Doctor Jones' Picnic

by S. E. Chapman

  CHAPTER XVII.

  Farewell to Beauty and the Beast.

  The royal patient slept soundly until eight o'clock the followingmorning, or six consecutive hours. This was so entirely new anddifferent from anything she had experienced for a very long time, thatnothing could exceed her own and the astonishment of everyone who wasacquainted with the facts. Long and painful had been her nights,sleepless and full of misery, unless under the influence of a narcotic.And, as we said before, she had reached a point where her system wouldendure no more of crude drugging. She always awoke unrefreshed andmiserable from these unnatural, forced sleeps. So when she awoke thismorning, refreshed and rested, her gratitude was boundless.

  Dr. Jones received her grateful expressions with the simple, modestdignity that is characteristic of the good and intelligent the worldover. He made now a critical examination of the heart, and found itincurably affected. And there were complications of the digestiveorgans, etc., that we need not stop to mention. He acquainted the Princewith the conditions he had found, and showed him why she could not becured. But he assured his royal patron, that she might be keptcomfortable, and her life indefinitely prolonged by treating her casesymptomatically as occasion should require.

  He remained at the castle several days. In two weeks the royal lady whohad been devoted to immediate death by that school of medicine whicharrogates unto itself the terms, "Liberal," "Regular," and "Scientific,"walked in her garden!

  The effect upon the Count was past our powers of description. "DoctorJones," he cried, "I am converted not only to your system, but to God! Irealized, as I witnessed the astounding power of the infinitesimal dosein this remarkable case, the wisdom and goodness of our HeavenlyFather. And I now say to you, that I am devoted to your cause, and Ishall never rest until your school of medicine shall have free coursethroughout all Russia. And you can rest assured that the Prince'sinfluence, conjoined with my own, will have sufficient weight at courtto break down all barriers and opposition to the propagandism of yourblessed system of medicine. This shall be my life work, and I only wishthat you were going to stay with me. But I will not urge that point, asI know that you are pledged to prosecute your effort to reach the NorthPole. You will succeed in that enterprise, and the world will ring withyour praise. But far grander than all this is your simple, sublime faithin God, and in the beautiful law by which you are guided in theselection of the remedy in the treatment of the sick. I am a far betterman, physically, morally, and spiritually for having met you."

  "If my visit to Russia shall effect the recognition of my school by yourGovernment, I shall forever thank God for sending me here. This isprobably the entering wedge that shall open Europe to us, and induce theinquiry and investigation that we crave. Let our system stand or fallupon its merits."

  And so the friends conversed and laid their plans for the introductionof the new medical system into Europe. The Prince also joined them intheir plans, and his enthusiasm quite equaled that of the Count. Amongother items, the two noble converts made arrangements to purchase acomplete stock of books and drugs. Dr. Jones daily taught them the artof "taking a case," as he called it; or the examination of a patient andwriting down the symptoms.

  The three months had expired and Feodora's condition was far above thedanger mark. She was beautiful, rosy, and blushing, romping about withMattie, like a great school-girl. So now the morning of their departurewas set. The news was heralded far and wide that the great air-shipwould sail upon a certain day if the wind were favorable.

  The morning had arrived, the wind was blowing within a point or two ofnorth, and every preparation had been made for hoisting anchors. A vastconcourse of people had assembled to witness their departure. The manyfriends of the voyagers were present in force, and they loaded themwith presents, many of them very costly. Dr. Jones' practice had beenlucrative beyond anything he had ever dreamed of. He found himselfsuddenly made a wealthy man. The gratitude of the people was boundless;and the simple-hearted man scarcely knew what to do with all the moneythat poured in upon him. So he caused a considerable portion of it to bedistributed among the poor peasantry in the vicinity of the castle. Hefelt a great sense of sorrow as he looked upon the many faces that hehad learned to love. But all was ready and he must away.

  "I have spent some of the happiest hours of my life with yourself anddaughter, my dear Count, and truly hope to visit you again and enjoyyour hospitality. Good-bye, and God bless you all."

  He had shaken hands with all those immediately about him, among whomwere the Prince and Princess, and stepped with Mrs. Jones into the cage.It shot up to the engine-room, the anchors and cables were cast off, andthe splendid globe, so long bound in chains to the earth, arosemajestically into the blue vault above. Loud and mighty were the cheersthat followed them. Silver Cloud, as if impatient at the long delay inRussia, rapidly ascended three thousand feet, and flew northward attremendous speed.

  "Could deliverance have come to your house and mine more appropriatelythan from the skies, and in yonder silver chariot?" asked the Count ofhis two royal friends, while they stood watching the rapidlydisappearing Silver Cloud.

  "The deliverance has not come to us alone, but to the suffering millionsof Russia, Count Icanovich. And all through the faithfulness andearnestness of that modest, yet wonderful little man, Doctor Jones. Butas he said over and over again, 'Let us give God all the glory,'"replied the Prince.

  The company, meanwhile, though much regretting the parting with theirnew found friends, yet were exhilarated with the idea that they wereagain rapidly rushing toward the object of their expedition. Theirsupplies of food, fuel, clothing, etc., had been fully replenished sofar as was necessary, and nothing should now prevent their reaching thePole at an exceedingly early date. This they were the more anxious todo, as the season was getting well advanced, and they desired to be outof the Arctic region before winter should set in. This was not a matterof so much concern to them, however, as it had been to all previousexplorers of these frigid regions. The navigators of Silver Cloud had nofrozen seas nor icebergs to contend with, and could soar above allclouds and storms. And the matter of temperature was of littleconsequence to them; for, as Will had said, the cabin was so constructedthat frost could never penetrate its beautiful aluminum walls.

  So they were jubilant and happy. Even Sing--whom, by the way, we haveshamefully neglected during the past three months--joined in the generalhilarity, and treated them to many Russian dishes that he had picked upin the kitchen of the castle, where he had spent his time during theirstay there.

  The wind continued all day from the south, so that by evening theysighted the city of Archangel away to their left. All night they sped atexpress train speed toward their destination. When they looked out inthe morning from the balcony, the northern coast of Russia wasindistinctly seen in the southern horizon, and they were again floatingover the floes and bergs of Arctic seas.

  "We have crossed the 70th degree of latitude," said the Professor atbreakfast. "We are heading directly for Franz Joseph Land. We shouldsight that island by noon at our present rate of speed."

  All expressed themselves as delighted at the marvelous performance ofSilver Cloud, and Denison declared that he should never be contented tosettle down to slow going terrestrial life again.

  "I move that we set out for the South Pole as soon as we get back toWashington," said he.

  "I second the motion!" cried Mattie.

  "I don't know whether women have the elective franchise in this countryor not," laughingly replied Dr. Jones. "At all events, let's get back toWashington before we plan any more expeditions. I do not doubt that theSouth Pole will be our next objective point."

  "Just imagine the American flag flying at the two poles of the earth!"cried Professor Gray. "What could be more appropriate and grander! Ibelieve Denison's motion to be strictly in order. As to Mattie'ssecond, I am for female suffrage, here and everywhere upon earth.Without it woman is but a slave, and can be but what her lord andmaster, man, permit
s her to be."

  "Hear! hear!" cried the ladies, clapping their hands.

  "What an old Bluebeard of a husband you have, haven't you?" said theDoctor to Mrs. Jones.

  "Oh! you are fishing for compliments," she returned archly, "But I tellyou, sir, that I have my eye upon you. Did you all notice how thePrincess, Feodora, and a lot more of those Russian ladies cried over himwhen we were parting from them?" and she shook her finger at him fromthe lower end of the table, and tried so hard to look jealous and mad,and made so dismal a failure of it, that they all laughed heartily.

  And so they merrily chatted through the meal. The men then resorted tothe smoking-room, and when all had lighted their cigars or pipes, Fredasked:

  "Which of the battles of the war of the great Rebellion do you considerto have been the hardest fought, Doctor Jones?"

  "Chickamauga is conceded by the majority of our historians to have beenthe most savagely contested of the great battles of the war. Somethingnear forty per cent of the men engaged were killed, wounded, or takenprisoner."

  "Were you in that battle, Doctor?"

  "I was."

  "I would be glad if you would tell us about it; that is, I mean, yourown personal experiences."

  "Well," returned Dr. Jones, taking a look out of the window by which hesat, "we are spinning along at a rattling gait toward Franz Joseph Land,and I don't know that we can do any better than tell war stories to passaway time.

  "I believe I told you that I was fifteen years old when I enlisted. Thebattle of Chickamauga occurred September 19, and 20, 1863, one yearafter my enlistment, so that I was a lad of sixteen at the time of thebattle. You cannot presume that a boy would have seen much that would beof historical value, where all was horrible roar of musketry, boomingof cannon, confusion, and blood-curdling yells of charging battalions.

  "The morning of September 19, 1863, dawned upon us beautiful and bright.I shall never forget that lovely morning. Throughout the rank and fileof our army there was a feeling that we were upon the eve of a greatbattle; but we did not dream that the armies of Bragg and Longstreet hadcombined, and we were opposing from fifty-five thousand to seventy-fivethousand men. But our confidence in our commander, General Rosecranz,was so great that we would have fought them just the same if we hadknown of the great odds against us.

  "Heavy skirmishing began quite early in the morning along the picketlines. This gradually swelled into the incessant roar of pitched battle.At about nine o'clock we were ordered to the front at a double-quick. Wecrossed a field, then into a wood where we met the fire of the enemy.Being a musician I was counted a noncombatant, and my duties duringbattle consisted in helping the wounded back to hastily extemporizedhospitals.

  "So on we charged into the woods, already densely filled with smoke.Then the bullets flew swiftly about us, and men began falling along theline. I set to work helping the wounded to the rear. I had just been tothe hospital with a poor fellow from my company, and hastened back towhere I had last seen the regiment. They had made a flank movement tothe left, but I, supposing that they had advanced and were driving theenemy like chaff before them, traveled straight on through the woods,and out into an open field. What a sight was there! Dead and woundedConfederates lay thickly strewn in every direction. I was really in whathad just been the Confederate lines, and was in imminent peril of beingshot or captured.

  "Several of the wounded spoke to me, 'O Yank! for God's sake, give me adrink of water,' I felt alarmed at my position, but I could not resistthe appeals of these poor fellows. So I gave water to many from thecanteens that I found scattered about the field. I spread blankets forothers who asked me; dragged some of them into the shade, for the sunwas very hot. And so I spent a considerable time among them, doing suchlittle offices as I could. For these services they were very grateful,some of them calling down the blessings of heaven upon my head. I havealways been glad that I incurred this risk of life and liberty for thesedying men. But at last I felt that I dared not stop longer, and startedto retrace my steps to the woods, when I heard a terrible wailing andmoaning a few yards to my right. I rushed to the spot and saw a poorConfederate boy, about my own age, at the foot of a great poplar tree,in the midst of a brush heap, trying to spread his blanket. I did not atfirst see what the cause of his terrible outcry was. 'What is thematter, Johnnie?' I asked. He lifted his face to me, and I shall neverforget the awful sight! A bullet had shot away the anterior part of eacheye and the bridge of the nose, and in this sightless condition he wastrying in the midst of the brush heap to spread his blanket and lie downto die! As he moved about upon his hands and knees the ends of the drytwigs, stiff and merciless as so many wires, would jag his bleeding andsightless eyeballs. I could not leave him in this condition, and sohelped him from the brush heap to a smooth, shady place, spread hisblanket for him, put a canteen of water by him, and then ran for theUnion lines, not a moment too soon.

  "All day the battle raged with terrible fury until long after the shadesof night had fallen. Indeed, the heaviest musketry I ever heard occurredsome time after pitch darkness had completely enveloped us. My supperthat night was a very plain one. A piece of corn bread, or hoe cake,that I had abstracted from the haversack of a dead Southerner, and acanteen of cold water constituted that simple meal. I really felt asense of gratitude toward the poor Confederate, who had undoubtedlybaked the corn bread that morning, little thinking that it was destinedto be eaten by a miserable Yankee drummer boy. But such is the fate ofwar.

  "It had been very hot during the day, but the night was bitterly cold.There was a heavy frost that night, and under a thick blanket upon thebare ground, I slept by fitful snatches. Let me tell you, friends, thatthe most terrible place upon earth is a battlefield at night. The groansof the wounded men and horses are awful beyond anything I ever heard.All night I could hear their heartrending cries, but in the pitchdarkness could do nothing to help them. How many times I thought of myfar away northern home during that awful night. Should I live throughthe morrow? for the battle would certainly be resumed with the return ofdaylight. Should I ever see mother, brothers and sisters, home andfriends again?"

  Here the Doctor sang softly and slowly part of the pathetic old warsong:

  "Comrades brave around me lying, Filled with thoughts of home and God; For well they know that on the morrow Some must sleep beneath the sod."

  The little party were deeply impressed, for the Doctor was a good storyteller, and was himself much affected at this point.

  "The much longed for, yet dreaded, daylight dawned at last. It wasSunday morning. For some reason hostilities were not immediatelyresumed. The sun rose in beauty and splendor, warming our chilled bonesand blood in a way that was exceedingly grateful to us. For a littletime all was so quiet and still that it only lacked the sweet tones ofchurch bells, calling us to the house of God, to have made us forgetthat we were enemies, and have induced us to rest from our fearful,uncanny works for this holy Sabbath at least. But no! soon the battlewas on again with greater vigor, if possible, than ever. Before noon ourflanks were completely routed; and, but for that magnificent man, thepeer of any soldier of any nation or age, General George H. Thomas, itis doubtful whether I should be here now, telling my little story. WhileRosecranz, whipped and beaten, fled to Chattanooga and telegraphed toWashington that everything was lost, and the Cumberland army a thing ofthe past, General Thomas, with a few thousand men, checked and held atbay this great Southern army, flushed with victory though it was. Howthe mighty host rolled and surged against this single army corps, butcould not break nor beat them back. While Crittenden's and McCook'scorps were completely routed and disorganized, Thomas with his 14thcorps thus stood the brunt of battle, and saved the Army of theCumberland from total annihilation. Well may we call him the Rock ofChickamauga!

  "My father was quartermaster-sergeant of the regiment and I saw him forthe first time during the battle on Sunday morning. We were trudgingalong with the rout--for it could not be called _army_ that Sundayafternoon--
toward Chattanooga. We knew that we had sustained defeat, butwe did not realize how desperate the situation was. A brigadier-generalwas passing us, when a private rushed up to him and asked, 'O General!where is the 87th Indiana?"--I think that was the regiment he mentioned.'There is no 87th Indiana. All is lost! Get to Chattanooga!' heshouted, and galloped toward the city, unattended by any of his staff.

  "'Did you hear that, John?' asked my father.

  "'I did,' I replied.

  "'Well, if you expect to ever see your mother again, you must do somegood traveling now.'

  "As we had an intense desire to see her again we started down the roadat a good pace. We distinctly heard the Confederate cavalrymen crying,'Stop, you blankety blanked Yankees!' But we felt that our business inChattanooga, demanded immediate attention, and we had no time to sparethem.

  "Passing a certain place, I saw General Thomas standing upon the brow ofSnodgrass Hill, or Horseshoe Ridge, field glass in hand, intentlywatching the movements of the troops. I distinctly remember hisfull-bearded, leonine face, and little did we know that the fate of theCumberland Army, or possibly of the Nation, rested upon that single manthat terrible Sunday afternoon. What a mighty responsibility! But therehe stood, a tower of strength, the Rock of Chickamauga indeed! With buta single line he repelled charge after charge of Longstreet'sconsolidated ranks.

  "And so we fought the most sanguinary battle of modern times, yetutterly bootless so far as immediate results were concerned. One hundredand thirty thousand men were engaged with a loss of nearly fiftythousand, or a little less than forty per cent. This battle should neverhave been fought. Rosecranz here lost his military prestige that he hadso splendidly won at Stone's River. Thomas alone achieved on this fieldimmortal glory, and was the one great hero of the occasion. TheConfederates claimed it as a victory, but they should daily thereafterhave asked a kind Providence to keep them from any more such victories.

  "The next day Thomas followed us into Chattanooga, and Bragg andLongstreet perched with their armies upon Lookout Mountain andMissionary Ridge. From these elevations they watched us with Argus eyes.Our supplies were completely cut off and we were soon reduced to thepoint of star--But here, you fellows are getting tired, and so am I. Iwill tell you about the siege of Chattanooga and battle of MissionaryRidge some other time."