第34章

WHEN the youth awoke it seemed to him that he had been asleep for a thousand years, and he felt sure that he opened his eyes upon an unex-pected world.Gray mists were slowly shifting before the first efforts of the sun rays.An im-pending splendor could be seen in the eastern sky.An icy dew had chilled his face, and im-mediately upon arousing he curled farther down into his blanket.He stared for a while at the leaves overhead, moving in a heraldic wind of the day.

The distance was splintering and blaring with the noise of fighting.There was in the sound an expression of a deadly persistency, as if it had not begun and was not to cease.

About him were the rows and groups of men that he had dimly seen the previous night.They were getting a last draught of sleep before the awakening.The gaunt, careworn features and dusty figures were made plain by this quaint 139light at the dawning, but it dressed the skin of the men in corpselike hues and made the tangled limbs appear pulseless and dead.The youth started up with a little cry when his eyes first swept over this motionless mass of men, thick-spread upon the ground, pallid, and in strange postures.His disordered mind interpreted the hall of the forest as a charnel place.He believed for an instant that he was in the house of the dead, and he did not dare to move lest these corpses start up, squalling and squawking.In a second, however, he achieved his proper mind.

He swore a complicated oath at himself.He saw that this somber picture was not a fact of the present, but a mere prophecy.

He heard then the noise of a fire crackling briskly in the cold air, and, turning his head, he saw his friend pottering busily about a small blaze.A few other figures moved in the fog, and he heard the hard cracking of axe blows.

Suddenly there was a hollow rumble of drums.A distant bugle sang faintly.Similar sounds, varying in strength, came from near and far over the forest.The bugles called to each other like brazen gamecocks.The near thunder of the regimental drums rolled.

The body of men in the woods rustled.There was a general uplifting of heads.A murmuring of voices broke upon the air.In it there was much bass of grumbling oaths.Strange gods were addressed in condemnation of the early hours necessary to correct war.An officer's peremptory tenor rang out and quickened the stiffened movement of the men.The tangled limbs unraveled.The corpse-hued faces were hidden behind fists that twisted slowly in the eye sockets.

The youth sat up and gave vent to an enormous yawn."Thunder!" he remarked petulantly.

He rubbed his eyes, and then putting up his hand felt carefully of the bandage over his wound.

His friend, perceiving him to be awake, came from the fire."Well, Henry, ol' man, how do yeh feel this mornin'?" he demanded.

The youth yawned again.Then he puckered his mouth to a little pucker.His head, in truth, felt precisely like a melon, and there was an un-pleasant sensation at his stomach.

"Oh, Lord, I feel pretty bad," he said.

"Thunder!" exclaimed the other."I hoped ye'd feel all right this mornin'.Let's see th'

bandage--I guess it's slipped." He began to tinker at the wound in rather a clumsy way until the youth exploded.

"Gosh-dern it!" he said in sharp irritation;"you're the hangdest man I ever saw! You wear muffs on your hands.Why in good thunderation can't you be more easy? I'd rather you'd stand off an' throw guns at it.Now, go slow, an' don't act as if you was nailing down carpet."He glared with insolent command at his friend, but the latter answered soothingly.

"Well, well, come now, an' git some grub," he said."Then, maybe, yeh'll feel better."At the fireside the loud young soldier watched over his comrade's wants with tender-ness and care.He was very busy marshaling the little black vagabonds of tin cups and pour-ing into them the streaming, iron colored mixture from a small and sooty tin pail.He had some fresh meat, which he roasted hurriedly upon a stick.He sat down then and contemplated the youth's appetite with glee.

The youth took note of a remarkable change in his comrade since those days of camp life upon the river bank.He seemed no more to be con-tinually regarding the proportions of his personal prowess.He was not furious at small words that pricked his conceits.He was no more a loud young soldier.There was about him now a fine reliance.He showed a quiet belief in his purposes and his abilities.And this in-ward confidence evidently enabled him to be indifferent to little words of other men aimed at him.