The daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 190?-1908, 1908-10-12
Fragments of an
Interrupted Courtship
(Copyrsht. BY shortstory rub. Coz
BY ANNIE T. RO1TER

tstory rub. Coz
look monsus poly, do fus' sojer sec
in mont O. moons whar ain horn.
cry"
"On the min, tecnth of May" said |
the limping wca~er of n ragged gray !
coat, as he stood in Mrs Ponsonby's |
presence, with the crown OF hat sur. |
rounded by a broken halo of brim I'm
his hand, Our regiment held posi-
ton ON the right of the Tenth Ala
bama. the attacking force. Behind an
old house, set at just the right angle.
as 1t seemed to us, to hide an ambus.
cade, a party OF sharpshooters was
carefully and all too accurately pick
ing of our men. Suddenly an aim
was unerringly iaken-our flag trem.
bled and fell"
And so it went on, the familiar but
ever moving tale of flag bearer
killed, a soldier--the narrator of the
stOry-springing to the rescue OF his
standard, himself TO be laid senseless
by bullet. From this oblivion he
had been wakened from a drenching
cold waterbath TO hear the verdict.
Poor fellow; leg badly shattered"
pronounced over him by voice with
a slight nasal twang. A voice, IL
CHANGED, that he was destined to hear
daily during his tedious Illness, for
the man who had picked him up on
the field was also the assistant in the
hospital, and quite a friendship grew
a. N
patient, through their many conver-
sations. SO it was that on the day
of the narrator's discharge. the sur.
geon, along with congratulations on
the others recovery and approaching
exchange, gave a confidence and asked
a favor. as he said, while your ardor
is yet at white heat
Three years ago." the doctor con.
tinued, before this hateful war was
ever dreamed of, and while | was
student in Philadelphia. became ac-
quainted with young lady from Rich
mond. The circumstances were To-
mantic-well, never mind them-it's
a long story-tell you some other time,
perhaps he added, dubiously, five
years after a treaty of peace, as the
confederate bills say.
We'll, without going through the
various stages of the affair, from rap
ture to despair and from despair back,
through faint glimmerings OF hope. to
ecstasy again, the decision was finally
reached that we were, well, after
fashion, engaged; quite. | assure you,
on the order OF poor Harry and the
well-nigh forgotten Flora OF Madison
Square fame. Just then, with abom-
Unable inopportuneness, felt, Mr. Lin
coin asked Virginia (mind you, when
the day was, after many delays. actu-
ally fxed) for her quota Of troops.
Poor old Virginia had, with her usual
deliberateness, been slow to move,
but this call moved her-out of the
union-leaving me, as Miss Elizabeth
thought, on the wrong side.
"One day, IL must have been by the
last through mail, | received a most
astounding letter from the young lady
herself; terrific headlines, shocking
sentiments, Southern confederacy,'
and all the rest of It. Quite a doubling
up of fists all round, regular one
southerner-can-whip-flve-Yankees'e epis.
tie. She said ending everything
said Never with capital n. Well.
TO come to the pith of the affair, we
hear through personals of each other
-awfully cut and dried way of writing
love letters though, you know; so
ask you, as man to man, to get let
ter to Elizabeth for me. OF course
you can't carry a written communica-
! tion. | don't care to treat the camp
to a specimen of my ability as a mill
tary Romeo, so | am going to read
the epistle which you, once safe In
Richmond after your exchange, are
to write ont in my name and hand to
her in person. Now will you do this,
without altering jot or title, except
to throw into II all the fervor you can
convey on paper; and will you remem-
| Der that under no circumstances are
you to give this precious document in
| to any hands save those of the terri
BILE little rebel who wrote the wonder
ful letter OF 1861; or, II impossible to
see her then into those OF her moth
err"
To that question the letter that now
passed from the hands of the 'raggedy
man" to the feminine fingers that
dropped the unfinished haversack to
receive 1t, was the silent and sufficient
answer.
The smoke still fingered over the
smoldering chimneys of Richmond
when Judy ignorant Of the interstate
episode in her mistress love affairs,
entered one morning to announce a
visitor.
"Gemmen In de parior, Mis- Liz.
beth, an clar 10 goodness, you'll hev'
to 'scuse me, but he mos sholy do
look powerful like one o. dem Yankees
whar cum in wild de union"
And after the end a, Appomattox.
when the guns were stacked for all