The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1908-05-07

DatA anu idiu out MS linen ana uALe0
the bronze buttons into his painfully
new khaki, they warned and coached
him and commiserated with him.
When he was arrayed as to uniform
and girded and spurred, they walked
with him to the headquarters yeranda
and watched him enter the low, dark
doorway, while their hearts beat in
sympathy with him; he was such a
elean-cut, wholesome boy. One Of
them went as far with him as the ad.
jutant's desk, unconsciously tiptoeing
in dread Of the painful Shrek Of his
companions new boots. The subal
terms faces were framed white in the
window and the adjutant and tks
men outside held their breath as the
new boots creaked in the strained
silence straight up to the dreaded
door.
A dropping pin would have sounded
clearly, and the boys firm tap, tap,
tap shattered the stiffness and echoed
in the bare room. The silence closed
in again for FIVE anxious seconds,
bass growl rumbled from the shad,
ows, and the boy was in the presence.
Perhaps the colonel drowsed a little.
He often did in these latter days be.
meath the kindly faces on the wall
that smiled and grew dim as seen
through something in his eyes. Per.
haps he did, for surely this was the
Nashville pike that thrummed like a
tocsin beneath his horses feet; and
surely this was his own troop that
clattered along behind him in route
order; this was his own dark hair that
dropped below his ears and framed his
bronzed young face
Then that last dance with the little
girl with brown eyes came up in his
dream.
But with the incongruity If dreams
the colonel was far away from the
Franklin pike, though iourneying
thereward on trip that he had long
promised himself after Appomattox.
No troop changed behind him now, and
only the rise and fall of a glossy bay
shoulder met his eye as he rested on
his pommel and dreamed his dream.
Again he drew rein at house near
Nashville. for his destination was
miles beyond; and though the spires
Of the city showed bue-tinged in the
twilight distance. the night was roll
ing in from the valleys and the road
was strange. Soon he was asking
CHEEKY young man for nights hos
pitality and experimenting the stabling
Of his horse
This portion Of the colonels dream
was apt to be intermittent. with no
ordered sequence Of events worth
mentioning. for now he stood with his
back TO an open fire and his hostess
was on the stairs. There was a rustic
Of skirts in the hall and he had ad-
vanced a step toward the door ana
now stood with hand half raised star
ing dumbly into the panied face OF q
woman with brown eyes and in that
surge of emotion, forgetting the
blanch of his own face or The wonder
Of his hosts.
The bountiful supper was torture.
and the endless winter evening, With
the host rafting brainlessly Of fields
and stock and events, satisfied with
abstract monosyllabic answers. wan
unbearable. A hundred times tha;
sleepless, miserable night he checked
an impulse 70 steal down the stairs
and ride away with his misery, I'M
cheered. He walked down in the first
van light Of morning, but the man was
there 70 meet him, gosding his mind
TO frenzy with well-intended banali.
ties. TO 60 without breakfast was I'm
heard OF IN the south? Would he thra
injure the seif-pride OF his wilma
hostg He must sit quietly while
everything was done to speed him on
his way. The host himself would
must-see to the saddling Of his horse.
and he was almost forced into a
chair.
If only he had been spared that mo-
ment before the last. and yet, If he
had missed Il! when he stood facing
that accusation that had been repeat.
ed with her heart throbs and that at
last took words and fell upon him
blameIess. with quaver more bitter
than sobs. bitterness that had re.
manned with him nntil now, leavenins
his life and changing every attribute
of youth.
Why didn't you come? Oh. why
didn't you Gomez said the woman
whose LOT it was to wait for his com
ing always.
And the man. her husband. stood
aghast as his guest rode on his fran
tic mission straight away from Nash
vile, with never a glance in that di-
fecsiOn OF word Of farewell.
For the guest heard only the s.saa
OF his horses feet on the frost.hard-
ened road that intoned a question on
his anguish-numbed mind over and
over again, and It grew loud and re-
ceded and grew loud Gnd became a
tapping on his offlce door and he
raised his head and looked straight
into those brown eyes and that face
and heard fresh young voice saying: