154 GOING TO THE FRONT.
anything particularly laughable about it at the time, but our old drill-sergeantdid. Finally we were ready to move; our tears were wiped away, our buttonswere polished, and our muskets were as bright as emery paper could make them.
“Wad” Rider, a member of our company, had come from a neighboringState to enlist with us. He was about eighteen years of age, red-headed,freckled-faced, good-natured and rough, with a wonderful aptitude for cryingor laughing from sympathy. Another comrade, whom I will call Jack, washonored with a call from his mother, a little woman, hardly reaching up tohis shoulder, with a sweet, motherly, care-worn face. At the last moment,though she had tried hard to preserve her composure, as is the habit of NewEngland people, she threw her arms around her boy’s neck, and with anoutburst of sobbing and crying, said: “ My dear boy, my dear boy, what will
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your poor old mother do without you?You are going to fight for your country.Don’t forget your mother, Jack; God bless you, God bless you! ” We felt as ifthe mother’s tears and blessing were abenediction over us all. There was a touchof nature in her homely sorrow and solici-tude over her big boy, which drew tearsof sympathy from my eyes as I thoughtof my own sorrowing mother at home.The sympathetic Wad Rider burst intotears and sobs. His eyes refused, as heexpressed it, to “ dry up,” until, as we weremoving off, Jack’s mother, rushing towardhim with a bundle tied like a wheat-sheaf,called out in a most pathetic voice,“ Jack! Jack! you’ve forgotten to takeyour pennyroyal.” We all laughed, andso did Jack, and I think the laugh helpedhim more than the cry did. Everybodyhad said his last word, and the cars wereoff. Handkerchiefs were waved at usfrom all the houses we passed; wecheered till we were hoarse, and then set-tled back and swung our handkerchiefs.
Just here let me name over the con-tents of my knapsack, as a fair sample ofwhat all the volunteers started with. Therewere in it a pair of trousers, two pairs ofdrawers, a pair of thick boots, four pairsof stockings, four flannel shirts, a blouse,a looking-glass, a can of peaches, a bottleof cough-mixture, a button-stick, chalk,razor and strop, the “ tailor’s shop ”