Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-03-12
THE COMPLETE BEST SELLER
No Time for Sergeants

lowed me when lett with MS pencil ana
paper wanting to know how old was And
when I told him he started lingering to see
if he had spent more time on the train than
I had been alive, and then he started figgering
how much he made per hour and then how
much he would have made if he had OF made
ten cents more per hour, and how much all
that come to: he followed me along down to
the rest room and listened as much as
could because it looked to me after he got
through with that one he would have to slow
down a while because he was so hoarse by
then, you could barely make out what he
said; and think it would have worked that
way too only when we come into the room,
he was still talking and woke up the blind
man who was setting in the corner so that he
took another long shot at him and hit right
on the paper the man was lingering on. 1t
was about as good splitting as ever seen
blind man do in my life. but it made the con-
ductor kind of mad and he got to fussing
around about it, and when ! asked him,
What do you think we ought to do about
getting on to Martinville?" he turned around
and looked at me and said, How DO know
what you ought to do? Why don't you git of
the train and git job and make some money
or something's" and turned around and
stomped on out of the place and wouldn't
even talk about it no more.
And so that's what we done, once the train
stopped. We got off and found job that
day pushing wheelbarrow and Ben kept
count of the number I had to push; and it
took us six whole days before we ever got up
money enough to buy another ticket.
The Place Is Quiet
Anyhow, when we got back there that next
Saturday, there warnt nobody around. 1t was
as empty as I ever seen it in my life. We
caught the bus out TO the field from town, me
and Ben the only ones on it, and when we
got of we didn't see nobody, and think Ben
kind of halfway got it in his head that they
was probably all out hunting for us. After the
bus left, he stood around looking up and down
the streets, not seeing nobody, and his face
got right pale. The only thing we even seen
alive was this old dog laying on the steps in
front of the post Office. Ben kept looking
around saying, Il wonder where everybody is.
They couldn't have all gone on passes at the
same time, it don't seem like" and he kind OF
whispered it when he said it, because it Uas
funny kind of feeling coming back where
there was usually lots of folks around and
not see a soul. 1t made everything kind of
lonesome and quiet and peculiar feeding.
while, and then decided to head on down to
Anyhow, we stood around like that for
while, and then decided to head on down to
the Orderly Room, and we went on down
street after street, not seeing SOUL mean
there warnt nobody around the PIX or the
drill field or nowhere, and the only sound
you could hear was the footsteps you were
taking; and you couldn't hear much OF that
neither because before we had gone couple
of blocks, we was both kind Of tiptoeing along.
Anyhow, we were kind of creeping along
that way down next to the hangers when we
heered this below that would mighty near
knock your ears out. 1t blared out, Ten
shunl' so loud that it seemed to be just
hanging in the air, and Ben froze right where
he was standing. He give gasp and come to
attention and done the same, and we both
just stood there for second. mean there
warnt soul around nowhere and when We
heered that below, it was pretty much Of
shock all right. Ben stood there stiff at at
tention with his eyes about double their usual
size, and done the same.
But then all of sudden the noise started
blaring again. saying this time: Attention to
orderrrrrs! Thirty Eighty oh Ninth Training
Wing, by Orders Of the Commanding Ofdcer!'
and some more stuff like that with the words
just echoing out in the air; and about that
time Ben said to me, Its on the other side
of the hangers. It's :" and stopped and
listened again. ITS parade. by gosh! That
was just the loud-speaker, that's all Come
on. WILL inside the hangar-we can see it
from there!"
So we took off and run inside the hangar
and climbed up on some boxes to look out,
and there was the whole field out there on
the ramp in formation. never seen so many
Of them in my life. and they was mighty good
to see too.
MY Gosh" Ben said, "that really is
parade. amt it?"
Then about that time the band struck
up with the drums going and everything and
this fellow that had been believing over the
loud-speaker turned and started walking real
fast with his chest poked out past the window
and on down toward the reviewing stand
where we couldn't see him no more. Ben kept
looking this way and that, saying. Il never
seen such crowd of people Come on let's
go over to the other window so we can see
the reviewing stand"
So we scrambled down off those boxes
and went over to the other window and scram-
bled up some more. and from there we was
looking right down on the platform. Look,
WILL" Ben said There's the Commanding
Officer and there's another Colonel and locker
there, Will: There's General And who is
that other one. wonder :"
IT never seen him before"
Its the Mayor" Ben said all excited
about it. "Sho it is, I've seen his pictures in
the paper and look look ;" and then he
stopped all of a sudden. He looked at me with
his mouth falling open, and then he looked
back out again trying to point but Just getting
his hand about halfway up and just letting
it dangle there, and then seen what he was
talking about Because there they all were,
standing there in a row so bandaged up you
couldn't tell who they were at first-all four
OF them. There was Lieutenant Bridges with
his head all bandaged up. and Lieutenant
Gardella on crutch, and Lieutenant Cover
and Lieutenant Kendall, all of them wrapped
up in so much gauze you wouldn't hardly know
them. They was lined up there on the re-
viewing stand next to the General and the
Mayor and the Commanding Officer 1t was
such surprise to Ben that he Just looked and
looked and couldn't say word for minute
Then he turned to me with this big grin on
his face, and then he looked back out again
and the grin started coming off. Then it come
back again, then went off again, so for
while there YOU couldn't make out what he