SHORT STORY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 415, 28 April 1904, Page 7

SHORT STORY

You have heard from-a great many people who did something in the war; is it not fair and right that you listen a little moment to one who started eat. to do something in it, bat didn't P Thousands entered the war, got just a taste of it, and then stepped out again, permanently. These, by their' very numbers, are respectable, and are therefore entitled to . a sort of voice,—not a loud one, but a modest one; not a boastful one, but an apologetic one. • They ought not to be allowed much apace among better people —people who did something—l grant that; but they ought at least to be allowed to state why they didn't do anything, and also to explain the process by which they didn't do anything. Surely thjs kind of light must have a sort of value. Out West there waa a good deal of confusion in men's minds during the first months of the great trouble—a good deal of unsettlednees, of leaning first this way, then that, then the other way. It was hard for us to get our bearings. I call to mind aa instance of this. "I was piloting on the Mississippi when the news came ' chat South Carolina had gone out of the Union on the 20th of December, 1160. My pilot-mate was a New Yorker. He was strong fox the Union; so waa L But he wculdjnot listen to me with any patience; my loyalty was smirched, to his eye, because my father had owned slavfo. I ■ said, in palliation of this dark fact, that I had heard my father Bay, some years , before he died, that alavery was a great wrong, and that he would free the solitary negro he then owned if he could think it'"-' right to give away the property of the family when he .waa so straitened in means. Say mate retorted that a mere impulse was nothing—anybody could pretend to a good impulse; and went on decrying my Unionism and libelling my ancestry.' A month later the secession atmosphere had considerably thickened on the Lower Mississippi, and I became a rebel; eo did he. We were together ia New Orleans, the 26 Lh of January, when Louisiana went out of the Union. He did his lull share of the rebel shouting, but was bitterly opposed to letting me do mine. He said that I came of bad stock—of a father who had been willing to set slaves free. In the following summer he was piloting a Federal gun-boat and shouting for the Union again, and I was , in the Confederate army. I held his note for some borrowed money. He was one of the most upright men I ever knew; p but he repudiated that note without hesitation, because I was a rebel, and the son of a man who owned slaves. In that summer—of 1881—the first wash of the wave of war broke upon the shores of Missouri. Oar State was invaded by the Union forces. They took possession of St. Loafs, Jefferson Barracks, and some other points. The Governor, Claib Jackson, issued his proclamation calling out fifty thousand militia to repel the invader. I was visiting in the small town where my boyhood had been spent—Hannibal, Marion County. Several of us got together in a secret place by night and formed ourselves into a military company. One Tom Lyman, a young fellow of a good deal of spirit but of no military experience, was made captain; I was made second lieutenant. We had no first lieutenant; Ido not know why; it was Jong ago. There were fifteen of us. By the ad/ice of an innocent connected with the organization, we called ourselves the Marion Bangers, I do not remember that , any one found fault with the name. I did net; I thought it sounded well The young fellow who proposed this' title waa perhaps a fair sample of the kind of stuff we were made of. He was young, ignorant, good-natured, well-meaning, trivial, full of romance, and given to reading cbi valric novels and singing forlorn roveditties. He had some pathetic little nickel-plated aristocratic instincts, and detested his name, which was Danlap; detested it, partly because it was nearly as m*i*m in that region as Smith, but mainly because it had a plebeian sound to ' his ear. So he tried to ennoble it by writing it In tins way: d" Unlap. That contented his eye, bat left Sm ear unsatisfied, fox people gave the new. name the same old pronunciation—emphasis* on the front end of it. He then did the bravest thing that can be imagined,—a thing to make one shiver when one remembers how the world is given to resecting shams and affectations; he began to write his name sot d' Un Lap. And he waited patiently through the long storm of mud that was flung at this work of art, and he had his reward at last; fox he lived to see that name accepted, and the emphasis put where he wanted it, by people who had known him all his life, and to whom the tribe of Donlaps had been as familiar as the rain and the sunshine for forty years. So sure of victory at last is the courage that can wail He said he bad found, by consulting some ancient French chronicles, that the name was rightly aad originally written d' Un Lap; and said that if it were translated into English it aould mean Peterson, i Lap; Latin or Greek, he said, foe stone or rook, same as the French purse, that is to say, Peter; d'.of or from; un, a or one; hence, d'Un Lap, of or from a stone or a Peter; that is to say, one who is the son of a stone, thesonota Peter—Peterson. Our militia company were not learaed, aad the explanation confused them: so they called him Peterson Danlap, He proved useful to win his way; he named our camps tor as, and he generally struck a name that was ' no slouch,' as the boys said. f That ftfoae sample of us. Another was Bd Stevens, son of the town jeweller,— ■ - - trim-built, handsome, graceful, neat as a cat i bright, educated, but given over

-■ entirely to fun. Tnere was nothing serious in life to him. As far as he was concerned, this military expedition of "ours was simply a holiday- I should say that about half of us looked upon it in the sasse way i not consciously, perbape, bat unconsciously. We did not think s wo were not capable of it As for myself, I was full of unreasoning ioy to be dons with turning out of bod at midnight and four in the morning, for a while ; grateful to have a change, now scenes, new occupation*, a new interest. In my thoughts that was as far as I went; I did not go into tie details j as a rule one doesn't at ; Another sample was. Smith, the blacksmith's apprentice. This vast donkey had some pluck, of a slow, and sluggish nature, but a soft heart j at one time he

A Campaign That Failed.

propriety, and at another he would homesick and cry. However, he had one ultimate credit to his account whioh some of uahadnt: he stuck to the war, and was killed in battle at last. Jo Bowers, another sample, waa a huge good-natured, flax-headed lubber; lazy, sentimental, full of harmless brag, a grumbler by nature; an inexperienced, industrious, ambitious, and often quite picturesque liar, and yet not a successful one, for he had had no intelligent train- . ing, but was allowed to come up just any way. This life was serious enough to him, and seldom satisfactory. Bat he was a good fellow anyway, and the boys all liked him. He was made orderly' sergeant; Stevens was made corporal. These samples will answer—and they are quite fair ones. Well, this herd of cattle started for the war. What could you expect of them P They did as well as they knew how, bat really what was justly to be expected of them F Nothing, I should say. Toat is what they did. We waited for a dark night, for caution and secrecy we're necessary; then, toward midnight, we stole in couples and from various directions to the Griffith place, beyond the town; f.om that point we set out together oh foot. Hannibal lies at the extreme south-eastern corner of Marion County, on the Mississippi Biver; our objective poiut was the hamlet ot New London, ten miles away, in Balls County.< The first hour was all fun, all idle •nonsense and laughter. But that could not be kept up. . The steady trudging came to be like work; the play had somehow oozed out of it; the stillness of the woods and the sombrenesß of the night began' to throw a depressing influence over the spirits oE the boys, and presently the talking died out and eaoh persoa shut himself up ia his own thoughts. Daring the-last half of the second hoar nobody said a word. Now we approached a log farm-house where, according to report, there was a guard of five Union soldiers. Lyman called a halt; and there, in the deep gloom-of the overhanging branches, he began to whisper a plan of assault upon that house, which made the gloom more depressing than it was before. It was a crucial moment; we realized, with a cold suddenness, that bare was no jest—we were standing face to face with actual war. We were equal to the occasion. In oar response there was no hesitation, no indecision: we said that if Lyman wanted to meddle with those soldiers, he could go ahead and do it; but if he waited torus to follow him, he would wait a long time. Lyman urged, pleaded, tried to shame us, but it had no effect. Oar course was plain, our minds were made up: we would flank the farm-house—go out around. And that is what we did. - We struck into the woods and entered upon a rough time, stumbling over roots, getting tangled in vines, and torn by briers. At last we. reached aa open place in a safe region, and sat down, blown and hot, to cool off and nurse our scratches and 'bruises. Lyman was annoyed, bnt the rest of us were cheerful; we had flanked the farm-house, we had made our first military movement, and it was a success; we had nothing to fret about, we were feeling just the other way. Horseplay and laughing began again; the expedition was become a holiday frolic once more. Then we had two more hours of dull trudging and ' ultimate silence and depression; then, about dawn, we straggled into New London, soiled, heelblistered, fagged with our little march, and all of us except Stevens in a sour and raspy humor and privately down on the war. We stacked our shabby old shotguns in Colonel Ealls's barn, and then went in a body and breakfasted with that veteran of the Mexican war. Afterwards he took us to a distant meadow, and there in the shade of a tree we listened to an old-fashioned speech from him, fall of gunpowder and glory, full of that adjective-piling, mixed metaphor, and windy declamation which was regarded as eloquence in that ancient time and that "remote region; and then he swore us on the Bible to be faithful to the State of Missouri and drive all invaders from her soil, no matter whence they might come or under what flag they might march. This mixed us considerably, and we could not make out just what service we .ware embarked" p t j baft Colonel Ram, practised and phrase-juggler, was not similarly in doubt; he knew quite clearly .that he had invested ua in the cause of the Southern Confederacy. He closed the solemnities by belting around me the sword which his neighbour, Colonel Brown,?had worn at Boena Vista and Molino del Bey; and he accompanied this act with, another impressive blast. Then we formed in line of battle aad marched four. miles to a shady and' pleasant piece of woods Son "tiie border of the far-reaching expanses of a flowery prairie. It was an enchanting region for war—oar kind of war. "We pierced the forestaboui half a mile, and took up a strong position, with some low rooky, and wooded hills behind us, and a purling, limpid creek in front. Straightway half' the command were in swimming, and the other halt fishing. The ass with the French name gave this position" a romantic title, bat it was too long, so the boys shortened and simplified it to Gamp Balls. We occupied aa old maple sugar camp whose half-rotted troughs, were Btill propped against the trees. A long cornerib setvea tor sleeping quarters for the brttaboo. On oar left, half a mile away, was Mason's farm aad house; and he was • f mad to the eauw, . ghostly *ftor noon

the farmers began to write froa several directions, with moles and horses for our use, and theae tbey leafc ua for as long m the war might teL which they judged would be aboat three montbui The animals were of all eiaes, all colors, and all breeds, They were mainly young and frisky, and nobody in the command could stay on them kng at a time i for we were town boys, and ignorant of ho«emanshiD. The creature that fell to my ihare waa a very small mule, and yet bo qnick and active that it could throw me without difficulty ; and it did this whenever I eot on it. Tfaenitwould bray—stretohing its neck out, laying its ears back, and spread. ,ing lis jaws tiii you could see down to its works. Is was a disagreeable animal, in every way. If I took it by the bridle and tried to lead it off the grounds, it would sit down and brace backj and so die could badge it. However, I- not entlieJi destitute Of military resources, and I did pseeMtiy manage to spoil this game; for

my time, aad knew a trick or two which even a grounded mule would be obliged to respect. There was a well by the comcrib; so I substituted thirty fathom of rope for the bridle, and fetched him home with the windlass.

I will anticipate here sufficiently to say that we did learn to ride, after some days' practice, but never well; We could not learn to like our animals;-/they were not choice ones, and most of them had,

annoying pecuUajatiea of oath kind or another. Stevens's horse would carry him, when he was not noticing, under the huge excrescences which form on the trunks of oak-trees, and wipe him out of the saddle; in this way Stevens sot several bad harts. Sergeant Bowers's horse was very large with slim, loag legs, and looked like a railroad bridge. Hia siaa enabled him to reach all about, and as far as he wanted to, with his head; so he was always biting Boweis's legs. Oh the march the sun, Bowers slept a good deal; and as soon t» the horse recognized' that he was asleep he would reach around' and bite him on the leg. His legs were black and blue with bites. - This was the only thing that, could ever make him Bwear, but this always did; whenever the horse bit him he always swore, and of course Stevens, who laughed at everything, laughed at this, aad would even get into such convulsions over it as to lose his balaace and fall off his horse and then Bowers, already, irritated by the pain of horse-bite, would resent the laughter with hard language, aad there would be a quarrel; so that horse made no end of trouble and bad blood in the command.

However, I will get back to where I waß —our first afternoon in the sugar-camp. The sugar-troughs came very handy as horse-troughs, aad we had plenty of corn to fill them witn. I ordered Sergeant Bowers to feed my mule; but he said that if I reckoned he went to war to be drynurse to a mule, it wouldn't take me very loag to find out my mistake. 1 believed that this was insubordination, but I was full of uncertainties about everything military, aad so I let the thing pass, and went and ordered Smith: the blacksmith's apprentice, to feed the mule; but he merely gave me a large, cold, sarcastic grin, Buch as aa ostensibly seven-yeanold horse gives you whea you lift his lip and find he is fourteen, and turned his back on me. I then weat to the captain, and asked if it was aot right and proper and military for me to have an orderly. He said it was, but as there was only one orderly in the corps it was but right that he himself should have Bowers on his staff. Bowers said he wouldn't- serve on anybody's staff; and if anybody thought he could make him, let him try it. .So, of course, the thing had to be .dropped there was no other way. Next, nobody would cock ; it was considered a degradation; so we had no dinner. We lazied the rssfc of the pleasant afternoon away, some dc.zing under the irees, some smoking cob-pipeß and talking sweethearts and war, some playing games, By late suppertime all -hands were famished; and. to' meeti the difficulty .all hands turned to, on an equal footing, and gathered wood, built fires, aad cooked the meal. Afterward everything was smooth for a while; then trouble broke out between the corporal and the sergeant, each claiming to rank the other. .Nobody knew which was the higher office; so Lyman had to settle the matter by making the rank of both officers equal. The commander of an ignorant crew like that has many troubles and vexations which probably do not occur in the regular army at all. However, with the song-singing and yarn-spinning « around the camp-fire, everything presently became serene again; and by and by we raked the corn down level in one end of the crib, sad all went to bed on it, tying a horse to the door, so that he would neigh if anyone tried to get in.* . We -had some horsemanship drill every forenoon; then, afternoons, we rode off here and there in squads a few miles, and visited the farmers' girls, and had a youthful good time, and. got an honest -good dinner or supp r, and then home again to camp, happy and content. For a time, life was idly delicious, it was perfect; there was nothing to mar it. Then came some farmers with, an alarm one day. They said it was rumored that the enemy were advancing in our direction, from .■..•over Hyde'd prairie. The result waa a sharp stir among us, and general consternation. It was a rude awakening, from, our pleasant trance. The rumour was but a rumour—nothing definite about it; so, in the confusion, we did not know which way to retreat. Lyman was for not retreating at all, in these uncertain circumstances; but he found that if he tried to maintain that attitude he would fare badly, for the com- • mand were in no humor to put up with insubordination. So he yielded the point aad called a council of war—to conjiat of himself and. the three other officers; but the privates made such a fuse about being left out, that we had to allow them to be present, I meaa we had to allow them to remain, for they were -already present, aad doing the most of the talking too. The question was, which,: jfrayv-lp retreatj flafrieclf that nobody seemed to have even a guess to offer. Except Lyman. He explained in a few calm words, that inasmuch as -the enemy were approaching %om over Hyde's prairie, our course was simple: all we bad to do was not to retreat toward him; any other direction would answer in a , moment how true .this, was, and how wise ; so Lyman got a great many com* pliments., It was now decided that we should fall back on Mason's farm. -■