Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1906-10-24
BY JAA WILLIAM JACKSON.

alleIa lmp Ave- The cOIoH few
tDuts beDOrA had dayAilsd thiA littls'
fbrct ~ cut out q detachment e. tAs'
~. gasme tsEer my boy" he. hAd saAd.e
with a fathSrly hand on the. lieuten-
ANITA shoulder, at will not b enough
to sGAte, thSu They must be, rOntede"
and the colonel emphasized with .
savage sweeper his hand "Clean them
out! You would better not attack I'M
less you mean to do that"
For hours they had DlOwed through
the mud, eager for the encounter. Be-
fore darkness fell the discovery was
made that the enemy numbered four
times as many men as supposed. 1t
would be madness to hope for more
than a drawn battle, the lieutenant re-
fiected; and yet-the colonel had given
his orders. At daylight the command
er would march on the assumption that
the work was done.
II can't go back and say l was
afraid the boy told himself; "but 1t
would be murder to charge with this
little band. II l had to think only OF
myself"
The men lay in a dark line against
the bank of the gully, waiting for the
decision of their leader If he said
"Charge!"-well, they knew 1t would
be one against four.
There was another hour before he
need act, and the youthful officer gave
way 10 moodiness. 1t was far from be-
ing poetry-this killing of human be-
ings in muddy rags like their own.
Hungry, tired, weary Of the sickening
duty; surrounded, trapped; cowardly
retreat on the one hand, foolish sac
rifice the other way-there was little
pomp in it all.
'And l wonder" he thought, in
listless way, Il wonder where she is
tonight? A half-dozen uniforms about
her, maybe, all spick and span, gen.
erals, colonies, captains-the devil take
the pack that started this hungry
war;"
A few hundred yards behind the gull
ly doomed up an old mansion. AS the
men now lay in silence, save for the
dreary, pattering preudle of the rain
and the slushing of mud as one
changed his position slightly, light
shone out across the wet field from a
window of the house. A moment later
the distant, sweet tones of a piano
were audible The lieutenant heard the
opening chords with a sense of their
familiarity.
Some one began a song. The words
were not distinct; not even the music
was sharply defined at that distance.
But as the song proceeded, coming out
into the night with mystic sweetness
and power, the lieutenant remembered
| its nesmeric harmony. Strong In its
glad Volume, and then infinitely, gra-
ciously soft; gliding to passionate
heights and sinking again. gently, to
far-away notes, it was a song with a
peculiar swaying power
Granton called to mind a certain day
before his uniform grew ragged. The
settings of the song then had been a
fine old room, glorious woman, a
| fascinating voice. 1t was not song
| that lulls; it thrilled and lifted-high
and higher 1t exalted, until the impos-
sible seemed easy to grasp.
AS the song proceeded the lieutenant
felt the full strength of its quickening
impulse; and gradually he put away
from himself the weak and unnerving
dependency. 1t was not alone the
memory of the music that inspired
him, but the power of the song itself.
Instinctively, too, he knew that the
men had been sharers in the benefit of
the passionate harmony. Almost be-
| fore tie last note died away on the
night he had the squad afOOt, confident
that his own spiritual intoxication was
shared in some measure by his follow
ers.
Quickly, stealthily, but with thrill
of expected triumph, he led the way
through a depression of the ground to-
ward the little woods, beyond which
was the outnumbering foe. The leader
had already made known the only
| COuTS0 VI dSIHOA given pOluL HOE
start! quick, mad charge.
Just beyond the woods faint indi-
cation of sentry was discerned in Q
half defined shadow. The lieutenant
stopped his men with both arms out
stretched as he paused in his track
Mentally the leader was singing the
rythmic song and his blood surged in
a spiritual drunkenness through his
veins.
A brief instant of hesitation, then
there was the faintest signal of ringing
steel On the night air as the officers
sword was drawn. Catching up the
impeding scabbard the leader moved
toward the edge of the wood. The lit
tie band, deplOying. came out Of the
deeper shadows In a long line, ranged
against the whole face of the opposing
force. Not word was spoken; there
was not cheer, not sound but the
sudden, whistling swish of the assail-
| ing line. In the silent advance the
outpoSts of the enemy were half de-
moral:zed by the sense of an unreck-
oned and unestimated danger
A preliminary, resisting shot Of hap