Arizona republican., 1905-04-16

giving me not a word either way to
 bless myself with. Says I, finally:
 And if I come back, suppose that you'n be married, Susie?" and she says:
 NO, don't think that I'll be married when you come back; I don't think | that I'll ever marry unless he's a man that l can be proud of"
 Then she looked at me. her big eyes flling-her big eyes, coIOred like the edge of the mountains after sunset. I've figured it out since that she was more than. half proud of me aIready-me, in a clean. blue suit, and the buttons shiny, me, a ten-cent, camp volunteer. ! And then the old woman broke in with
 a bottle of Eilman's Embrocation for i use in camp.
 l Never another chance had I that side i of the station. Of course she kissed me i gOod-by, but that's only politeness for i soldiers. They all did that. So, al- | though it was just like heaven, knew i that it didn't mean anything particu- | lar from her, because her mother did
 it and her sister, and pretty darned near every other girl in Striped Rock.
 seeing that the news about having a real hero in town had spread. ! Only, when we pulled away and I l was leaning out of the window blowing kisses, being afraid to blow at Susie
 in special because I didn't like to give myself away, she ran out of the crowd Q ways and held up her little finger to show me something over the knuckle. and pulled her hand in quick as if no- thing had happened. It was the play kid ring that I gave her out of the grab-bag, to show her that I was go- Ing to marry her when I grew up.
 That was the last sight of Striped Rock that I got-SUsie waving at the station as far as I could see her. It made you feel queer to ride past the | fences and the bunch grass and the foothills getting grayey green with off, all snowy on top and know that | chances were you'd never see them again grayey. And I won't l won'e- never again.
 Muster at Denver, and the train, and away we went packed like a herd around salt, and the town just black like a steer in fly time with people coming out to see us pass, and Red Cross lunches every time the train had 10 stop for water; next Frisco and Camp Merritt. The first time that I saw this town gray all over like a sage
 hill. made out of crazy bay window houses. with fancy work down the front. I knew that something was go- ing skewgee.
 The night before we went up for our final medical examination by the reg
 ular army surgeon, Captain Fletcher.
 called me into his tent.
 Drake, how about your eyes?" says
 he.
 1 hadn't thought of that supposing that it could be fixed the same as it
 was at Range City. I told him so and
 he said it couldn't not with the reg
 ular army surgeon. But says he: You're a good soldier. and I got you to raise my reserves. They won't let you in if you can't pass the eye test,
 glasses or no glasses. If 1t should nap pen that you learned a little formula that tallies with the eye card, you wouldn't let on that I gave it to you. ! suDDose?"
 ''Tm good at forgetting" I says ''Burn it when you've learned it." he says and he gave me a paper with
 long strings of letters on it. I learned 1t backward and forward, and so on that I could begin in the middle and
 go both ways. I lay awake half the night saying it over.
 Naked as I was born. I hoated in on
 the examiner for my physicals. Lungs as they make them in the COW country; weight, first class; hearing O. K. They whirled me and began to point. Talk | ing tight squint-you see better that way-I ripped through the formula: P V x C L NJ N HI can see ft yet
 l could just see what line on the card
 he was pointing at, and never Q darn | cd bit more.
 They make that sort of a doctor in | hell. He saw me squint-and he be-
 gan skipping from letter to letter all over the card. No use-I guessed and | guessed dead wrong "Rejected!" just | businesslike. as if tt was little matter | like a job or a hay press. I went out and sat naked on my soldier clothes my soldier clothes that was never go- | ing to wear any more-and covered up my head. It was the hardest jolt that
 l ever got-exceDt one.
 | Captain Fletcher hadn't any pull; | he couldn't do anything. Some of the
 twenty that I rounded into Range City | talked about striking. they were so mad. but that wouldn't do any good l watched them sworn in next day,
 shufflins into the armory in new oyer l all clothes. I stood around camp and
 saw them drill I saw them go down
 the streets to the transport, flowers in their gun barrels, wreaths on their hats, and the people just whooping. 1 ! sneaked after them on to the trans port, and there I broke out and cussed the regular army and everything else Old Fleetchr saw it. He wasn't sore He understood. But I wish I had l killed him before let him do what he did next He said:
 He cant be with us, boys, and il
 ain't his fault. But Striped Rock is
 going to have it's hero. I am going to
 be correspondent for the Striped Rock Leader. If we have the luck to get into