Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1909-1915, 1909-12-17
4 CHRISTMAS CARD,
By r. TOWNSEND SMITH.


were playmates in childhood. attended
the same school and left the same col
lege in the spring Of 1861 to enlist In
the same regiment in the Union army.
They campaigned together and after
each fight Immediately sought each
other to learn Of their mutual safety.
On one occasion Young shot Con-
federate who was about to run a bay
onet into his friends breast. On an.
other Ayres carried Young, who had
been wounded, for miles on a retreat,
saving him from a southern prison
and perhaps death. Their devotion to
each other was we'll known in the
army in which they served. and they
were referred to as furnishing an ex-
ample Of typical friendship.
In the fourth and last year Of their
service, they quarreled. Both had be-
come subaltern officers and were tent
mates. One day Young entered their
tent and. looking under his cot, missed
a chip he kept there as a rest for his
soap.
whats become of my soap dish?"
he asked his friend.
what soap dish?"
'"That chip had here"
"Oh. that dirty thing! threw it
out"
What did you do that fort" angrily.
Because propose to have the tent
I live In respectable"
"And propose to have something to
put my soap on, and l won't allow
any man to interfere with It."
It is not essential to give the steps
by which these two bosom friends be-
came more and more angry and finally
alienated. The contemplate cause
was a chip which it's owner considered
q soap dish and his friend as not suf-
dctently aesthetic to grace their can
vas habitation. They did not speak to
each other during that campaign and
before another Ayres had been trans
ferred to the sta6 and assigned to
duty with different corps.
In 1865 Young and Ayres were both
again in civil life. On Christmas
morning of the next year on going to
the postofice for his mail Ayres was
handed an envelope addressed to him
I'm the familiar handwriting Of bis
friend Opening it, he drew forth a
card on which was a picture Of q
dove with an olive branch in its
mouth. Nothing was written on the
card, nor did any letter accompany it.
but the recipient knew that his friend
had remembered his birthday and sent
a peace offering. He was not a de
monstrative man-nor was Young. fol
that matter-so he put the card in his
pocket, saying nothing to any one
about it. but" thinking on it. a. great
deal.
The next Christmas morning Young's
wife, whom he had just married, hand
ed him an envelope the superscription
on which was In Ayres'- handwriting,
It contained the Christmas card he
had sent Ayres on his twenty third
birthday. Mrs. Young asked her bus.
band what it all meant. He prevari
Gated. He was ashamed to tell her
the story-frstly. on account of the
Insignificant cause that had separated
him from his friend; secondly. because
he blushed at this missive passing be
tween them, worthy rather of tive
schoolgirls than two veterans of a
great war.
For forty years the card continued
to pass at Christmas time between the
two friend-enemies. Picture Processes
improved. and the little dove of 1856;
was sorry hooking bird beside the
dove of the twentieth century. Be
sides. the card was worn and soiled
Possibly had the two friends beef
near each other they would have r.
turned to a closer relationship. But
in all these years they never met
Ayres never married. and Mrs. Young
who meanwhile had come into posses
sion of the story of their quarrel. sale
facetiously that she believed he. ioyet
her husband too well to marry q wo
man.
A Christmas came round when Peter
Young was in no mood to remember tt
. send the card with the dove and olive
branch. A crisis had come in his at
fairs. and what he had been for years
building fell with crash. The crow1
of his and his wife's sorrow was that
his health broke down under the
strain. g.
Had he not after these many years
come to tread in a rut he would have
written to learn the cause of bis moi
receiving his token. But be had never
written line or spoken word to the
man with whom he had quarreled in
his youth. and it seemed too late for
him to begin. The result was that be
refrained from writing and worried.
One day-itt was shortly before
Christmas Mrs Young, rummaging in
her husband 81 desk. found the old
card. 1t occurred to her at once that
In her husbands preoccupation and
distress he had for the first time for
gotten it. She had saved a paragraph
!: taken from newspaper mentioning
/, her husbands failure In business and
another stating that he was suffering
i from nervous prostration. Placing
! these items with the card In an en-
/ selope, she sent it TO Ayres.