The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1920-05-21
By Frederick Faust

Five feet four and an eighth" he
announced; you just get inside the
limit, young man."
The heart of Peter raced madly and
a hot flush stained his face.
Stand off the PLATFORM" said the
doctor, raise your arms"
Peter oebyed, and the tape was
passed around his chest He forced
all the air out of his lugns and then
drew a slow and mighty breath He
could feel the tape Juggling lightly
at his skin and slipping through the
fingers of the doctor. 1t was a pleas.
ant moment for Peter.
Five and half" called the doctor
to the man behind the desk who wrote
down the data of each physical exami-
nation.
Five and half what?" cried the
other man.
Five and half inches expansion"
said the doctor.
The clerk remained staring as if his
writing hand had become paralyzed.
"That MANI" he queried slowly.
Regular pouter-pigeon," grinned
the doctor. Are you an athlete?"
The doctor loosened the stethoscope
from around his neck and listened to
Peters heart.
Sound as a bell" he said. "Now
hold up your feet. No, not that way
for I want to see the soles of your
feet. That's it,"
Peter obeyed, and the doctor leaned
and examined the right foot first and
then the left.
Whats here?" he asked.
Nothing wrong, I hope?" he asked.
Peter glanced down at his left foot
with concern.
Pretty fat" said the Goctor grave
ly. Ever have an accident?'
Then Peter remembered with a
great fall of the heart. He had in
deed had an accident. When he was
playing quarterback on the second
eleven in practice game the fall be-
fore, a great, blue-shirted guard had
plunged through the line, and when
Peter dove at him in the mix-up the
heel of the guards foot had crushed
down into his instep. After that he
had had to wear tape around the in
step for three weeks, but since that
time the foot had never bothered him.
"a slight accident" he murmured;
nothing to amount to anything"
"Well," said the doctor, I'm sorry
to say that it amounts to something
in the army. You've got a fiat foot,
my friend"
Peter stared at him with dull eyes.
Doctor" he pleaded, Il swear that
that foot has never bothered me in the
slightest after it was first hurt"
That's an old story around here"
said the doctor, not unkindly, "but I'm
afraid I can't pass you with foot
like that. l tmight hold up for a
long time and then give way on you
during a forced march. You're re-
fused, Crittenden. Next"
Peter turned away and walked from
the room to put on his clothes again.
It was noon and he found his way to a
restaurant. But he had no heart for
food.
He finally pushed his plate away
and sat with a grim face testing his
coffee at long intervals. He was re-
membering his last glimpse of his
father with his back turned toward
him and his face raised to the picture
of the military ancestor hanging on
the wall.
A long and glorious military career
rested on the shoulders of the sue
cessive crittendens, beginning, with
the first Peter Crittenden, who had
helped to stain the snow with his bare
feet at Valley Forge, and who had
lost a leg under Morgan in the South.
And another, Peter Crittenden had
filled a place as first officer on the
second Wasp in the war of 1912. He
had gone down with that glorious and
Inflated sloop when she disappeared
from port and never came back to
carry his story from the sea.
And still third Crittenden marched
under old Taylor when he made the
name of the United States terrible
through Northern Mexico in the
famous year 1847. Through the Indian
war, through the War of the Rebellion,
through the Spanish-American War,
there had always been peter Critten-
den to shoulder a gun for his cour
try's flag. These memories came back
TO Peter now with a redoubled bit
terness.
For he had now bore that fated
name of Peter Crittenden, and he
would make the first gap in the glor-
ious annals of his country. AS he
thought and pondered, glimmerins
of a new thought came to Peter
He tensed his arms hard in their
sleeves, and his jaw thrust out sig
nificant fraction, and his head sank
lower between his shoulders. That
fighting face had not been his least