The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1906-05-31
Behind the Sweet Peas
a STORY OF GRIN WAR
BY DAVID LOWRY.

oven. Standing there, she sIrove to -e-
gain her self-command. The clamor of
battle filled the summer air.
Infantry, cavalry, artillery, swarmed
over the open space back of the woods.
They occupied all the ground: a vast
multitude blurred the slope. And
away below her a long, thin line Of
ain blue stretched far beyond the vii
lage. The line moved. but it re-
manned unbroken. 1t passed fences,
swept through orchards, crossed the
run. Its movements reminded the wild
ow of the ripple a strong breeze makes
in growing grass. The blue line seemed
to bow gracefully here and there as
grass dips and lifts its hea again.
There was a faint simmer in the blue
line. AS it came nearer, it, too, paused
near a road behind a fence. Then 1t
tipped with fire. The sharp rattle of
musketry was borne to the widows
ears.
From that moment on the air vas
filled, he widows ears were ~deafened,
with the merciless rain of lead and iron
hail that poured steadily, INCREASINGLY,
all that afternoon upon the ranks of
men swaying, advancing and retreat
ing as they contended over -four miles
of ground that drank their blood
sreedily.
Out of the dimness and ~vagueness Of
confused masses twisting in tangled
lines wherever she looked the widow
slowly discerned a stream Of wagons re-
turning with the federal wounded. They
moved Slowly at first; so slow that The
road became blocked. Then the cries
and oaths of the suffering, the awful
groan and means of the dying drove
the widow into the farthest part of her
spring house in an ecStacy of fear and
horror.
But the Imagination of a terror
stricken woman is greater than con
temptation of actual suffering. Soon
the widow emerged from the spring
house again. Gods sunlight, stained
blasted, torn ruthlessly as it was by
wicked men, was a blessed relief from
the sensations she experienced While
seeking refuge in the earth.
So, standing there in the door of her
spring house with the never ending
chill of fear at her heart now, the Wild
NV Lacy looked and listened like one
in a day dream more frightful than a
nightmare.
She could heal ard distinguish voices
now as question and answer followed.
Vague approximations of defeat COM
municated themselves to the throng Of
men gathered on the roadway near her
house. A single expression aroused
her-"Battery B." With strained ear
she hung on the response that followed.
Sdpldlll Lazy > pdlltiy VIII Dt ileic
in an hour. Dur orders are to remain
here and support him."
rs Lacy all rignt?"
The widow clinched her hands. Oh,
for the strength to pierce that crowd of
men and horses.
II was all right fifteen minutes
ago"
Jack-her son Jack was alive!
Suddenly a cannon shot fairly cut its
way through the throng, leaving a
quivering mass lying on the ground
where sturdy, brave men stood a mo-
ment before.
The widow was shading her eyes
with her hands trying to Danish the
horrible vision hen the earth trem-
bled under the sound Of horses hoofs,
and a battery crossed the slope like a
Whirlwind, to be checked behind her
bank of sweet peas.
An officer rode rapidly along the edge
of the broad road. The way was now
clear. What representations and plead
ing n threats has failed to accom-
plish was accomplished only too well by
the shot that manned and killed scores.
The distance was not great. The wild
ow beheld her son.
While the horses paved and snorted
the battery that had leaped up the hill
behind the sweet peas as if sped there
by Jove sent shell after shell into the
very mids of the confederates.
But long before the earth rocked I'M
der Battery B the widows flying feet
carried her swiftly toward her son.. A
:, trailing vine-or was it a. rein?-caught
her foot, and she stumbled and fell.
When she sat up and looked around
her, she was shielded by a huge bowl
:, der. It's gray face rose out of the TN
erald green sward like a wall, behind
? which she now covered, trembling.
> quivering in every nerve.
!. The tops of distant hills were all
crowned with batteries. In every d.
rection as far as the eye could reach
l the woods We're flecked with flashes
They leaped from the haze of low lying
%slnokelike lightning. Straight across
great fields long lines of men moved I'M
til the guns on the top Of the hills vom-
: tied fire. Then the lines wavered,
= swayed uncertainty and disappeared in
the woods from which they had
emerged.
lines; they sought cover again in rag
ged, disordered masses. Sometimes
+ they came out again, advanced, were
g torn apart and melted away in a haze.
G The battle ragged all around her. AS
: far as the eye could see the flash and
g sound of bursting shells met the eye
II snote the ear. Gazing now wild
0 eyed at the rain of missiles that filled
the air, shrinking, clinging to the rock
in the midst of that chaos of terror
spreading SOUNDS unparalleled IN MIS-
tory, the widow stared as one HhO
saw not, who heard not; like one to
whom all sounds were a terror.
The struggle had been in progress
$ five mortal hours when n mass Of men
Il and horses emerged from a fringe of
n woods just below her. The guns near
the Widows house belched fire, the
e mass Of men and horses advanced
steadily. Another and another mass
came after them until the entire slope
was covered. All arc of fire from the
batteries above them smote the seeth-
u ing, surging waves of humanity; mer
and animals dashed against each other
IN wild dismay, and the declining sun
& seen through a veil of smoke, seemed tC
y hang motionless in the west as the wa
vering, mutilated lines Of assault faded
y away in a mist.
Ie Then a silence, a grim silence as
Z fearful as the uproar of all the battle
u sounds, fell on the scene. The stiffness
was oppressive. Birds notes were
/" huShed, the Shril1ing of insects ceased