Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-12-20
60@S's 81 ssa00&k
A CHRISTMAS GRANDPA.

~ been fought and wor for many
weeks the shattered wreck of what
was once John Fairfax fingered on the
very threshold of death in a Southern
hospital
The bullet had plowed ITS way through
scalp and skull, and for a time the issue
was uncertain; but finally the skill and
care of surgeon and nurse won TIE day.
but John Fairfax arose and went forth
into world Of strangers.
He knew no one. His own name was
gone from him. The past was sealed
Ills mind saw only blank WALL Known
as John Doe, of Nowhere, the name by
which merry clerk had entered him on
the hospital records, he was told that he
might go home.
Homer said he, simply. "My home
is with the army. don't remember
ever being anywhere else fl can't
handle gun let me drive one of the
wagons, or cook for the soldiers. I've
got to stay with the boys l wouldn't
know where to go if you turned rae
away"
And so. not being able to get rid Of
him, John Doe was allowed to remain
with the army He had been reported
missing, and his name had been dropped
from the muster roll of the regiment to
which he had belonged, and he was now
assigned to a regiment from another
State. His former comrades believed him
dead.
The mind of John Doe was of such
recent birth, so unframed in the ways
of the world, that its owner soon became
the standing butt and jest of the camp.
John Doe submitted to it all with pa
tient forbearance that was pathetic to
witness
That was John Doe during the final
day of the terrible battle of the Wilder
ness, when a soldier, whose canteen he
had just filed with water, dropped dead
in the act Of raising it to his lips-shot
through the brain. The victim was a
young soldier who often had befriended
poor stricken John Doe, and when the
water carrier saw his friend and protec-
tor shot down the many kindly little
deeds of which he had been the recipient
flashed swiftly through his brain.
Springing to his feet, he grasped the
rifle which had fallen from the hands
OF his dead friend, wrenched a belt filled
with cartridges from one of the men "
ing about him, and plunged into the
thicgest of the fight.
And during the rest of the battle John
Doe loaded and fired in frenzied haste;
sprang from tree to tree as the line adj
vanced or retreated, and fought like a
hero till the sun went down.
The men made sport Of John Doe no
longer. From the by-word of tne camp
he had grown to the hero, but modest
one for when the colonel offered to pro-
mote him for bravery on the field of bat
tie, he simply said:
mo; give the place to one of the
boys l don't deserve it-all I'm good
for is to cook and carry water"
Cook and water-carrier he remained;
and when Appomattox came and the can
non ceased their growing, John Doe was
swept nOrthward with the returning
wave of soldiery. And by some strnage
irony of fate he was left stranded in n
Pennsylvania village scarcely a score of
miles distant from the home from which
he had gone forth to do battle for his
country.
His once dark hair and beard were
now silvery white, and the hardships
through which lie had passed had made
so great an alteration in his appearance
there was small probability of his being
recognized.
And here, within a few hours walking
! distance of the wife and daughter who
mourned him as dead, the ex-water-car-
rier and hero lived and toiled for if
teen years, a cherries, lonely man, with
strange. inde6nable longing for some
thing, he scarcely knew what.
At last one week before Christmas
! John Doe, no longer able to work friend
1 less and forlorn, went forth into the high
ways a homeless tramp, clad in the tat
tered uniform of the country he had
helped to save.
| And in his wanderings he came to a
| little white cottage As he stood gazing
at its inviting porch q sudden faintness
| came over him, and he reeled and fell.
When he recovered he was lying helpless
on his back, and by his side sat a blue
| eyed, faxen-haired girl, artlessly pratt
! Ting 10 him
poor soldier man, did it hurt you to
| fall that way? I'm so sorry, cause /
| love the brave soldiers. Ny grandpa
was a soldier, bat grandma says he went
/ to war and never came back. Graudma
always cries when she tells me about
him. specially at Christmas time"
The homeless veteran struggled TO his
knees and gave one eager. inquiring look
At the features Of the pretty little one
before him
"Oh. thank Thee. on, ny God" he
cried. stretching forth his hands. Can
81 be that 1 have found myself, and the
home and dear ones have ionged for, at
lastf What IS your grandma's names"
Mary Fairfax. and mammals name is
Eta Fairfax Field. and mine Is Marietta
| Field. Isn't that a lovely nameF'
YES, 1t is. said John Fairfax, rising
Co his feet and taking her by the hand.
Come on, deary: let US go and find
| erandun. and mamma. ara tell them that
/ grandpa has got home AZ last"