bunk. No one wal
ever there, and M'Quhirr had the
great, silent sleeping room all tC
himself. He would sit on thC
side of his bunk and fill his pip'
slowly and then light it with hug
puffs like an engine starting ;
heavy train on slippery rails. Blu
when he got it well lighted h'
would puff away very gently, only
little pale blue whiffs now anC
then. Without anyone else know
ing it Private McQUhirr went bacl
over q great many miles Of frOzeI
prairie and tossing seas to the
braes of his ain bOnny Scotland
The old fellow had a memory. /
you could have seen the swee
girl face that looked out from {
leather case that be sometimes
opened here alone you would als'
know that he had a touch Of 70
manticism in his make up.