Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-06-07

4
held the conquered land,-but his
sense of discrimination had been lost,
and these seemed to him comrades.
go home" they told him. but he
would only stare.
do you know" he would ask, with
pitiful insistence, where l can find
the headquarters Of Bonham's South
Carolina brigade?"
Sometimes his hearers jeered him,
sometimes they humored him, but one
day an officer, noting his condition,
felt sort Of pity for him.
"This is headquarters" he answered
to Brethitt's questioning. "The gener-
al is absent at present but he has left
a furlough for you. Take it, my man,
and go home and rest awhile"
Brethitt opened his coat, unrolled his
treasure, and saluted. 1.-The colors, sir,
of the Second" he said.
The officer stared then turned away,
speaking gruffiy and blowing his
nose. Take 'em with you," he COM
manded Take 'em home with you
and keep 'em there!"
H.
The long years dragged by at the
old Brethitt homestead, and there
were large happenings in the world
outside, but the lapse Of time meant
nothing to Brethitt. Like the Gods he
had become, in whose eyes the years
and the days are alike unnoticeable.
With infinite patience his neighbors
cared for him, soothing his frequent
restlessness, ministering to his needs,
and assuring him that his furlough
had by no means expired as yet. Now
and then, it is true, he wandered away
in an effort to reach his command, but
always some friend overlook him with
fresh instructions from the general to
stay quietly at home and to keep the
colors safe.
So, with much waiting, Brethitts
hair grew gray, and little children,
born since his furlough began. came
to be men and women, but Brethitt
knew no change. Yesterday he had
come home wounded, tomorrow he
would rejoin the regiment-would hear
again the rattle Of the musketry and
the roar of the unlimbered guns. Thus
the seventies passed, the eighties, and
a portion of the 'nineties, and the war
with Spain began.
hor lac "a
so methodical in his aging existence,
that people had ceased to consider
him. Was it the excitement Of the
populace, the vague talk Of battles to
be fought, the sound OF the drum and
the fife in the land, that stirred him
from his apathy? At any event. one
day he was missing, and the usual
search for him failed to reveal his
whereabouts. For little time there
was a languid anxiety among his
neighbors, a daily paragraph in the
newspapers, and a published reward
for his safe return; but when none OF
these things availed, the matter was
dropped.
OF what value, anyway, was crazy
old Brethitt, asked the younger folk;
while the few of his comrades who
were left alive shook their heads sad
| " and remarked, "Brethitt is gone
poor old Brethitt! He was good
man in his time"
But Brethitt was not yet gone in the
10 q
was about to begin-did not men say
SO everywhere?- ?-and the regiments
were moving south. South-that was
correct: others at the ferry over the
Dan had told him the same.
A queer spectacle he made as he
trudged over the long red roads with
his worn-out blankets slung slantwise
his canteen adjusted, and his battered
haversack resting against his hip. II
had been just at nightfall that he SET
out, and the next days sun found him
far away. Weary he was indeed, but
cheerful. About him he saw rich
and varied countryside-white houses
titled fields and well-built stables and
barns.
So little like the war-harried face OF
Virginia was the prospect, that he
thought of Pennsylvania and Of his all
too short campaigning there. With
the memory there rose to his lips a
parody of the camps. Like note from
some broken pipe his cracked voice
a tl,a ,Ga oil dc
"Old Bob Lees heel Is on thy shore,
Pennsylvania, my Pennsylvane,
His hand Is at thy stable door,
Pennsylvane, my Pennsylvane,
You won't see your old horse no
more,
Well ride him till his back is sore,
An then come back an git some
more,
Pennsylvania, my Pennsylvane"
BY noon he had reached a little sta
ton on the railway, and he sat down
there to rest and to eat. The station
agent, seeing him, laughted at the pic
turesque tramp, and group of loungers
drew near to question him; but Breth-
| lit, pushing back his gray hair, eyed
these plump civilians with soldiers
disfavor.
Strong, hearty men-ever one of
you," he commented. "Y'oughter be in
the army. By God, old Bonham 'ud
take that sof' fat off'n you!"
The shrek of an engine a mile up
the road withdrew his audience with
rush, and presently a long train drew
up at the tank-a train from
whose windows there protruded khaki
clad shoulders and the barred heads of