Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-12-20

there, amidst the throng of impor-
Inmates in the ante-room, Fred is
startled to see the colonel of a regi-
ment in the First brigade holding low
toned conversation with a portly, dig
nified man in black swallow-tailed coat,
high stock and silken waistcoat, to
whom their western statesman bows
with Difference and then whispers to
them his name. Then the colonel
turns and Benton is more startled to
see how sad, sorrow-stricken and bag
gard he looks. The matter is soon ex-
planned, though the colonel speaks with
choking voice. His son, a lieutenant
in the Fifth New York-Duryea's zou-
aves-had been down with Chickahom-
my fever at Newport News, so ill that
the mother had fastened thither.
nursed him through and then stayed
and cared for dozens of poor boys
whose mothers could not possibly
reach them, and so, Slapped her own
strength and finally succumbed, and
now-her coffined body lies here at
the wharf Their sympathetic general
had given the bereaved soldier permits
sion to turn over the command of the
regiment temporarily and to seek at
Stanton's hands a four-days' leave
just time enough to take the beloved
and honored dust back to the home
where weeping younger children await
1t. Then, the last sad rites performed,
though the wife of his youth, his man
hood, his maturer years, the love of
his heart and life is laid away, he will
return instantly to his duty, his COM
mand. Impossible will it be for them
to catch Lee within that time. No
battle can occur that will involve the
old division, but Stanton sternly says
no; bids him ship the remains that
night if need be, but rejoin his regi-
ment before the morning.
THE brigade is marching through
this moment" says the colonel, with
quivering lips, 'but the senator
brought me hereto the president l
have telegraphed to brother to come
If must co." and the haggard eyes
look in dumb appeal into the equally
haggard face of Lincoln, who inclines
that ever-patient ear to both, as again
the sad, pathetic tale is told Oh, the
pity and sorrow and sympathy in the
deep-set, somber eyes, the anguish in
the rugged features as he hears the
words, stanton says no, because the
brigade is marching through this mo-
ment"
For an instant the strong hands are
clenched and uplifted almost as though
in appeal to Heaven, but though the
deep voice breaks and trembles, though
the pallid lips twitch with pain, the
answer comes infleXibly:
"And no it must be! Not man, not
musket, can we spare. 1t may be
the very crisis of the war, and I should
be false to my trust if 1 did not hold
myself and every soldier to the duty
OF the hour. Let the dead bury their
dead. 1 cannot rob regiment of its
leader at such a time"
And the two men, the sorely griev-
ing colonel, the sorely-tried command
er-in-chief, look one instant into each
others swimming eyes. There is a
soldier salute-but utter silence, and
the colonel turns away
you don't need me here" gulps
Fred moment later. 81 am going to
see if 1 can help the colonel There's
no one with him. I'll come to you,
father. later-at Willard's."
And so it happens that, riding at
the earliest dawn to catch the division,
Benton passes a carriage at the out
skirts OF Georgetown, preceded by a
cavalry sergeant who speaks a word
to sentrieS or patrols of the provost
guard to the end that the vehicle, with
it's attendant brace of troopers, meets
no detention, whereas he, an aide-de-
camp going on duty, has to account for
himself every few blocks. "Some be-
lated general" thinks he as, once clear
of the streets, he spurs swiftly up the
Rockville pike. Just as the pallid light
is creeping into the eastward sky Ben
ton reins in at the challenge of a
sentry and the sight of a tented field
Behind him, in the lower ground,
feebly glow the night lights of George
town. Beyond them lies the great.
struggling city. Here, close at hand,
a sentry PAGES slowly by the roadway,
recognizes the aide-de-camp at once
and bids him advance. A dim light
burns in nearby wall tent. Eyes,
sir, the colonel got back soon after
three" is the answer to his question,
as, swinging out of saddle, Benton
throws the reins over fence post and
scratches at the tent flap.
Tis l, colonel-only Benton. ]
stopped to see
But the tent flap is thrown back
from within and voice bids him en-
ter. I've been writing tony Door
motherless babies" chokes the colonel
and then at last breaks down, bows
his humbled head upon his arm on the
rude camp table that shakes With the
sobs wrung from an almost bursting
heart Who can picture, much less
soothe. grief like this? Benton has