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Show 14 THE BEE. said T, 'Mint T hid tin old writing desk for safe keeping under t ho spare-roolied and J eaut go there for it. hfore Willy could make other ans- Aver t hau a groan f desp air, tho sharp croupy eolith fell on my oars again, so thoroughly intimating a dangerous condition of things that the sad memory came hack to me of my own sweet baby girl who died four years ago of croup. It almost seemed like Sophie's own cough that I heard, and all the circumstances forgetting that had been agitating me, I went directly into the north bedroom The only light was from tho full round moon that shone in at the windows, but that was enough to show mo distinctly a little ldaek-hairebaby on the bed, with a handsome young Hike more civilized men, lie Avas helplessly frightened by a babys cry, so ho hastily yielded his olive-linedaughter to my outstretched arms, and addressed himself to pacifying his comrade, avIio, having no cured baby to ho grateful for, nor handsome Avifo to bully him, xvas looking fierce and uncompromising again. But Zerafin knew some arguments for taming Max too, and soon they all left my house, bidding me fareAvell, long life and much happiness as airily and graciously as if they had never contemplated burying their pretty silver-hilteknives in my heart. I kissed the broAvn hit of a baby as I put it in Zerafins arms, and bade her keep the afghan, which I gratefully sacrificed, close about it, and threw my handkerchief lightly oyer its face to protect it from the chill air of dawn. The party walked gayly out of the front door, Avaving their hands to me as they went doAvn the road, and I Avaving mine in return, with my heart throbbing madly in an agony of fear lest the pacific politeness should be aeiugly. money, get it for us, ho said, threateningly raising his knife, at the same time motioning with his thumb to his companion, who also pulled out a wicked-lookinknife My money is in my purse, in the jtop drawer of tho bureau, in the room over this, on tho rigid hand side, I jsaid, in a cool, collected voice that did ;not seem one bit like my own. Bring it, Max, said the first man, advancing still nearer to stand guard 'over me while his companion went oil Von have d ugly-lookin- g g I ! jto get the pocketbook. d He fon id it,- and brought it un- opened to his mate, who explored its recesses and was rewarded by discov cents in change and ering seventy-fivbundle of bills, which, nil imposing V "ver it Very heiM foreign fhe looked in faeo and dress, being of tho smallest denomination, and when she turned half frightened, only made a total of seven dollars. My visit or stalled the money into half defiant, to answer my questions, the pocket of his velveteen vest, and, her speech was very broken. Has your bubv even been like this advancing nearer, told me, with an before? said I, as naturally as if I oath and a flourish of his formidable knife, that he knew I had five hundred kepi a sanitarium for invalid babies. She vas all well till it was yester- dollars in the house,- and have it he or he finished by an ex- day night, den de raina comes on her would, ipressive pantomime, which 1 had no and she makes a cough all night. Was she out all the night before? 'difficulty in interpreting to mean that She sleeps in the wagons sama as I should have the pleasure of wearing that shining blade in my heart. eferv nighta. Giving up the money that honestly But she is not in the wagon to belonged to Mr. Perkins meant all night, said I, with irony. 'kinds of misery for me, and perhaps No, lady, de kind young gentleman 'a suspicion of disgrace for John but fhe brin ga us to this nicea bed. 'must I die to save it? Perhaps the The baby coughed then and tossed its little arms with a cry of distress, bloodthirsty villians would murder me Oh! it all came from my evil jand all my motherly instincts were 'anyway. temper, sending John off before he was aroused Come with me to the kitchen, X ready to go. That telegram had set (exclaimed, lifting the baby and wrap- these men on the track of the money, and my life and perhaps the childrens ping it in a pretty afglian that always would be sacrificed. was laid upon the foot of my spare All this and more passed bed. momind in one terror-stricke- n We must have liot water, I ex- my ment, while the man, with his dark, plained; come, Will, and make uji a handsome face red with anger, held lire for us. his knife tragically uplifted as if wait- As we went through my room, I lit to stab. a candle and gave the frightened ing With a scream and and a bound the young mother her baby to carry while 1 hunted in my closet for the bottle of babys mother rushed in from the sit ting room and caught the man s arm ipecac. in both her the knife For two hours we wrorked over the out of his hands, wresting He unresisting hand. (Croupy little brown baby that I really turned upon her angrily. I did not thought at one time must die. I say we understand what he said, but fancied worked, hut really I did it all myself; he was in tongue the poor mother, who seemed little for not cursing onherhandhistonative him in, let being more than a child, was almost helpless without giving him the trouble of pryfwith grief and fear, and when, at last, ing open the cellar door. the embrocations, the footShe let him talk for a while, with baths and the medicines had done some little help from his equally-angrtheir work, and the little pallid creacompanion, and then I think she told ture lay on my lap quietly asleep, with him of the sick baby. He the the heavy drops of moisture on its was her story husband, I found, so it 'was forehead showing what it had endured, his too, aud in a savage way he her joy was almost alarming, it was so mustchild, have been very fond of his pretty intense. She knelt at my feet, she wife and baby. kissed my hands and blessed me, and gypsy. Terrified as I was, I could not helj) jthen sobbed and chattered so loudly ithat I told Willy to take her into the admiring the pretty picture she made, with her graceful gestures that almost sitting room, for I could not risk hav- told the story without Avords. As she ing the baby waked. In a little wdiile Willy was back to finished, she dropped on her knees by Le; and, Avith one little brown hand (tell me she had fallen asleep oil the resting lightly on her babys breast, lounge. it lay sleeping on my lap, and the It was very lonely, and all the as other raised high above her head, she sounds that belong to the night seemed uttered a sort of chant or recitative loud and startling. There were creak-ing- s which appeared to deeply impress the of wood, and rattling of branches :wo men Avho listened, for at some of against the house all grewsomo ler Avords they cowered and shudenough; but I managed to account for dered, and seemed to be trying to exeach, till a stea !y scraping sound that culpate themselves from some charge I could not quite locate began to give she was making. I think she AA'as inme serious uneasiness, and I grew viting some uucommonly-uncomfort-abl- e some one to was quite sure curses to fall upon their xvicked trying get in. I dared not call Zerafin, the babys leads unless they retired in good ormother, for in all probability she was der, without molesting me or mine. in collusion with the invader, so I sat She ended by snatching up the baby, still with my heart beating wildly, regardless of its quiet sleep, and placwaiting in appiarent tranquillity for ing it solemnly in the arms of its lathwhatever was to happen. I had not er, avt1io evidently became completely long to wait, for soon the cellar door subjugated by the process, for a tenopened and two men stepped noise- der smile chased the sullen ugliness lessly into the room. The foremost, rom his dark, handsome face, as he seeing me sitting there, drew a knife ooked at his morsel of a baby, noAV befrom his belt, and came forward men- - ginning to stretch itself and whimper. : - d avo-ma- e u 1 - I hot-wat- er y . I short-live- d. As the party disappeared behind the big maple trees, I rushed into the house and plunged for the first time in my life into a fit of genuine hysterics. In the midst of my wild paroxysm, "Willy Avalked in with .Mr. Walsh and his hired man. The brave boy had climbed out of the hack window with the writing desk Avhile I was laboring with the baby; and, not being able to open it, he had hidden it in a corner of the henhouse, and had then run through the fields to our neighbor and brought him to my help. I could not immediately control myself enough to ttell my story, and it was hard to make them believe I was not hurt. Mr. Walsh and the man stayed with fine until daylight, and made up a parity of . the neighbors to look for the gypsy camp, which was believed to he hear us in the woods; hut it had moved on, and my gypsy visitors were never . (found. Thinking of Zerafin and her sick baby, I felt rather pleased than sorry that they had escaped, for, beyond a (few .weeks of excessive nervousness, jthe adA'enture did not hurt me, and when I feel disposed to let my OAvn hasty temper take the reins in its teeth, I remember how my hot words (drove John aAay, and exposed me to fright and danger which I should. not like to live through again. The ! . HouseAvife. Found a Gunboat on His Farm, THE ARMY An Old Soldier IteealU t.i SHOE. 111 Willi Footwear. v JKiperlence The first pair of shoes I had in the army, said an old soldier in the New York Sun, were two sizes too big for me. I wore sixes; my first array shoes were eights. I didnt take them from choice I got the nearest I could to my size. We Avere being fitted out from head to foot for the first time; that avas Avhen Ave Avere mustered in; and the required numbers of pairs of shoes, of assorted sizes, had been delivered to each company. When I got at them they had been culled over so much that there Avas nothing left smaller than eights. I didnt think it Avould be possible for me to wear a shoe two sizes too big for me, hut I tried a pair on. They Avere brogans, having flaps, Avith two eyelets on each side, lacing over the instep Avith leather shoe strings. They tied snugly, so that the heel and often part of the shoe, and the sole, did not shuck on the foot. The forward part of my foot felt as though it Avere outdoors; but I thought they might do; I had got to have a pair of shoes, and I took them. I wore those shoes for months, and Avith the greatest comfort. They Avere enormous, or they looked so to me. As soon as I began to wear them the thick leather of the uppers humped up into big, rounded edges, with valleys betAveen, across the top, giving to the top of the shoe a sort of fluted or corThese corrugations rugated effect. remained alAvays just the same as long as I wore the shoes. They Avere not Avhat you would call a handsome shoe, but, as I said, they did not shuck around on my feet, and they were mighty comfortable. But it doesnt follow that after that I always got shoes two sizes too big forme; as a matter of fact, I didnt; did get shoes plenty large but I for me; plenty; and found comfort in Avearing them. Sometimes we used to draw boots; cavalry boots. And it w'as kind o fun to get boots. I remember very well the first pair of boots I drew. I think I felt (perhaps in a little maturer. sort of way, though not much so, either) about as much pleased over that pair of boots as I did with my first red-top- s Avhen I Avas a boy. To get on a of made a sort of boots pair cavalry man feel a little bit less like a plodding infantryman, and a little more like a caAralryman; it gare him a sort of a touch. But this was Avalked Joavu the company., as he only street after drawing the boots from the quartermaster; the next day, on picket, the hoots Avere about the same to him as shoes would have been. Still there were men Avho preferred boots and ahvays drew boots Avhen they could get them. But for myself I like A mounted man, of shoes better. w'ants boots; hut according to course, my notion the most comfortable thing for an infantry soldier to wear is a good, roomy shoe that can be made snug enough someAvheresothatitAvonfc ' shuck around on the foot. alw-ay- horse-and-sab- t i1 ' i 11 s re There Avas much excitement all over Renville County, Minnesota, a few days ago, over.the discovery of an old Spanish gunboat on the farm of Charles BroAvn. Joseph Bagne struck the vessel Avhile digging a xvell, and teams Its have, completely uncovered it. armament comprised five cannon and two mortars. .Cannon balls and bombshells Avere found in largo numbers. The. boat is a very old one, and there is much speculation as to hoAv long it has been in the ground. The impression is that the boat Avas run up into this Autograph Audacity. regioq about 1000, Avhen a much larger Avater of Avas State the than proportion Many readers may recall experiences The gunboat Avas found direct- in getting the autograph of Henry W. now. ly on Birch Coolie Creek, Avhick at that LongfelloAV. The author of Chats time Avas, no doubt, a navigable river. Avith Celebrities has something to say " St. Paul (Minn.) Globe. about this I remember one very pleasant party A lilshop Startles Folks. at the poets dinner table, writes Mr. Bishop Talbot, of Rochester, Eng- Guild, at Avhich Mr. Monti, Profesland, has startled the borough of sor E. N. Horsford and myself were Southwark by Avalkiug through the Avhen related streets early one Aveek day morning in present, of Mr. Longfellow anecdotes number , rea amusing full vestments, Avith mitre and cope. specting applications that were made He had to open a church, and preferred to him for autographs. He was very to Avalk to it from the house Avhere he and used to kind to autograph-seeker- s bad dressed rather than take a cab. keeD in a little box m?gn his writing , very-thing- . Tn ' : She uted ' 4 V Xi . |