The Press., 1910-06-01
(From the MoDson Register.) As He Told It.
BY HELEN M. MoULTON.

y Bs stood in the doorway of Broad Brool House. drinking In the delightful breath of the May morning. Down ths road. limping along. came an old scl1ier. knew him to be the owner of an adjoining farm. He stopped whittling his stitk u say: .'Gond morning You're from Munson, ain T ye? Then you must know Frank PAlka
 'Oh. yes. Know him we'll. !" l answered.
 "Ye see, he an were in the same regiment Used to havs great times together. " saiI he. as Ee settled dow u upon the door step "One day he said to me, Leach. let's go of an see what we can find. You know the soldiers wers always lookin' for something to eat Didn't have noth- in but hard tack. salt pork an cof- fee. We'll, we had walked about four miles from camp, when we came to one of these sweet walnut-pig wal nut-trees Oh. 1t was just loaded with nutsl We'll, Parke clim' up in. to them branches an shook the tree like 8 good feller. tell ye they came down like hail stones. took my old military cap an filled 1t full - keeping we'll outside the circle. be. cause them nuts would hurt like thunder if they hit 8 mans bare head We'll, do ye know. we hadn' t been there long when half a dozen bullets went a-whizzin' through tF t tree. (The Rebels had seen the t1 Se a-shakin' Parke just gave a turn an rolled out onto the ground. God. are you shot p l said. For answer, he sprang up onto his knees an be-. gan to pick up the nuts faster'n you ever saw. Let's get all we can, he said. Ha, hal He was full of it. For years after that whenever he'd see me he'd say, Leach, want to go for some more nuts?' Ha, Ina!
 ''Let me see-what day is Shis :? May 9th? The battle in the Wilder ness was May 9th in '64 Forty four years ago. Geel It don't seem SO long as that. ''
 ''You couldn't have been vary old," said.
 "Nothin' but a boy. I lied to lem. Told lem was nineteen ''
 Didn't you regret that lie?'
 "The wickedett lie I ever told. You see, was workin' in a mill down in Providence when Fort Sump- ter was fired upon There were four or five of us fellers who wanted to go to war So we all enlisted for three months We got in the battle of Bull Run. Then came home and enlisted for three years with the a7th Regiment from Mas sachusetts. Then enlisted again and took my hundred dollars and came home on a thirty days furlough Wanted to see my gal," he explained in sort of stage whisper. Ha, ha l''
 Did you get wounded or have any close ealls?" I asked
 "Oh, yes. A bullet went in there on top O. my foot and came out below my inssep. Took off all the leaders. Now my toes stick out like stumps. Ha. ha! Makes me go lame. They were for cuttin' off my foot when they got me to Philadelphi'. but fit 'em till they gave me mp 7
 "The battle of Gettysburg was a bloody one, wasn't it?"
 Awful. Why, yourg lady, I don't know as ought to tell you this, but after the battle of Gettysburg I could walk for three quarters of a mile an not step on anything but dead bodies. Oh. we had some pretty excitin' times in the army. It's spunk -fiRhtin' an war. We don't like to be beat ''
 How do you know when to stop?"
 "When you've Ii, kad lem. Why, remember the third of July, after the battle of G ttysburg wa had been fightin' three days-General Hooker sat side, saddle on his horse he had on an old slouch hat, an he rode down between the lines an said |: Boys. '-notice how he worded it, z you we licked 'em to-day on every point. You've licked 'em every day. don't think they'll be here to- morrow He was right They left in the night. We all called him FightiD' Joe Hooker He didn't look much like general, but we ali knew him and liked him mighty we'll. The commander generally didn't amount to nothin'. Humph He was always lookin' out for him. self. But the soldiers always hung together, shoulder to shoulder, to the last ''
 1T suppose you never shock hands with Rebel during the war, cid you ?"
 "Yes, once. Ye see it was Bhis way. We were lyin' still on one side of the Rappahannock and the Rebs were on the other One of the rules or war IS Gha6 safety guard should be sent to each houes in the vicinity of the camp to protect the women and k=ep the soldiers from raising the dickens round the place. Sn was ordered to go 70 Q house about seven miles from camp. I put my rations in my knapsack and went over there. I found a woman and three children two girls and little boy. They were about half starved. Didn't have a' bit of salt in the house, and they couldn't get thing anywhere. They had mule in the barn. So one day I started into camp on horseback. I filled two bran sacks with things, swung them across the mule and went back. put two quarts of salt on the table-We had lots of it-and told