The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1904-11-10
e three fellows used to sit and make


life miserable for the teacher. Used to
chin then about goin' to war some time
and all that kind of two-step. Didn',
look at all likely in those days, but we
got the chance all right Charley's the
only one of us that came home. He
used to say on the transport that Iowa
and Paradise meant just the same tt
him, and the first minute he could he
struck out for paradise. Joe and stayed
to have a fling in San Francisco. Lord
what fool man can make of himself u
he just gets down to 1t.
, But then, I've never had any folks
Of my own. That makes difference. II
I could do it all over again. wouldn't
play the game the same way-not on
your tintype, Jacob"
He coughed again, giving himself UP
to the paroxysm like feeble child. II
was growing cold and the room was dark
After sitting miserably still for mo-
ment, he rose unsteady and went in
search of fuel.
IN the entry he found hod of coal
and a neat pile of kindling, all of which
he put remorselessly on the fire, and, az
the stove grew red, he sat with his knees
drawn up in the teachers chair, in an
excess of animal comfort. His eyes
cleaned uncannily in the light Of the
little flames which winked through the
slides of the stove; the heat made him
drowsy and his head fell forward on his
breast but the action brought on anoth-
er paroxysm of coughing.
81 can't sleep here" he muttered,
"but I hate to get down on the floor.
Don't suppose the schoolma'am keeps
any blankets around"
He slouched again to the entry and by
a sense of feeling discovered wooden
hood and pair of mittens.
"These'll do for pillow" he thought;
they're what schoolma' am wears when
she Sticks up" Then he fell to rum
maging in the school room. In the
teachers desk he found an apple which
he ate in jaw-stretching mouthfuls, and
in little corner closet, his hand came
in contact with large roll of some soft
wooden material.
Maybe schoolma'am does keep
a blanket" he unused, fumbling with the
cloth. Don't feel like blanket though.
Don't know what it is, but guess can
sleep in it. I'll lay it out by the stove
and roll up"
He spread it in the dark, kicking out
the lower folds and shaking the upper
ones; then he settled himself on the
floor, blanket" around him and the
teachers hood and mittens under his
head But the draught which swept
across the floor made hip gasp and cough
again.
Lord" he muttered between his
they had let me die out there in the hos
pital. They used to put flag over 'em.
and if there was anything good to be
said about a fellow, the chaplain would
manage to comb it out of the boys and
say it right. Lord knows I haven't ever
done much to get credit for; inlistin',
maybe-that's the only thing. and
guess I did that for the devil Of it, much
as anything. Aw, no, that amt so.
Fore God, that amt So" He sat up
fiercely. 81 done it for Uncle Sam
honest, did" Then as the draft tor
mented him, he groaned fretfully.
This sort of thing is KILN me of
fast But I got to feelin' like Charley
did. Queer how man always wants to
get back some time to the place where
he was little kid. wanted to smell
the grain stacks again. Lord! how I
used to slide down EN-, and get the
straws in my neck. If I'd have come
back with Charley wouldn't have come
this way. Land boom made him rich
last year.
Seems like amt never goin' to get
home" he quavered aloud, as If to q
sympathetic bedfellow. 81 ought to
make 1t tomorrow. but travel so
blamed slow lately" He pulled his
covering closely about his head. Pm
mighty glad of the schoolma'a ANS
blanket-or whatever the blessed thing
is"
Outside, the smoke poured from the
lonely chimney in unseen volumes. The
wind shifted and bank of spring storm
clouds rose IL the southwest. BY mid
night the little building ratified and
swayed in the first thunderstorm of the
season. Rain beat in waves upon its
sides and lightning made a thousand
flashlights of the still form within; and
through it all Jake Bills slept.
In the morning the little teacher came
early to the white school-house. having
forebodings concerning a window left
open. She was clear-eyed girl, with a
swinging walk, and she faced the odor-
laden wind as If she loved it. Relieved
to find the window closed, after all, she
ran lightly up the steps, opened the door
with one sure turn of the clumsy key.
and entered her school room.
There she found him-tough Jake
Bills-in his last sleep, wrapped in his
country's flag.-National Magazine.