News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1902-06-11

uniform to keep him warm. Several
recruits who admired my spurs had
purchased others as much like them
as possible of the regimental sutler or
storekeeper, and they wore them con-
| tinually. One evening after our tentful
had enjoyed private supper Of fricas-
seed goose, purchased from a colored
woman, we all lay down peaceably to
sleep. Whether the geese-there were
two of them-were UNDERGONE or too
rich for men whose ordinary supper
was dry bread and sauce of dried ap-
pies | don't know, but some of US were
affected in our dreams very much like
small children after Christmas dinner
and unlimited candy. How the trouble
began l do not know, but 1 awoke
from dream of being heavily shackled
In a rebel dungeon to find terrible
uproar and struggle going on in the
tent, which was as black as Egypt dur
ing the plague Of darkness. To make
matters worse, the most serious part
of my dream seemed still in operation,
for l could not liberate my feet when
= II lCNA " SlGNl ava llOli luc CeuleT.
what BANKED cuss has been tying
our feet together" roared one man.
"Let go of my blanket" shouted an
other, cor I'll break your headw
"You're a nice one to talk" said a
third, "when it's you that's making all
the trouble!'
Meanwhile l, who had just awoke
and didn't know anything about the
difficulty, was being dragged one way
and another by my feet, so | raised my
own voice and complained OF unfair
treatment.
The din awoke the first sergeant, one
of the only two noncommissioned Off
GERS yet appointed for our company,
and he opened the tent flap and roared:
Keep quiet here or I'll send you all
to the guardhousew
I'D be greatly obliged, sergeant"
said Brainard plaintively, ''if you'd
send me there right away, if only to
get out of this frightful snarl"
'Strike a light" said the sergeant.
Hamilton, who always carried match
es scratched one and lighted the can
die, which was in a socket on the tent
pole; then, as | struggled to a sitting
posture, ] beheld an odd spectacle
Nearly all the men III the tent seemed
bound together by the feet by blankets
or held down by blankets stretched
tightly across their legs. After each
man had investigated for himself a lit
tie while it appeared that the men
with Mexican spurs, like all the others,
had been tossing uneasily in their sleep,
all on account of the goose supper, and
had worked the point of their spurs
through the blankets over their feet.
AS the blankets greatly overlapped one
another at the center a spur as often
as not had contracted an entangling al
lance with some other fellows blan-
ket, and the harder the wearer tried in
his sleep to free himself, tossing and
straining, the worse became the mis-
cry.
"Unloose yourselves" said the SER
geant.
"Unloose thunder" shouted big ex-
drayman from New York. you can't |
unloose a tie till you find the end, and
the ends of these blankets is all inside |
somewhere"
BE jabers," grunted an Irishman.
81 behave some spalpeen has stole the
inds and TUX 'em away"
We picked and pulled and tugged and |
lost our tempers, and the few men who |
weren't in the tangle drew out of the |
crowd and laughed and jeered. Final |
~ one desperate man drew his pocket |
knife and began to cut himself loose. |
The others followed his example, and |
after five minutes of hard work we |
were free, with an immense heap of |
wooden rags in the center of the tent |
and a hard tuft on each spur to tell
how the wretchedness began.
mo spurs in bed hereafter" said the
captain, who had come over to see the
fun and was nearly choking in an eff
fort to keep down his laughter and his
dignity. 1t took an hour of time next |
day to get the fragments of blanket |
from my spur wheels, and l wasn't
helped by the fellows who sat around
and said | was to blame for the whole
row, for no one would have bought
those Internal spurs if hadn't set the
example.