Page 3 - 1918 VES Meteor

T n E niEn:on
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rngged hal held in one hand. As he ach·auccd into the circle of firelight his thin features came into prominence-sallow chrcks, but piercing blue eyes, honest and kindly. The Srnator was annoyed. \n1y should this stranger impose him- self on him, this eYening of all others? lie was about to dismiss him with a curt sentence when he saw that he was a shadow of his own past. Before he could speak the stranger
addressed him:
"Senator," he said, "my name's Jake \Yilkins, an' I live
over the mount:Vn 1vhar you come from. I know yon air a good man an' I 'vant you to help me," he was interrupted by a :fit of coughing. ''Yon sec, sir, it's thi!i way: I had a younger brother, Billy, an' Billy he wuz sort of reckless-like, an' one night he up an' shot a feller. They put him in the 'pen' for life, bnt )Iaw she never ga,·e up hopin' Billy would turn out to be of some use. T'other day [ got a letter from
the 'pen,' from Billy, an' he says as how he figgers it's every man's duty to help lick them Germans an' he tried to go, but he was in jail an' they wouldn't let him. I wanted to go, too, sir, but I's got what the doctor up in Richmond called consumption, an' the.v turned me down. l\ow, Senator, here's "·hat I hope you'll obleege me by doin': You jest get them to let my brother f1·ee so's he kin fight an' sort of keep up the family nnme an' let me go to the 'pen' in his place.
I ain't o·ot lono- to lh·e an' I ain't much usc, but I'd like :::> 0
mightily to do the country some good; an' 1Iaw she's so
pleased that Billy reely wants to go an' mnke a man of hisself
agin."
Dming this recital the Senator had experienced strange
emotions. lie spoke to the mountaineer, "Do I understand you to say that you \\·ant to go to the penitentiary and
sacrifice your own life~"
"WelL" replied the man, "that's about the size of it.
Evcrv feller who is an:r sort of a feller always does his ..
darndest for his country.''