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Show hoarse, deep, cheering, a roaring wrr of menace made up of little sounds. An officer spraug up to the top of the breastworks and vaved his sword, shouting out Aynething which no one heard or cared tp hear. The line In the trenches, boys and veterans, reBy A. L. Harris Author of Mine Own Familiar Friend. etc. serves and remnants of the columns of Copyright, 1 a 1 , 1 by o C o 1 1 1 Publithingd Company. defense, rose and poured volley after 1, by volley, as they could. Into the thick and concealing woods that lay before them. None the less, there appeared CHAPTER VI.- - Continued. clue, no possibility of recognizing or soon a long, dusty, faded line, trotA dreadful railway accident has Identifying any. ting, running, walking, falling, stumb- taken place on the Southeastern railTed Burritt approached and looked ling, but coming on. It swept like a way. A goods train from London to down upon one; then staggered and long serpent parallel to the works, Maidstone, which contained two wagnearly fell. writhing, smitten but surviving. It ons loaded with petroleum barrels, "Are these all? he asked, In a came on through the wood, writhing, Borne mistake in the signals, dreadful whisper. The man who was through tearing at the cruel abattis laid to en- ran Into the 4:30 up train from Do- In charge of this ghastly detachment trap It. It writhed, roared, but it ver, at the point where the lines cross. answered, briefly, There be a heap broke through. It swept over the rail The s more on em In the church yonder! engine, tender, and three tences that lay between the lines and carriages have been smashed up the abattis, and still came on! This and burnt Twenty-thCHAPTER VII. by the petroleum. , was not war, but Fate! ree are dead or either passengers There came a cloud of smoke, hiding In the Vestry. the face of the intrenchment. Then dying. The perspiration stood upon his was very little sleep for anyThere of the boys Loulsburg saw bursting brow aa he read this this grim and one at Magnolia Lodge that night. through this suffocating curtain a few ghastly paragraph over and over Mrs. Burritt was at last persuaded to rows of faces, faces, many faces, long go and lie down upon her bed, where some pale, some red, some laughing, again. How could I possibly let them see she was ministered to by her daughsome horrified, some shouting, some this? he groaned to himself. They ter and the cook. swearing a long row of faces that would go out of their minds with the and .torturing So In lamentations swept through the smoke, following a horror of it. And yet, the thought suspense, together with brief intervals line of steel a line of steel that flickstruck him, what Is to prevent them of broken rest, the night wore away. ered, waved and dipped. from reading it all, and more beside. The servants, with scared faces, crept In the morning papers? Though, of about the house and prepared the CHAPTER III. course, there is hope there must be breakfast, which nobody touched. a gleam of hope! Some must have May Burritt came down stairs about The Victory. How slow this train Is. And eight oclock, and the first thing that escaped! The bandmaster marshaled bis mushe saw was the daily paper lying in why should I want to travel fastsic at the head of the column of oc- yet, er? How do I know what awaits me Its accustomed place beside the urn. cupation which was to march Into at my Ah! she gasped, now to know journeys end? Louisburg. The game had been adWhen the train reached London the worst! comwas mirably played. The victory The account she sought was asBridge, a little before ten, he found plete. There was no need to occupy all was bustle and confusion. The signed the most prominent position, the trenches, for those who lay In news of the accident bad headed in large capitals, spread like and s them or near them would never rally and a momentarily increasAccident! Thirty-tw- o Terrible wildfire, Railway for another battle. There was no of lost! Numbers lives roasted to friends and agonized ing throng Before 'the relatives longer need for hurry. atdeath! the besieged officials, middle of the morning the lines would tacked the office and hurried She read the brief paragraph, Into start on the march of the few short hither andtelegraph backwards and which so much horror was condensed, thither, miles. and stood as though turned to stone. forwards, in search of something defDuring the delay a young officer of inite In the shape of Information. Then coming back to herself, she murengineers, Captain Edward Franklin Ted Burritt forced himself through mured: Mother must never see this, by name, asked permission of his the crowd which was gahered round it would kill her! And she left the colonel to advance along the line of some person in authority, and put room, taking the paper with her. march until he came to the earththe same questions which burst from After all, though, she ventured to works, to which he wished to give so many lips at once. hope, there have been some saved. some examination, joining his regiWas anything more known about Why may not he be among them? ment as It passed beyond the fortificathe accident? When would the line Surely Ted will send a telegram soon. tions on Its march. The colonel gave be clear, and when would a train be Poor boy! I wonder what he Is dohis consent, not altogether willingly. allowed to run to the scene of the ing? You may see more over there than A little later in the morning, when disaster? you want to see, young man, said he. Franklin went on, following as nearly as he could the line of the assault of the previous day, a track all to boldly marked by the horrid debris of the fight. As he reached the first edge of the wood, where the victorious column had made its entrance, It seemed to him that there could have been no such thing as war. The air was soft aud sweet, just cold enough to stir the leaves upon the trees and set them whispering Intimately. All about was the suggestion of calm and rest and happiness. Surely It had been & There could have been no dream! battle here. This that had been a dream was changed into a horrid nightmare as the young officer advanced into the wood. About him lay the awful evidences. Coats, caps, weapons, bit of gear, all marked and emphasized with many, many shapeless, ghastly things. Here they lay, these Integers of the line, fuddled, jumbled. They had all the contortions, all the frozen ultimate And the answers, repeated over Mrs. Burritt was just being coaxed to agonies left for survivors to see and remember, so that they should no and over again, and passed from take a little beef tea, the fateful more go to war. Again, they lay so mouth to mouth, were: double knock once more No further details of the accident through the house. peacefully calm that all the lesson was acclaim for happy, painless war. had been ascertained, and no names Whats that? cried Mrs. Burritt, Some, lay upon their backs where they of the victims had yet been published, sitting bolt upright. In a had turned, thrusting up knee the as the telegraph lines had been brok- come back safe after all!Perhaps hes Run, May, last struggle. Some lay face downen. and sec' ward as the slaughtered fall. It was The first train to Bannock Bridge, The housemaid met her on the all a hideous and cruel dream. Surely the scene of the disaster, would be stairs, bearing a yellow envelope. It could be nothing more. It could not run as soon as the line was clear, and The boy Is waiting to know if there be reality. The birds gurgled and that could not be for some hours long- is any answer, miss, she said, and twittered. The squirrels barked and er. The unfortunate people who lingered In the expectation of hearing was The innocent. It played. sky craved to know what might be the something of the contents. must be a dream. fate of some of their nearest and dearThe girl seized It and tore it (To be continued.) ! est, could do nothing but wait, hour open after hour, every minute of which To return to her brother, who had No Time for Kindness. seemed an age, and each separate been told that there were yet many Dont you think the modern woman hour an eternity. more bodies In the church, for which Is In danger of getting so busy she wore And so, at last, the hours room could not be found elsewhere, has no time to be kind? asked a away, and very early In the morning and who, accompanied by a detachsweet old Udy the other day. We a train started, bearing its weary, hag- ment of other seekers, thereupon left hear so much about making every gard load of men and women, each the station for the sacred edifice. It minute count and always having some hoping that God had at least been was a relief to find themselves again work or course of study for spare merciful to him, or her, whoever else in the open air, after the ghastly hours and systematizing our activities He might have bereaved. sight that had just met their eyes. that there is no room left for way-sid- e of the 3ut there was horror in the thought corner In sat his Ted Burritt kindnesses. We get so tremencarriage, and let his thoughts wander that they were only exchanging one dously absorbed in our own affairs, so where they would. All at once the such scene for another. so Intent on not missing Could he have been one of those? occurred to him, What had anything that Is going on, that we thought become of the friend? The friend was the awful thought which pursued a sets thousand little pass by gracious one of those fearful, whom his father went to meet, and the young man that. If we had been living fifty years And was it who was to return with him? But indescribable objects! back, instead of now, we should have him? Why, such a thing as that that he must matter about did it what of. It Isnt only the lame, thought but for him, though the accident take home with him. If it should prove the halt and the blind that need our would have taken place all the same, by any means possible to separate the love. There are hundreds who never It would have had nothing to do with identity of the one from the other? fall by the way or ask publicly for the He came in sight of the church, that pleasant, peaceful home at Dulcup of cold water, who yet are perishwhich was not far from the station. wich! it. I think the ing for lack of Arriving at the porch, the foremost of By the time he had recovered himwoman had the advantage self a little he saw that the day was the party discovered that the door new woman In over the beginning to dawn. Surely they must was locked. Here was a sudden check quickness of sympathy and responsbe very near the scene of the disas- and they began to consult together as New York Tribune. iveness. to where the key might be found. ter. As they did so, a window of one of Even in the faint early light, which A Technical Point. was all they had to Illumine the the little cottages opposite the church You say your road carried a million scene, signs of the recent catastrophe was thrown up, and an old man, in a passengers last year? began to appear. By the side of the quaint, old fashioned nightcap, stuck Yes. sir; and I can prove it. line they saw drawn up some of the his head out. You can? Another moment, I be ruined carriages. he cried; ye must Yes. sir. and the train drew up at the pictur- jest bide a bit, and Ill be with ee. Well, now, lets get right down to This was evidently the clerk or sexesque little country station, which facts. Can you make two passengers had now been converted into a tem- ton; at any rate, he was the individual out of one man? The mournful, required, and thire was nothing to porary Of course not. wild-eyecavalcade, which alighted do but to "bide, as he had desired No doubt in some cases you've carat the platform, were met by the them. ried the same man fifteen or twenty who merely motioned with At last the churchyard gate clicked, times. his arm, and said, In there. and a shriveled, bent figure made its Unquestionably." The whole crowd, with one accord, appearance, dangling a bunch of great Well, does that make fifteen or In the direction Indicated. keys in one hand. He threw the great poured twenty passengers of him? A dreadful sight met their eyes. In door open With a clang, and the people No-o- . the waiting room and booking office entered the church. It was very dark In view of that, can you say that a dozen charred remnants of human inside. The windows were most of youve carried a million were laid out on tarpaulins them of colored glass and high up, and beings But the railroad man retired aneach one of which had lost all semthe old fashioned pews and the thick fo grily. He never did have any use blance to humanity. There was no squat columns which supported the a technically exact man anyway. THE FATAL REQUEST OR FOUND OUT n Copyright, Had Mary Ellens eyes not suckle. been hid beneath the lids they might have seen a face pale and sad as her The Brazen Tongues. The band major was a poet. Hla own. They sat silent, for it was no name is lost to history, but it deserves time for human speech. The hour a place among the titles of the great. came for parting, and he rose. His Or.ly in the soul of a poet, a great lips Just lightly touched her cheek. man, could there have been conceived It seemed to him he heard a faint He stepped slowly down that thought by which the music of good-bye.triumph should pass the little pinnacle the long walk in the moonlight, and of human exultation, and reach the his hand was at his face. Turning at the gate for the last wrench of separahigher plane of human sympathy. Forty black horses, keeping step; tion, he gazed back at a drooping form forty trumpeters, keeping unison; upon the gallery. Then Mrs. Beauthis procession, headed by a mere mu- champ came and took Ellens head sician, who none the less was a poet, upon her bosom, seeing that now she was a woman, and that her sufferings a great man, crossed the field of Louis-buras it lay dotted with the heaps of had begun. slain, and dotted also with the groups of those who sought their CHAPTER II. slain; crossed that field of woe, meeting only hatred and despair, yet leaving beThe Players of the Game. hind only tears and grief. Tears and When the band major was twenty grief, it is true, yet grief that knew miles away in front of Loulsburg his of sympathy, and tears that recked of trumpets sounded always the advance. other tears. The main Intrenchments erected In For a long time tho lines of invasion the defences of Louisburg lay at right had tightened about the old city of angles to the road along which came Louisburg, and Loulsburg grew weak- the Northern advance, and upon the er in the coil. The wheat lay green side of the wood nearest to the town. upon the fields and the odor of the In the fields both the wheat and the blossoms of the peach trees hung flowers were now trampled, and a heavy on the air; but there was none thousand Industrious and complaining who thought of fruitage or of harvest. bees buzzed protest at the losing of Out there in front, where the guns their commerce. The defenses themwere pulsing, there went on that grim- selves were but earthworks, though mer harvest with which the souls of skilfully laid out. Along their front, all were Intimately concerned. The well bidden by the forest growth, ran boys who threw up their hats to greet a line of entangling abattis of stakes the Infantry were fewer than they had and sharpened Interwoven boughs. 'been before the blossoming of the In the center of the line of defense peach. The war had grown less par- lay the reserves, the boys of Loulsticular of its food. A boy could speed burg, flanked on either side by regiW bullet, or could stop one. There ments of veterans, tho lean and blackwere yet the boys. haired Georgians and Carolinians, Of all the families of this whose steadiness and unconcern gave .ancient little city none held position copifort to more than one bursting more secure or more willingly accord- boyish heart. The veterans had long ed than the Fairfaxes and the played the game of war. They had to their worn- There had always been a long since said good-byCHAPTER I. " g old-tim- e Beau-ichamp- e Took Ellens head upon her bosom. Colonel Fairfax, the leader at the local bar, perhaps the representative In the legislature, or in some position of yet higher trust. The Beauchamps had always had men in the ranks of the professions or in stations of responThey held large lands, and sibility. in the almost feudal creed of the times they gave large services in re- turn. It was considered a matter of course that young Henry Fairfax, son of Colonel Fairfax, should, after completing his studies at the ancient institution of William and Mary College, step into his fathers law office, eventually to be admitted to the bar and ito become his fathers partner; after which he should marry Miss Ellen Beauchamp, loveliest daughter of a family noted for its beautiful women. So much was this taken for granted, and so fully did it meet the approval of both families, that the tide of the young peoples plans ran on with little to disturb its current Young Fairfax seemed so perfectly to represent the traditions of his family, and his future seemed to secure; and Mary Ellen herself, tall and slender, bound to be stately and of noble grace, seemed so eminently fit to be a Beauchamp beauty and a Fairfax bride. For the young people themselves it may be doubted if there had yet awakened the passion of genuine, personal love. They met, but, under the strict code of that lanu and time, they never met alone. For two years Colonel Fairfax had been with his regiment, fighting for what he considered the welfare of his country and for the institutions in whose justice he had been taught to believe. There remained at the old Fairfax home in Louisberg only the wife of Colonel Fairfax and the son Henry, the latter chafing at a part which seemed to him so obviously ignoble. Spirited and proud, restive under comparisons which he had never heard but always dreaded to hear, Henry Fairfax begged his mother to let him go, though still she said, Not yet. But the lines of the enemy tightened ever about Louisburg. Then came a day a fatal day fraught with the tidings of what seemed a double death. The wife of Colonel Henry Fairfax was grande dame that day, when she buried her husband and sent away her t. son. There were yet traditions to sup-vpor- to Mary Henry Fairfax said good-byEllen upon the gallery of the old home, beneath a solemn, moon, amid the odors of the drooping honey- e white-face- d en. They had seen how small a thing is life, how easily and swiftly to be ended. In front of the trenches were other regiments, out ahead in the woods, unseen, somewhere toward that place whence came the steadiest jarring of artillery and the loudest rattling of the lesser arms. It was very hard to lie and listen, to imagine, to suspect, to dread. For hours the game went on, the reserves at the trenches hearing now distinctly and now faintly the tumult of the lines, now receding, now coming on. These young men, who but lately had said good-byto the women of their kin, began to learn what war might mean. It had been heretofore a distant, unmeasured, undreaded thing, conquerable, not to be feared. It seemed so sweet and fit to go forth, even though it had been hard to say e good-bye- . there began to appear in the woods before the trenches the figures of men, at first scattered, then becoming steadily more numerous. There came men bearing other men whose arms lopped loosely. Some men walked with a hand gripped tightly to an arm; others hobbled painfully. Two men sometimes supported a third, whose would now head, heavy and and then be kept erect with difficulty, the eyes staring with a ghastly, sheepish gaze, the face in a look of horrified surprise. This awful rabble, the parings of the defeated line in front, dropped back through the woods, dropped back upon the young reserves, who lay there in the line. Some of them could go no farther, but fell there and lay silent. Others passed back into the fields where droned the protesting bees, or where here and there a wide tree offered shelter. Suddenly all the summer air was filled with anguish and horror. Was this, then, the War? And now there appeared yet other figures among the trees, a straggling, broken line, which fell back, halted, stood and fired always calmly, coolly, at some unseen thing in front of them. But this line resolved itself into individuals, who came back to the edge of the wood, methodically picking their way through the abattis, climbing the intervening fences, and finally clambering Into the earthworks to take their places for the final stand. They spoke with grinning respect of that which was out there ahead, coming on. They threw off their coats and tightened their belts, making themselves Comfortable for what time there yet remained. At last there came a continued. Now first-clas- d dead-hous- d . Btroot Smith, what little meed to swallow there was. Theyve put em all inside the chancel rails, said the old man, who had constituted himself a sort of ghoulish master of the ceremonies. No one seemed to care to be th first to approach that part of the hot root edifice. At last Ted Burritt, with gim determination, approached the railing. Inside, the bodies, or what had once been bodies, were disposed in two rows, t Those on the right hand lay in coffins which had been hastily gathered from all parts of the neighborhood; those on the left were mere groups of ashes collected together on pieces of tarpaulin. Ted Burritt began at the right-hanside. The other people followed his example, and the old clerk acted as cicerone. This un, he said, Indicating the terrible contents of one coffin, is supa young female, as posed to they found a thimble and a bit of a dress among the ashes. Thimble ad the name o Lizzie scratched on It"' A man who was craning his neck over Ted Burritts shoulder gave a sharp cry: "Thats my girl! Thats my Lizzie! And her mother waiting for her at home, and wont believe as anything can have happened to her Oh, Lord! and he broke out into wild outcries. Some of the others, forgetful of their own concerns for a moment, gathered round him and made an attempt at consolation. At least you know which she is that ought to be a little comfort to d you. But I thought she might have been saved. She was such a good girl and look at her there! and he gesticulated towards the open coffin. , I cant stand much more of this, murmured Ted Burritt, as he wiped the great drops of perspiration from his forehead. They left the bereaved parent moaning over his childs remains and again passed on. The next three coffins were examined, shuddered at and left. The mutilated corpses which they contained possessed neither head, feet nor hands. They could never have been taken for anything human had not the fact been established beyond all doubt. Was either of those his father? There only remained one or two more belonging to that row, and they, After that too, were unrecognizable. nothing was left but the poor heaps of ashes on the other side. This is all, ladles and gentlemen, said the old man, with a sort of charnel-house sides one cheerfulness, more in the vestry, as was put there in consequents of bein very little damaged, cept about the legs; and passon did say as I was to show im fust, though bein easy recognized. But my pore old 'eds bin all of a jumble since th accident, and I clean forgot 'im. But anybody as likes can jest step into the vestry and see im for theirselves. Theyve laid im out on the table, through bein of a hextry E siza, and runnin short o coffins. was found buried under a lot o and they ad a deal o trouble to git 'im out. There was a general rush In that direction on the part of all those who bad a male relative missing. (To be continued.) rub-bidg- e, Were Dandy-Lions.- " He had been in the Dark Continent for two or three years, and when borne on a visit he delighted to spin his "tall yarns about his experiences in Africa. The hunting of wild lions was his specialty how he could shoot them, how he could go out and be sure of finding one, how it was done, etc., etc., and he generally wound up by saying that he never yet saw a lion that he feared. One night after he had finished yarning he was a little taken aback by one of his audience, who said: I have lain down Thats nothing. and actually slept among lions In their natural state. dont believe that Im no fool!" said the great hunter. Its the truth, though." You slept among lions in their wild, natural state? Yes, I certainly did. Can you prove it Were they Af- wild, I rican? Well, not exactly African They were dandelions. lions. Practical Toys. Toys, whether useful or as a pastime as instructors, are fascinating. However, the toy Is practical. Children have miniature working autos. A make-believ- e train, a splendid toy, is a real train erf cars with real locomotive and real track. There are children out West on whose fathers property small streams cross. These boys Imitate the things they see going on about them. They build dams, check the water, construct miniature systems of Irrigation in exact copy of the plan used by the farmers of that country. Tue water thus damned nourishes a garden plot of their own. In this play there is the dignity of education. Thought Ade Needed Schooling. The following story is going the rounds of Highland Park, where George Ade spent the summer. The aforesaid was walking along the street one day when he met a mite of humanity, kindergarten bent, one of Mr. Ades summer colleagues and friends. Mr. Ade called out: Hello! Going to school? The prompt reply came. In the same tone of good comradeship, without the least suggestion of flippancy, but just as Mr. Ade would have It: No; are you? |