The Dickinson press., 1916-11-04

the bullet and extracted it without any
difficulty.
81 have been told said the sur
geon, that you killed seventeen Of the
enemy with your OWL hands at that
battle. I don't blame you for feeling
rather proud Of that record
"'But it was only eleven, sub, and
not seventeen
"T have it on good authority, colo.
| mel, that the number was seventeen
"This led to high words, and l de-
manded satisfaction, to which the sur
geon replied:
"'Willingly, colonel, willingly.
shall esteem it Il high honor to cross
blades with you.
"Well, he was & cool hand, suah
enough. 1t looked as if he had intend.
ed to pick a quarrel with me. | sent
a friend to him, and a duel was quick
ly arranged. He had the choice of the
weapons, and he chose rapiers. That
suited me all right. The bullet had
been taken from my left shoulder, and
nothing allied my right.
"We had TO 20 about two miles to
find a spot where the affair could be
brought off. 1t was within 300 feet
Of q farmhouse, and the grove which
hid US from the highway was an open
one. The farmer was in q distant
field at work, and his wife seemed to
have gone away for the day. In the
gardens surrounding the house were
half q dozen hives of bees, and just
over the fence from them was a pas
ture in which five or six mules were
grazing. AS we were on the other side
Of the garden no n knew what tool
place until after things had happened
The farce, therefore, took us by sur
prise.
Now, sub, here Is what happened
on the other side Of the house as a
negro afterward described it to us:
One of the mules leaned against the
fence to rub his itching hide. The
fence was old and weak, and a section
of it was pushed down. The mule
that did it led the way into the gar
den, and the others followed him
They did not find mu'A to eat there.
and they began inspecting the bee
hives. One of them got a sting on the
nose. and he wheeled and kicked the
hive over. OF co'sc there was a row
on at once. A thousand bees. mo or
less. came flying out. and they made
it very unhappy for the mules.
There was no fence On our side OF
the house, and the mules came gallop-
ing in our direction. There were bees
ahead Of them, bees clinging to them
and more bees in chase. Befo we
could understand what had happened
the mules and bees were among us.
Principals and seconds were treated
alike. Each had a score or more OF
the insects in personal attention upon
him. There was nothing to do but
run befo' the storm.
ITO our left and forty rods away
was a field of growing cotton. The
stalks were high and offered US a
chance to brush the insects away. The
four Of US and the surgeon in attend
ance all started for this field. l think.
sub, we destroyed about half an acre
of cotton and the mules about twice
dS uluCu. ! lClllCllUCl lAoL ~ NcoI Vs."
$50 to settle with the farmer and that
he had no mo- use of any of the mules
for a month to come.
when we finally climbed the fence
and got back to the spot on which we
had been standing when the riot com
menced. my antagonist and myself
were so blind that we could scarcely
see to pick up our rapiers. Our Sec
onds were still worse off. l did not
look for the duel to be resumed. but
the doctor was hot for it.
"'Colonel Bunker he said, you i'm
pugned my honah. You denied, sub
in the face of my assertion that you
killed seventeen men at the battle OF
Chantilly. and this affair must 60 on
to it's legitimate end
"'But I only killed eleven, suh,' l re
piled. 4 counted them as they fell and
put the number down in my notebooks
befo' l left the spot
"'Then. colonel, you have that note
book still?'
"'I have, subj
".And you can show it to me a.
proof that you were r1gnt ana l Was
wrong"
"'Most certainly, DOCTOR
"'Then l withdraw what seemed tt
be an imputation on your honah, ant
If you will stop at my Office on the wa!
home we will pick the stingers out O
each other as we'll as we can and shak'
hands and be good friends
"And thus. sub, concluded our af
fair. though we we're both badly pun
ished by the bees. A year later I wa
his second in an affair Of honah will
another gentleman. and he run tina
gentleman through the body befo' tn,
fight was a minute old. He handle'
his rapier as I had seldom seen it han
died. and, perhaps, the bees and tn
mules came just in time to save M!
life"