The National tribune., 1906-11-01
-DI-- o.
Sam says. fFll swear"

iSLi StaifSf tH6Te on tne Slue Oh tnat
Yes" % o. .,sY eS
We'll last night the wind must have
blown and tcaased them to move, for /
would have sworn they were Feds on
horsebackIY yrs
Well, you - fool. you played -.
didn't you y was his only remark; but
en- route to camp he soon became joviaI
again, and joked about the Lieutenant
and Paint BRUSH. But the very first
thing Sam did on our arrival in camp
was to giYe the whole thing away. and
J [ was hourly faminded of those mullen
stalks for several days.
"The Man Tint Was Killed,
Mark Twain refers to "man that
was Killed in camp one night" The
circumstances were these: One dark
RAINY night q think the very next night
after l fired on the mullen stalks), n
Sood-natured fellow tbut hard case),
by the name of Dave Young, who was
Always about two-thirds full Of whisky.
was placed on camp guard. During the
a1Sht many of us We're awakened by
heavy tramping, and presently we heard
the guard say, Halt youl Amt you
goin TO halt and give the password %
fhe tramping still continued. which,
with the order of the guard, had arous-
/ ed good many of the boys when the
I guard cried again. Halt or I'll sf oot,"
and bang. bang. went both barrels of
his gun. heavy fall and groan, and
/ up and out into the dark all hands
rushed, 9ne to the place from whence
proceeded the groans and there lay in
the aGcnies of death an old gray horse,
the property of Dave Young (the
| guard) himself, who was standing over
him looking quite sad. That was the
only killing I ever knew of in that
cam mp-or while Mark was in the army.
Smitien With BoiIs.
| BY this time Mark had become sore
ly afflicted with boil and it was
source of much comfort to him that
there We're no chairs or stools in camp
for him to sit on, for if there had been
such would have been very antagonistic
to that boil. Therefore, Mark had
lot of straw put in the trough in the
passageway of the stable, and soon
sbent all of his time holding the straw
down and wondering at the great
amount of patience possessed by Job
in olden times. For few days nothing
CT interest occurred to onthuse the
| troops to any extent the grub began to
get thinner every day. and we began
to get discouraged and to thirst for
bio ID The talk of moving camp. ad-
vancing on the enemy, tearing up the
railroad tracks and firing into cars con-
| tanning -Yanks became general among
| great many of us, but these topics
! and plans were much diSaDproved of
| by Commander Furr Mcpherson and
Lieut.. Clemens who said, Gen. Tom
| Harris has been appointed to this dis
1 trfot and division of the army. and he
viii soon be here to lead US on to vic
tory or death" About that time we
heard that Tom Harris had been stop
ping up at Clay Prices. only two miles
away, for q week, living on the fat of
the land, while we were in the rain wet
ch yiynsr -loIl
bread. SO that settled the case. and
| many ofIrIs began packing our traps,
intendingfrto advance IN Monroe City
st all hazards Mark was living in the
old horser trough, wrecked by his boil,
and demonstrating with us about thus
breaking up camp and showing no mill
tary disciDliHe after all our teachings,
etc. We told. him we were in for blood
-and railrpad iron. and were going on
the warpathits
AS We rWererabout to DEPART he raised
upon one elbow and said:
We'll, .hoys,, If you are determined to
go it's no. use for me to try and hold
this posiS5f bWrvSelf: so. Alb. If you viii
saddle up eolEI Paint Brush I'll jine the
army and go along"
So 1 ss3ddled up Paint Brush. put all
| 7f Markis tTaps on him and led him
beside the trough and our Lieutenant
rol.fl out os1to him. IT, was but few
stems to1Salti' River. which we-had to
cross. but Paint Prush refused to take
to water" and after much persuasion
Mark says: well Alb. 7 guess TIL have
to get you to lead Paint brush in: he
won't go for me-" I tied one end of a
sea-grass rope 7 had about the mules
neck. and then took turn around the
pommel of my saddle After some
! manuvering we got the mule close TO
the edge of the bank. and while smell
! ing the water. as If to drink I gave my
.
| far out into the stream. bringing Paint
| Prush along. The top Of the bank whore
we started in was only about a foot
| above the water. and the water eight
or 10 feet deep the first jump. On the
opposite side the road came out grad
ually between two small hills. NV horse
swan vigorously for the other bank.
7 looked back over my shoulder to see
| how Mark and Paint Rrush were get
! ting along. but to my horror neither one
was in sight and 7 thought them both
drowned. but hurried over, as 7 knew
my sea-grass rope was good for the
mule. soon landed safe. and after
few steps in the edge of the water the
top of Marks old black slouch nat
| then Mark and the mule in turn showed
up. AS he slowly waded up out of the
water the mule was very weak and
weaving from side to side. and when
| fully out of the water Mark rolled off
the mule on to the side of the bank,
took off his hat, took handkerchief
out of his pocket, wrung the water out
of It and slowly and sOlemrly wiped
| his face. Then looking up at me. he
said in a low and solemn tone: "Ab,
what do you think?"
81 think, Sam. you are pretty wet
What do you Think
| Don't you think that mule waded
every step of the way across that riv-
er?"
well, Sam. 7 think he did first rate
to do that with YOU and that $50 pounds
of luggage in 10 feet of water"
"Well, it was a pretty good load for
Paint Brush. but it liked to wash all OF
the wind out of me, sure"
Meeting Gen. Tom Harris.
The boys had all waited to see Sam and
the mule cross, so he slowly and care
| fully mounted his mule. and we pro-
ceeded on our journey. No one knew
or cared where we were going, but We
were headed east again. We had not
proceeded very far when we met Gen.
T Harris. whom but few of us had
ever seen before, but 1 think Mark
| Twain was acquainted with him. He
| first order us back, but we only
/ laughed at the assumed authority If Il
stranger to JUS. Then he requested us
to turn and go back to camp, but it was
no go. 4 Then he begged us, but the re-
membrapce of that camp, the sowbelly
and cornbread we had chewed up was
enough for us, SO we rode IN and went
| to Clay Pfice's ourselves, where We