Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1902-08-07

s. 6: !: !: !: : !: !: :. !. :
|
NMTnNOW Peninsula, on the road
Nl e@SlN by which Mcclellan
<NS5NNyl Gl had started In 1862 for
N5VU1sE Richmond, and we were
SEfEzMN\SS cheered by quite lot
CIV of letters from home.
1t appeared that the evacuation had
been ordered for an earlier date, so
, mail matter for our regiment had not
! been forwarded.
No sooner had l opened one of my
I letters than l began to be mystified,
for the writer, my mother, was prais-
ing me extravagantly for something
gallant which she assumed / had done.
l read rapidly, but only TO be further
mystified. A letter from my father
was equally confusing. 1t informed
me that the whole town was ringing
with praises Of me and that our dis
trict's member of the state senate had
called to hear the story and declared
that all the district as we'll as Summer
ton was talking of me and was proud
of me.
l called Brainard to my assistance,
but he was reading q letter from my
cousin May and was utterly unreEpon-
sive, so l opened other envelopes, only
to find congratulations from old school
mates and even from some Of the solid
men of the village. What could II
mean2 Evidently some other John
Frost In the cavalry service had done
something In particular, and my family
and fellow townsmen, like villagers In
general, had not thought that there
might be two men Of the same name.
Little by little learned from the let
ters that the deed of which / was
supposed to be the hero was n midnight
ride alone into a country swarming
with the enemy. l had made no such
ride unless It was on the night l was
scared back to camp by the rattling
trace chains of the artillery horses that
Brainard afterward discovered. | had
not recovered from my modification at
my failure that night, so of course 1t
could not be for that affair that all
Summerton and our senatorial district
were praising me.
Slowly It occurred to me that some
one of our Summerton troopers had
heard of Brainard's successful ride of
the same night and had known that
started to make the trip. He had got
Brainard and me mixed In his mind,
and so was being glorified for work
at which 1 had shamefully failed, and
the real hero of the affair was being
defrauded of his right
Charley" groaned. lie was look
ing idiotically happy when spoke, but
said afterward that my face alarmed
him. quickly told him of the con-
tents Of my letters and Of the only
possible explanation.
as that aIlT asked Brainard when
had concluded. do feel easy about
fell to rereading his letter from my
cousin May, but l exclaimed:
"Stop being a FOOL Listen to me!
You know perfectly well that Pm not
going to sail under false colors. The
story will get pretty soon to the other
SummertOn men of our company, and
they'll chaff me most numerically. l
must find the man who wrote the yarn
home, and you must help me, and we
must make him correct the blunder be-
fore the story gets back here"
For the first time In my acquaintance
with him Brainard looked irresolute.
Still worse, he looked sheepish. Then
he said:
'T'm afraid I'm the guilty man."
"YouW
"Yes. Don't be angry, Jack, when I
explain. OF course / didn't suppose
that your cousin May
What has May to do with It2"
Nothing. That Is, she isn't In any
way to blame. Say, old chap, l suppose
you'll think me a fool, but-you can't
understand. Pm not so modest that I
couldn't see that my ride with dis
patches that night was quite credtable
to me, and did wish your cousin May
could know of it and that might know
how she regarded 1t. l began to write
her about it, but my pen simply
wouldn't work. Somehow can't blow
my own trumpet. Suddenly 1t occurred
to me that you'd gone through all that
! had-thc sense of danger the l0neli>
ness. the expectation Of running into
a camp Of Johnnics or at least of being
fired upon at short range. So l wrote
up your ride just as | knew you felt
while making 1t, and | didn't leave out
single heart quake"
you Internal, blessed hypocritc! Did
you make me deliver the dispatch2 1
never imagined you could lie, even for
the sake of telling a good story. T.
81 didn't lie. / said that despite the
scares the dispatches finally reached
their destination. And, oh, JACK, the
letter she's written In reply! Pm TAX
ing all the praise to myself, every bit
of IL, but you may read IT,"
"Read it2 I'll send back denial by
the first mail, and if ever again you
trust big hearted, eXcltable girl with
any story that you don't want known
by the whole world I'll dump you into
lunatic asylum for your own protec-
tiOn and for mine. Can't you see what