Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-07-31

was but one business or calling which
more than one man designated. 1t was
Soldier" Hamilton, Cloyne and /
were three of the five who made this
statement. The others were two stall
wart Englishmen, almost middle aged.
engaged these successfully in con-
versaton and was almost paralyZed
at learning that they We're survivors
Of the famous six Hundred" who
formed the Light Brigade" that
charged at Balaklava and was immor.
! and every other boy In our school
had detained on speech day"
1t was long before ! could tear my.
self away from these fine fellows and
tell Hamilton and Cloyne what an &c.
QUESTION our regiment had made. |
Hamilton was as much surprised and
delighted as |, but Cloyne twitchcd his
face, looked out the car window in an
absentminded sort Of way and re.
marked:
They'll make about 1000 survivors
Of that Six Hundred whom l have
personally met. yet l haven't been o
great traveller"
Perhaps" said l, Lord Cardigan
didn't carefully count his men before
riding at the Russian guns. or perhaps
Tennyson took poetic license as to
number"
Cloyne laughed as he tried pun.
Somebody somewhere has ventured
more lie than sense on the subject"
l thought this was very cynical OF
Cloyne. OF course there are impostors |
everywhere. but splendid, straight, |
manly looking fellows like our own
regiments share Of the six Hundred
could not be suspected Of anything I'm.
fair or pretentious. They were superb
ly cool and composed, us great soldiers
always are. and neither of them seem,
ed to take ordinary interest in any
one around him until / CHANGED to
mention one of them to the other. To
my great surprise, they we're not even
aCquaiutauccs. This fact or some
other seemed TO surprise the one l
spoke to, and when | brought them to.
gether and introduced them they did
not Look and net Mt all ms ] imagined
old comrades i'll Il historic battle would. !
Thinking perhaps they preferred to re.
view old associations in private, / left
them, after which they began to chat
quite freely, and when next | 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
long time before | could get Cloyne
to take the slightest interest in them,
but he finally eyed them, first careless.
ly, then curiously. Later | saw him
in earnest conversation with one of
them, and when \ joked with him
about it he put on queer smile and
patted me on the shoulder in a patron
izing manner that exaspcrated me.
Our reception at the camp of the
Thirty eighth was not what 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 If In search Of familiar
faces, but no one took special interest
IN us except the orderly sergeants of
the various companies, whom the adj |
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 |
lot already well filed. The men In tho |
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 Sunmerton boys were not made
any more comfortable by being sep
arated, as we CHANGED to be. No three |
or 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. 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 II the nu-
thorities would permit. How hoped |
he would not do it! | should have been |
Elad TO have him see the camp of the |
Ninety ninth, but the cavalry camp
Yas very different There seemed no
nd ot detached tents and huts, with !
particular purpose that could dis
'ver Nothing was as | had expected |
After dinner We boys had an oppor
nifty to see each other again We
Joytd the meeting but not les pur
ose' Tor each new recruit was given n
hovcl and set to digging post holes