Chinook High School - Breeze Yearbook (Chinook, MT)

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G THE CHINOOK BREEZE federate’s shoulder with all his might. However, in recovering his balance, his own arm was exposed for a single instant, and his antagonist, giving a last, desperate thrust, ran his sword through Abner’s upper arm and fell from his horse, dead. Abner dismounted, and heedless of his own wound, has tened to his brother’s side. He found that one bullet had entered his leg and another his shoulder. “Bad one,” he commented. He bathed the wounds with water from a nearby brook and then bandaged them with strips torn from his shirt. He forced a little brandy between the lips of the wounded man, and after several minutes, had the satisfaction of seeing him open his eyes. “Better go on and leave me here,” John urged. “You can’t carry me anyway, and someone is bound to find me.” Abner turned a deaf ear to this and determined to stay by his brother even if he watf captured by the Confederates. The skirmish between the pickets had brot on a general engagement between the Confederates and the Union men. The latter were greatly out-numbered and were forced to fall back, closely pursued by the enemy. The return of the two scouts to their own lines was thus made impossible. Abner, realizing this, began to look around for some kind of shelter. He scanned the surrounding hillside carefully through his glass and at last his eyes rested upon a little spiral of smoke, slowly ascending toward the sky. He looked more closely and made out a little log cabin, several miles away. As soon as darkness came and there was no danger of detection, Abner took his wounded brother on his back and began his journey toward the cabin. He had gone about half the distance and was going down the side of a steep gully, when a stone gave way under his feet and he fell. As he fell, he released his hold on his brother, saving

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THE CHINOOK BREEZE 5 A War (Christmas Lieutenant Abner Reed suddenly reined in his horse and taking out his glass, gazed intently through it, toward a distant grove. He was the leader of a scouting party of six Union men, who had been detailed to observe the movements of the Confederates, encamped in a nearby grove, and to report them to their commander. “See anything?” inquired his younger brother, John. “I can ses a few tents” answered Abner, “but I can’t see any men.” He urged his horse forward and ordered his men to scatter out in opposite directions. He had proceeded alone for several hundred yards, along a path fringed with evergreens, when he heard a shot, and then several more in rapid succession. “They have brushed the Confed pickets”, he muttered, and cautiously examined his surroundings before proceeding. Suddenly two more shots rang out and a crash of branches and trampling of feet warned Abner that someone was coming. He started for a small clump of balsam trees, but before he had gone far, he saw coming toward him one of his men, covered with blood and hardly able to maintain his seat on his horse. As he rode by Abner, he suddenly loosed his hold on the saddle and fell unconscious to the ground. “John!” cried Abner, and dismounting hurried to his brother’s side. At that instant, however, he heard the tramp of feet again, and looking up, saw a tall officer in a drab uniform coming toward him at full speed. “You are my prisoner,” said the Confederate, drawing rein. “Not yet!” replied Abner, quickly mounting his horse and drawing his sabre. The Confederate wheeled and shouting “On guard!”, made for the Union man. Both men were excellent swordsmen and the fight was sharp and fierce. Finally Abner saw his chance and, rising in his stirrups, brot his sabre down on the Con-

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THE CHINOOK BREEZE 7 the latter from a hard fall. Abner picked himself up at the bottom of the ravine, but when he attempted to walk, found that one of his ankles was sprained. He managed to crawl to the top of the ravine and told his brother what had happened. It looked as though they would have to stay there until some one came. They began to shout for help, but received no response. After several minutes they shouted again, but there was no answer. Finally, completely exhausted, John fell asleep and Abner, although he tried to keep awake, found himself dozing. He tried to rouse himself, but in spite of his efforts, soon fell asleep. Early the next morning, an old man was walking through the forest, when his dog all at once began to bristle and growl. “Sic ’em, Pete,” urged the old man, thinking his dog had scented a bear or some other inhabitant of the woods. The dog slowly walked toward a small clump of trees, growing on the edge of a ravine, and upon reaching them, stopped and began to howl. The old man followed and soon came upon the unconscious forms of the two soldiers. “Hey! Bill!” he yelled. Soon another man came running toward him. “What's the row?” he inquired. “Here’s a coupla sojers as are jist about done fer,” replied the other man. “Help me carry ’em to the shack.” The scene now changes to the Reed house in Pennsylvania. It was on an early December evening and the family were gathered around the fire. The father was just able to sit up in a chair, having broken his leg in falling from a hay stack several weeks previous. “I don’t know what we can do, Minnie,” the old man said. “Billy is able to do the chores and to earn most of our necessities, but he can’t earn enough to stand old Billings off. He’s bound and determined to get this place.” Some time before Mr. Reed, pressed by a lack of money, had borrowed a sum of money, giving his