New Britain herald., 1918-09-24
CHAPTER ".

THE day for which John Pershing
 and his little band of boy scouts 1 in Laclede had long waited was at l hand. Here was their sentinel run ! ming down the hill crying: The In~ dians are coming!"
 Their opportunity had come-but 1 it found them wanting. For, with l the exception of their dauntless ] young commander every one of them l imm ediately took to his heels. 1 'Halt!" shouted the future gen. l eral waving his wooden sword. The 1 bravery of their captain shamed the 1 others so that the panic was stopped, l though each boy was shaking in his l boots. From strategic positions be- hind the trees they waited.
 The enemy came: but not the en- emy they were expecting.
 It seems that Tom Higginbotllan. who was acting as sentinel, had found that waiting for Indians who never came was a tedious job. For sport he had organized rival com pany from among the colored chil drer of the town and persuaded them to attack the others. When all was ready he had run down and given the false alarm.
 The dark skinned warriors, armed with broomsticks, advanced. When Jacks company realized the hoax that had been played on them stones began to fly in earnest, and the flight ended in a free for-all Hard hitting Jack himself decided the vic tory for his company.
 / The casualties of this historic bat tie of Laclede were heavy. Not one combatant escaped unscratched. The mothers of the town sat up late that night to mend torn trousers and jack cts Cory noses were proudly dis played. The hero pose never had appealed to Jack, however, and he went home by a roundabout route to escape undue curiosity.
 AS was natural many 8 home whipping resulted from this bloody fray. Many a hickory switch dusted the back of the bowling progeny of Laclede. Jacks father however, was built on different lines. When he saw the torn clothes and the cut face of his son he merely smiled.
 Fighting, eh? Well, it will make a man of you. But never let anyone say that they have licked you.'
 Upon Jack, who had braced him. self for the expected whipping, these
 
 the thought of them has carried him to victory through many a fight in the face of serious odds.
 Little John Pershing was now about eight years of age, and, with his younger brother. Jim, was 8 pu- pill at the "old red schoolhouse". John was 3, real boy. Mark Twain has painted a vivid picture of the real boy as he lived in a Missouri town at about this period. Jack lived about the same sort of life in general as did Tom Sawyer. He played "hookey'' from school. He had all the small boys troubles and he met them in the same way. He had all the neces- sary fights, but they were never the fights of a bully, He even raided the orchards and the melon fields of the neighborhood.
 A story is still told in Lac1ede of one of these raids.
 Charles Bigger a, schoolmate, ap- preached Jack early one evening.
 "Old man Temple has a field of watermelons that are so long, said he, indicating with his arms a melon of stupendous size.
 There isn't 8 melon on earth that big, returned Jack, unconvinced.
 You come with me tonight and I'll show you" said Charley.
 Jack, being from Missouri, was willing to be shown,
 That night, after mother had tucked the children in and father had put out the lights and gone to bed, Jack got up very quietly, pulled on his trousers over his nightshirt- no boy in a Missouri town would 1t,Hi1 1n the weather was warm enough to go without them-slipped out of the window and jumped off the low kitchen roof.
 Charley Bigger was waiting for him in the shadow of the cottonwood trees. Silently they made their way down the moonlit road to the open country. They "shinned' over the snake-fence and tiptoed and crept 1 past the house of the farmer and into the melon patch. The melons, sure enough, were the largest that either of the boys ever had seen, and each selected one of the best.
 Now, any waterm melon is 9. good sized load for a small boy, and these were all they could carry: so, as they made their way back, they could not step as carefully as they had on their way down. A tWig snapped with loud noise just as they passed the chicken house. Immediately loud cackling arose among the hens.
 "That'll wake old man Temple" whispered Charley: wed better run
 And run he did; but Jack, after taking all that trouble, didn't wish to l lose his precious melon. Lights aD- { peared in the house and the figure of ] Farmer Temple in the doorway with 1 | G-;o'>.
 Hat moment poor Charley, not 1 set He fence in his haste, crashed 1 full against it. The melon smashed l all over him, but the boy managed to l scramble over the fence and ont of 1