The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1922-11-16

AT that we were travelling light COM
pared to the artillery bandmen for they
were carrying their instruments, so that
we might have little martial music
while crossing Bordeaux. Dixie was the
favorite, for many wild-eyed son of the
south wore the A. F. collar ornaments.
The lusty discords of the vocaists might
not have passed for music but they surely
indicated an irrepressible spirit under
most adverse circumstances. There were
GROWERS, too, there always are. A mule
skinning civilian might have added few
new terms of endearment with which to
address his charges if he could have over
heard some of the derogatory comments
anent "sunny France" 1t would surely
have been beneficial, for the professional
vocabulary of the mue-skinner is never
extensive enough.
King Cognac was chief growler that
morning; but King really had reason for
complaint. He had made a valiant at
tempt to fill his canteen with his favorite
brand of thirst quencher-and paradoxical-
ly, stimulator before the start that morn
ing but vigilant NJ. P had turned
hostile eye upon him for intruding upon
his love making with the proprietor's
daughter. Perhaps she was also a bit
peeved; at any rate King lost his good ma
ture to such an extent that he relapsed
into the tongue of the land of his birth.
This tongue prevails among the home
guards of state that is noted as being
the center of the flour, snoose, ludifsk,
LACK silver fox, and fruit industries.
can't recall the name that was plucked
from the Ballads of Odin to bestow upon
the infant King while he was yet in swad-
ding clothes; it was Lars, Iven, or Ole,
and he Wasn't from North Dakota. He
even boasted of being mean "ski jumper"
which to my mind is a great sport if you
don't know any better. way to do the Dutch
act. 1t doesn't matter as he was known
as King Cognac to the skipper and to the
slim wind-jammer who tore the air with
his shrill blasts every morning, and as
King he will figure in these narratives.
AS for his bacchanalian limitations there
were but two brands that he had never
mastered-vanila and lemon extract, and
this by reason that blacksmith does not
draw K. P. detail. Whenever Baldy put
in ke1 he chocl
to assume the role of pearl diver for the
day the mess sergeant would Danish these
bon q,izants to the locker so as to insure
a full quota OF. pot and pan wallopers at
the end Of the days duties.
On one occasion--I believe the first time
that the pride of the range ever caused
hard-working cook to call down the wrath
of the gods upon the shimmering pate of
the puncher-Baldy and boon companion
with the apt moniker of Sister had imbibed
freely of the vanilla extract, and had dis
appeared before the noon hour. (Sister
gained his name by his mincing gait, his
lisping speech, and his ladylike ways, yet
the hard-boled Baldy cottoned to him).
About three in the afternoon the plaintive
strains of The Boys of Union Square
waited towards camp in Baldy's cracked,
hut penetrating tenor. Due investigation,
headed by the "top soak" disclosed the
train behind clump of cactus with two
extract bottles horned toad and repre-
sentative delegation of desert rodents for
audience. Sis was dead to the world and
the buckaroo was conducting what was in