Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-02-14

of him. but my curiosity overcame my
fears, SO asked Curly to go ahead.
The rest Of the crew weakly assented,
and Curly went after Jerry's brother.
In about twenty minutes he returned
with him. Jerrys brother came over
and sat on the firestep next to me. He
sat silent for few minutes, and then,
in a thick, piping, high-pitched voice
spoke:
$50 you want to 'ear about Jerry, do
you? They called him ''Aunted Jerry
but he weren't 'aunted; he could just
see-'e could see into the future
could sort o. tell what was agoin' to
'appen. e could talk to the dead,
and they told i'm. 'E always lad
spirits around 'im-ghosts, you call
'em, but there amt no such thing as
ghosts - they're souls awanderin'
around: they're about us now"-I
slowly eased down the firestep away
from him.
"Jerry used to talk to the dead; e
would sit in a cemetery at night while
in rest billets, and receive messages
from them what can't speak no more.
Sometimes, 1yte at night, can ear
far aw'y, voices calm to me, but as
vet cawn't understand 'em, but / will
Il WILL"
My blood began to curdle.
Curly Wallace, placing his hand on
the speakers knee, softly said:
"Righto, mate, we know you can
see far beyond us, but tell us of Aunt
ed Jerry and the pome e wrote the
day before 'e clicked it at the lone
tree"
Jerry's brother nodded in a compre-
bending way, and reaching into the
pocket of his tunic drew out creased
and muddy piece of paper, which he
opened out upon his knee, and then. in
an unnatural, singsong voice, which
sent shiyers through us, recited the
following poem:
Between the lines, in No Mans Land.
With foliage gone, and trunk that's
torn,
4 lonely sentry takes his stand,
Silently watching from morn TO morn
On starlit nights, when moon is bright,
And spreads its rays of ghostlike
beams;
Against the sky, that tree of blight
A CHASTITY hangman's gibbet seems.
When night is black, and winds faint
Through it's shelltorn branches means,
A call to men, '"To die, to die!''
They answer it with groans and groans,
But obey the call, for more and more"
And Death sits by and grins and grins.
And watches the fast-growing score,
The harvest of his sentry's whims.
There they lie huddled. friend and foe,
CHASTITY heaps, English, Hun and
French
And still those piles forever grow,
They are fed by the Men Of the
Trench"
No wooden cross to mark their fall,
No tombstone theirs, no carven rocks,
Just the Lone Tree with its grim call,
Which forever mocks and mocks.
When Jerry's brother had finished,
a dead silence ensued. nervOusly
lighted a fag, and out Of the corner
Of my eye noticed that Sailor Bill was
pneasily squirming on the firestep.
Letting out sigh, which seemed to
whistle between his teeth, our "guest"
carried on:
Jerry weren't much at cheerful
writing, because e lad a calling.
INxyoy, IN ol> ,o,.o IN pJ;rh4x, 50 yyoron,t
much for lights nor fun. Il took af-
ter our mother. The neighbors called
'er 'aunted, too, but she weren't. She
could see things, like Jerry.
'This ERE lone tree sentinel Jerry
writes about was an old tree in No
Mans land, about 'undred yards from
our front-line trench. 1t was pretty
veil knocked about by bullets and
shell fragments. It made pretty good
guide post, stickin' sort o. lonely like
UP gainst the skyline at night. Re-
connoitering patrols and bombing par.
ties used it to show 'em the wye
back to their trenches, because,
v know, out there in the blackness
it's easy to lose your wye, unless
you ave spirits a-guidin' you.
''Lots of times English and German
patrols would meet near the lone
tree, and many a 'and-to-'and fight
would tyke place around it's roots.
Eat that part o. the line it were
pretty 'ot, what with the rifle and ma
chine-gun firing. The only time there
would be lull in the firing was when
accommodating patrol was out in
front, and then, as you know, you
couldn't fire for fear of q lifting your
own blokes. All around the lone tree
were scattered many bodies, mostly
English and German. Some of 'em
'au been a-lyin' there for weeks, and
when the wind were a-blowin' from the
German lines towards US it were sort
of unpleasant in our front line.
"Every time the captain would call
for soldiers for accommodating pa.
troll, 'Aunted Jerry, as you call i'm,
always put is bloomip' nyme on the
list. It got so that after a while e
never asked if e wanted to go; the
captain would just naturally put is