Show I 1 A tre tender bender 1 A TRUE i VOR INCE the ahe confederate Conte derato troops had occupied the town of gettysburg all the residents stayed within doors the children now and then slipping to vIn windows dows in their curiosity to seethe rebels as those monsters monster of distorted imagination P went clattering through on their horses or stopped to rest in the shade ot the trees which lined the streets salome aayers was working with her mother in the sitting irolli room I 1 preparing the midday meal mrs myers was not one to wall and weep at the approach of armed men she proceeded calmly about her routine housework without walling for a time salome wound the strips of linen and cotton as rapidly as did her mother and gave no more thought to the outside noises than did the older woman but at length tho the girl heard a louder noise than usual it was the of a of infantrymen coming up uli the street she was only human and ran to tho the front window and threw it up A large squad of confederates were bringing some F federal prisoners into town there were signs of increasing excitement among the confederates orderlies went clattering up and down the street and men were cleaning rifles in anticipation of immediate conflict nothing happened that night salome slept little all night long the military shouts were ringing sharp orders and sudden challenges echoed through the streets ts in the morning she darted to the window there was not a sign of the confederates they had gone A little after breakfast another rumble and clatter was heard all dashed toi the windows peered out then tore into the street yelling like mad it was the union mer men galloping in they poured d past in seemingly inexhaustible numbers the villagers tree free to mingle once more ran abo about ut excitedly salome soon found her place ce among the girls of her own age who were as thrilled and awed as she suddenly the cry ran around bufords But cavalry Is I 1 coji coming ling ridden all the way from virginia without a stop and a cheer of welcome followed the news over the town when they had passed an orderly dashed through the town calling upon all the villagers to go to their cellars the battle was about to begin As they were filing into their houses the first guns guna roared out and gradually grew in number and volume until the windows chattered steadily in their casements all day they crouched in the cellar now and then a bullet would strike them the buildings and sometimes the glass from a breaking window would tinkle so that they could hear it from the recesses of their retreats troops went rushing by sometimes silently sometimes with loud buzzes late in the afternoon doctor fulton came to the head of the stairs and called down he asked if there were any women below who could help care for the wounded mrs airs aayers replied that of course there were and started up the stairs salome would have followed buther but her father halted his wife and tried to persuade berof her of the danger but the good woman was determined and consequently they all went up the catholic church close by had been turned into a hospital the girl darted darte dout out of the house and across the lawn at the church door we she halted baited she did not dare look inside horrible groans shrieks and cries were echoing in the interior A couple of men brus brushed ladd past her with one of the stretchers between them she glanced down A face covered with blood wai was all sheo she saw aw A weakness gripped her heart and she staggered to one side someone inside was cursing with persistent blasphemy somehow the vigor and naturalness of the act brought back her self possession and she marched inside the floor was covered with blood men alen with legs or arms gone were rolling and tumbling over still silent figures others were screaming and clutching at their mangled bodies in helpless and maudlin suffering A sickening odor sent the girl girls a head bead reeling again at her feet a man lay watching her with dull bleared eyes she dropped on one knee and tried to speak to him she had no voice her hand band trembled and she started violently as she touched him finally finalle she stammered what can I 1 do tor for you Not nothing he murmured slowly im going to die and he be smiled feebly it was too much she fled to the church steps quivering and sobbing in long gasps it was near sundown and the end of a horrible day the babel grew grev worse and worse doctors as bloody as any of men here and there nurses ran in and out bearing bandages and buckets of water slowly salome rose to her feet she would wouldga go back in she could bear it now she thought and acting on the impulse inspired by she know knew not what she scurried back into the shambles she avoided glancing at the room but knelt at the head ol of the manto man to whom she had bad first spoken he was brighter and a stilled when sho she raised Us his head bead for a draft of water silo she opened his bis clothing and found a wound in hla his breast she bathed it gently A doctor passing told her that the man had bad been shot through the lung and that his spine wap bat tred there was na no hope she looked iown down at the doomed man with great yes eyes he was tug ging athis at his belt and pulled out ap albo apfei cei cIet bible ir arted OF THE BATTLE DAY k 1 I 4 5 slowly ho he told od her of the verse his father had read to both him and hla his brother when they had left tor for the front she turned to the place and road it all the while bathing hla his flushed forehead ho he seemed relieved and talked much of hla his father and brother then ho he looked up at her and spoke in a strange strained voice as though something almost too sacred tor for nien mention tion were being talked of girl you know I 1 cant why im married just two dayland days day sand and shell never see me oh he groaned and shut hla his eyes she found from the doctor that no wounded man could be removed from the hospital however she urged so affectingly tor for the privilege of bearing the young soldier into her fathers home that he consented and sent two attendants to carry him over on the spare bed he was placed and his bis bloody clothing removed between the cool clean sheets he be breathed easier and seemed by contrast to be in veritable comfort once as salome sat by the bedside of her first patient she learned his hie name was alexander stewart stewart while she leaned across fanning steadily told in long dragging breaths breathe of his brother henry and he had been inseparable all their lives and had gone oft off together henry was the finest man god had ever made and he be had bad hoped they might be together when they cameto came to separate for the last time auf but his head bead sank and salome said nothing there was nothing tor for her to say eay she ran out got a pencil and paper and wrote to henry in washington then to the timid bride back at home and to the father and mother when she had finished stewart was asleep salome returned to the hospital and labored on tho the second day of gettysburg was beginning to send in its terrible toll and there was more and more work vork to be done her own home hom ewas was crowded and her mother still calm and wonderfully skillful cooked and prepared necessities and delicacies with magic celerity she scarcely know knew when the three days fight was waa over so intent was waa she upon caring tor for her patients and so steadily did they come in As many as they could find room for were brought into the myers home fourteen were provided tor for for weeks week s the house was full and neither woman slept in a bed on the sixth of july young stewart died salome was with him to the last tor for he had been her first patient and she had held his head bead tight against her when he had talked of his young bride but she had no time to weep A man in the next room was calling for water and she ehe had merely time to close the dead mans eyes and told fold his hands across hla his chest but that night she wrote long letters to the young widow and to the brother in washington in a few feir days the father came to claim the body and ho he thanked the girt girl as well as aa bla ba grief would per 7 mit mil henry he said had been wounded in washington but was recovering letters from the grief stricken girl and boy camo came within the fol lowing week to salome and were so warm and affectionate that she responded immediately but first to washington return letters from the brother came steadily and were as steadily answered even evan when camp letterman opened and a hospital of sufficient size to care for all of tho the human debris which gettysburg left had bad taken all the invalids from tile the private homes homed salome did not give up the work she followed her soldiers over to their now new quarters and nursed them there with the advent of winter the nursing was completed and salome at last freed from the exacting duties of her new occupation her correspondence spon dence was still very large many of the men whom she had cared tor for in the home and who had heard of her wrote often henry stewart from the front maintained a continuous chain of letters those these salome for some reason answered first and bent over the longest he was out on furlough in july it all went well he wrote in the early spring and his sister ln in law was coming with him to see the woman who had made their loved one happy in his last moments it if they might salome answered immediately that they might and so it happened they came early in the morning almost a year to the he day from the gettysburg conflict they came straight to the house tor for salome had written exact anat directions henry was much like hla his brother and for a moment salome was touched she spoke not the hair and forehead of at the man before her was the kameas same as thakor that of the dead man the lips had the same curve as those which had told the pathetic love story atory that night close to her cheek all three were too moved to speak and for a time tim there ethere was a tearful silence between them then the little widow went to the greathearted great hearted embrace of the nurse and henry came near to following her but hold held the firm warm hand instead salome took them over the battlefield the church and scenes sacred to alexanders memory and swayed them so completely by her brave womanly sympathy and strength that they clung to her in their grief like children to their mothers skirts the widow didiot did not let her sorrow so completely dominate her but that she saw things that led her to find various excuses tor for staying away when a walk or expedition was waa mentioned she managed to leave the two henry and salome more and more alone when they plighted their troth it to Is not for the world to know but the beautiful romance came to fruition in marriage and Rev Henry stewart and mrs stewart lived happily in gettys burg tor for many years |