Soldiers' record, 1870-04-30

              OFB FLAG, ONE LAND, ONE IIBART, OITB HAND, ONB NATION, BVEBmREl
VOL, II. HAETEORD, OOOT., SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1870. NO. 43.
ioiirs at iomc.
Writteu for tlie SOLDIKR8' RJJCOUD.
MY BADGE.
BY JOIIX T. FORK15ST.
Not cut in silver or glifctoring gold,
Nor gemmed with pearls, nor witii cliaraoud sliino.
Nor with foreign motto from old romanco
In letters quaint, is this badge of mine.
A. rod flannel corps badge, rudely cut
With a soldier's peuknifo in bygone years.
And sewn on the shapeless army cap,
While the canixi re-echoed with soldier's cheers.
Xt was rudely cut and as rudely sown,
Yet I gaze upon it with dimming eye,
For all the scenes of those years come back—
Those years of struggle for purpose high.
The pleasant camp life, the thoughts of home,
The blessed letters from Northern friends,
And the jokes on our " hard tack " and old " salt
horse,"
Or the sutlei's provisions that made amends.
Our traAn that the 'Johnnies' had made their own,
With its food for stomachs and clothes to wear;
The hunt for Mosby o'er hill and vale.
And the never finding, Avhich made some swear.
The ration of whiskey before fatigue.
The tossing in blankets, mid laugh and shout.
Our "surprise parties" to "sccesh" farms—
Ha! ha! how my jolly laugh rings out!
The hospital whiskey, with quinine miKed,
Thiit made "total abstainers" as fast as Gongh ;
The castor oil, "three spoonfuls {'I) each day,"
For mptmre, chills, fever, diarrhoea and cough.
Yet the tears, too, rise, for iii memory's ear
Sounds the muffled drum and the march of deatli;
And I raareh again with my gun reversed
With heart bowed down and^with bated breath.
I stand once more by the open grare.
And 1 hear the rude coffin let slowly slip ;
While the "ashes to ashes, dust to dust,"
Cointis in choking tones from the quivering lip.
Then the early cooking, and hurried march
Under the heat of an August sun ;
The "coffee coolers" beside the road.
And the glorious rest when the march was done.
The "detail for water"—"Take my canteen !''
"And mine!" "And mine !" With-the merry laugh
When "the detail" declared, with indignant looks,
That 'twould break their backs but to carry half.
Again the grand battle scenes loom up.
And ray pulso throbs quickly, my eye shines
bright,
When I think of those struggles thro' weary years
Ere foul Treason iled into endless night.
The searcli for friends on the field of blood,
And their dying message to friends afc home;
The note to pour mothers, wives, sisters dour,
Who waited for those who would never come.
'Tis a conimoa thing, this poor badge of mine,
Yet I gaze upon it through rising tears,
As I think of the heroes now lying low
Who greeted its making Avith smiles and cheers.
It recalls to me all the care and woe
That the boys in blue for. our country bore,
.And with grateful heart for our land preserved
1 bless the old badge of our army corps.
LOVE WAKMKD OVER.
"Just fetch me the clothes-brush, will
j o u , Joshua, iiovv you're up ?"
irarn Skianer, pausing
occupatio.i of greasing his Sunday bcjots,
to rub his ear with his elbow. '-(Jau't
liud it," responded Joshua, after a listless
survey of the Idtchoii wall
"Tut, tut, l)cy! hunt for i t ! ' ' said the
father, ruefully contemplating an exceed-ingly
well developed grease spot on his
clean wristband. "Look in the stand
drawer."
"Tisn't :here," was the encouraging
reply ; but as Joshua's fishing-line was
there, ana the foiid parent, "drying in
the grease" at the stove, looked up a mo-ment
later to lind his heir seated on the
window sill, fastening on a fish hook.
"Why, Joshua Skinner I" cried the as-tonished
father, raising hi<i hands in holy
horror, ""do you know what day this is ?"
With his feet encased in sheep-skin
blip.pers and each arm thrust into a stur-dy
boot, and reaching heavenward, the
worthy Mr. Skinner, to the graceless eyes
of his son presented the appearance of
an enraged quadruped pawing the air, and
the youth's oidy reply was an audible
snicker.
"Why, Joe>hua Skinner !" repeated the
father tapping the boot heels together by
Wiiy of emphasis, am beat to think
thai a boy born of sich likely parents
should bo &een puttering with playthings
on Sunday." | ofcourse she cant be expected to t ike the
Here a drop of burning fat on the stove interest an older person would and a-affected
his nose unpleasantly. Mr.! gain Mr. Skinner ghinced at the brown
Skinner caught a sneeze between the toes j l)()tmet before hirn. Miss Hepsey was
of his boots, and the luckless Joshua | older, certainly.
said Adou-in
the encrfiuino:
snickered again.
"Put that thing away this minute, and
hunt up the brush as I tell you," said Mr.
Skinner, severely. "I've h id enough of
this giggling."
Joshua screwed a fist into each eye
with a gimlet motion, evidently boring
for water, but nothing coming of it, or cer-tain
spasmodic puinpings of the chest, he
seemed to conclude that the tear cistern
was low, and he must make the best of it.
So presently, though without unseeming
haste, he dropped from his perch to do
his father's bidding.
"May be it is in the end cupboard."
suggested Mr. Sit inner, glad to see his
son again in running order ; and to the
end cupboard" the young Columbus
climbed, bent on discovery. Witli his
copper toed shoes on the back of a chair,
and his eyelids dusting the edge of the
second shelf, he "took an observation,"
and finally he spied the missing clothes
brush, wrapped away in cobwebs, under-neath
a boot-jack, a string of dried apples,
and a Farmer's Almanac.
"I've got it father," he cried ; "catch
i t ! " and he tossed the brush toward his
father, forgetful of his four footed con-dition,
which rendered the attempt im-practicable.
Instead, Mr. Skinner ward-ed
ofi'the missive with so vigorous a thrust
that it fell upon the stone hearth and
broke in two parts.
"Well, child, you've done it now, and
I hope you're satislleil," said the aggriev-ed
parent, standing the boots in one cor-ner,
as though they were the offending
party. "Now go and let Mary Ann slick
you up for meeting while 1 clean your
jacket ; and alone Adoniram Skinner fell
to using the broken bi ush with what skill
he might. lie succeeded very well with
Joshua's stout cassiniere, but at the first
hasty stroke upon his own wedding coat,
now tender as the memory plustering a-round
it, the shattered bgush handle
caught in the sleeve, rending it and Adon-iram's
heart.
Mr. Skinner was a good man, and a
pious man, yet in that vexatious moment
Then there were the children going to
wreck and ruin, without a mother to look
after them. To think of a son of his
playing with a fishing line on Sunday I
and he started uneasily at the recollect-ion.
The involuntary movement was fraught
with mischief ; for one of the twins, sleep-ing
on his father's arm, was rudely awak-ened
by a cruel pin in the torn sleeve,
and began to cry with all his might.
"flush ! hush. Tommy !" whispered Mr.
Skinner, imploringly, wiping the little
bleeding cheek. But, frightenod at the
sight of blood, Tommy screamed louder
than before, while the eyes ot the congre-gation
wei-e directed toward the Skinner
pew, and the minister made an affected
pause in his discourse on human deprav-ity.
"Don't Tommy ! don't," coaxed Mr.
Skinner. "Be good, and I'll give you
the little red bossy ; and after being as
sured in a whisper that he might have it
to "keep," and that Johnny needn't have
half," little Tommy settled down in a cor-ner
to be "good", while his father re-turned
to his musing,
"It «eems sort of like crowding Betsey
out, to take anybody in her place,"
thought he remorsefully ; "but it's my
duty to myself and the boys, and I will
do it," and a stab from one of the exas-perating
pins seemed, so to speak, to
clinch his resolution. It wag in conse
quence of this resolve, to the making of
which he had boen hastened by the disas-ter
of the clothes-brush, that Mr. Skinner
walked home from church with Miss
Uepzibah, Joshua and the twins follow-ing
; and agitated her usually tranquil
breast with tender inquiries concerning
her wheat crop, and fears lest the early
frost might have injured her squashes.
Nothing more. Yet as Miss Hepsey
looked after him, speeding On like a loco-motive,
with it's trail of smoke, she said
aloud :
"It's coming again, I feel it in my
bones !" and though it is a rheumatic af-fection
that commonly steals through
he said "Jewhiitaker," very much as if i these channels, Hepzibah didn't mean that
he meant it. The case was a trying .one,' kind at all.
there can be )\o doubt of it. Here was She was recalling her one love affair,
Adoniram Skinner, an unconsoled wid- which happened years bofore, when her
ower, the churchgoing father of four ^ gray pongee was new, and Adoniram
growing boys, a man of worthy influence,' Skinner first began to vote. He had the
whose absence from his accustomed pew | home place then, mortgage and all, and
would be remarked by everybody ; and the care of the old folks, Mr. Dinsmore
there was that gaping rent in his Sunday had said it was a tough place for a woman
coat, and the last church boll ringing, to fill. Adoniram was young, and there
Mary Ann was hard at work in the bed- was no knowing what he might come to
room washing the twins' faces the wrong ' and he hoped his daughter would look
way ; there was no one else to aid him ; higher. And the dutiful Hepsey hac
and his courage rising with the emer- j said "no" to her suitor, agreeably to her
gency, Mr, Skinner essayed with his own ' father's wishes; and had been "looking
manly hands, to draw the frayed parts of higher" ever since, till her eyes were get
his sleeve together and fasten them with ting dim,
four crooked pins. This being a task in- j parents were dead, and she
volving some skill and patience, before carried on the farm with the aid of a
its completion, Joshua and the twins ap- a very capable woman is
pearedall ready for church—except their ! jijyp^ibah Dinsmore, strong and self re-pocket
handker.jhiefs, which they always ^j^nt, with nothing vain or frivolous about
needed and never had ; and their father ij^j. indeed, her/ou^ emewWe is an epitaph
hastily finisl^ed his toilet and then sailed ^^ vanity, as I am sure you would say if
forth, stroking the nap on his hat with you could see her. Her dejected brown
his rod bandanna as he went. ^ | stopped growing yeai-s ago,and hangs
It is to be feared that after the dis- in tendrils about her neck in an absuri
quieting events of the morning he was sort of way, for Miss Hepsey does not
hardly "in the spirit on the Lord's day," , bear the least resemblance to a vino, and
and that at church his eyes wandered oc- these clinging locks remind one of the
casionally from the minister's face to the hanging moss crowning some substantial
"drawn in" bonnet and pepper-and-salt gatepost. As though the elements of
shawl of Miss Hepzibah Dinsmore in growth had been transferred from her
the seat in front. [hair to her nose, that dauntless feature
"It is not good for a man to bo alone," | had gone onward (and upward, alas !)
he said to himself, quoiing Genesis for till it had become so colossal in its pro-the
hundredth time since his wife's death, portions that in recalling her face you
u year before, 'and I don't think 1 can get foi'got every other lineament. But Miss
a l o n g w i t h Mary Auu much longer. She's Hepzibah is an exceedingly worthy wo-willing
and she's good to the baby ; but mau, though if you have never seen her
you can have but a faint idea of what
unmitigated worth is.
I declare, I am in a quandary," said
she. slowly drawing off her mits. "I
don't know what to say which wasn't
strange, perhaps, since she hadn't been
asked to say anything.
So Miss. Hepsey put away her bonnet,
pondered many things in the dusky soli-tude
of the spare chamber, while Mr.
Skinner led his dusty i.rain homeward
and mused about her. Now that he had
begun to think about her it was strange
bow everything seemed to suggest Miss
Hepsey. Mary Ann's despondent bread
and pastry seemed heavier still when he
remeiiiber«d, since the first mud-pies of
her inf.mcy. Miss Hepsey had excelled
iu cookery. His house was in dire con-fusion.
Miss Hepsey had a faciiliy of
straightening things out. The children
heeded an even hand, and it was such a
one whose middle finger was crowned by
Miss Hepsey's side thimble.
One Saturday, in the ensuing month,
the baby swallowed a button (no wonder,
the boys were losing them off), and, pat-ting
the choking child on the back, the
frightened fathei-'s thoughts turned to
Hepzibah as the best policy for the in-surance
of his orphan's life. Besides, a
on naturally suggests a ring, and—the
excitement about the infant passed—
Adoniram arrayed himself in his Sunday
suit, with a resolute air worthy of a hero
of the revolution.
"You can't blind me," soliloquized the
maid of all work, peeping over the parlor
shutters. "There goes Mr. Skinner
straight for the Dinsmore place, with a
big basket of summer-sweetings. Some-thing's
to pay assure as you're alive!"
Miss Hepsey thought the same five min-utes
later, when Adoniram walked in at
the side door.
"1 thought I would like to bring you a
few of my early apples," said he seating
himself with his basket between his knees,
trotting it as though it was a juvenile
Skinner.
" I t ' s very neighborly of you, very
neighborly, I'm sure," replied Miss
Hepsy, cautiously, wishing to be under-stood
that in accepting the sweetings she
did not commit herself further.
"Not at all ! not at all!" said Mr.
Skinner, as Miss Dinsmore advanced to
take the basket. "Let. me empty it, it's
heavy for you," he -continued, with a
glance at the muscular hands which turn-ed
twenty giant cheeses every morning.
With a new sense of weakness. Miss
Hepsey led the way to the pantry, saying
nothing about her labors in the dairy, and
Adoniram followed.
Such a neat looking room it was, with
its shining tins and rows of nicely scoured
buckets. Mr. Skinner thought of the one
at home, where the rolling-pin chased the
biscuit-cutter about the floor, and pools
of molasses and vinegar laid the dust ou
the shelves ; and he sighed so heavily
that Miss Hepsey trembled as shaken by
a winter gale, and hastened back to the
sitting-room, leaving her guest to cover
the box of apples.
But a woman's coyness was nothing
here nor there to Aaoniram Skinner
when he had once made up his mind, and
he had again seated himself near Miss
Hepsey with the air of a general about to
storm a fortre.ss ; while the fortress hav-ing
no intention of being besieged, fired
a volley of small shot by way of diverting
the enemy's attention.
'Don't you think Farsou Crane seems
feeble V began the besieged, taking her
knitting work. 'I'm afraid, a^s a church,
we don't look after his welfare as wo
ought to.'
'Perhaps not,' assented Mr. Skinner,
too intent just then on his own welfire to
take a lively interest in his minister's.
'His wife, too, must have a time of it,
with her live little children,' pursued
Miss Hepsy, bent ou sustaiuiyg the con-