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Show 'll CHAPTER I. Had Mary Ellens eyes not suckle. been hid beneath the lids they might have seen a face pale and sad as her own. They sat silent, for it was no time for human speech. The hour came for parting, and he rose. His lips Just lightly touched her cheek. It seemed to him he heard a faint "good-bye- . He stepped slowly down the long walk in the moonlight, and his hand was at his face. Turning at the gate for the last wrench of separation, be gazed back at a drooping form upon the gallery. Then Mrs. Beauchamp came and took Ellen's head upon her bosom, seeing that now she was a woman, and that her sufferings had begun. The Brazen Tongue. The band major was a poet. His name Is lost to history, but It deserves a place among the titles of the great. Only in the soul of a poet, a great man, could there have been conceived that thought by which the music of triumph should pass the little pinnacle of human exultation, and reach the higher plane of human sympathy. Forty black horses, keeping step; forty trumpeters, keeping unison; this procession, headed by a mere musician, who none the less was a poet, a great man, crossed the field of Louls-buras it lay dotted with the heaps of 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 Player 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 Ixmlsburg his of sympathy, and tears that recked of trumpets sounded always the advance. other tears. The main intrenchments erected in For a long time the lines of invasion the defences of Louisburg lay at right had tightened alout the old city of angles to the road along which came Louisburg, and Ixwisburg grew weak- the Northern advance, and upon the er in the coll. 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 hidden 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 Louisticular of its food. A boy could speed burg, flanked on either side by regila bullet, or could stop one. There ments of veterans, the lean and blackwere yet the boys. haired Georgians and Carolinians, Of all the old time families of this whose steadiness and unconcern gave .ancient little city none held position comfort 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 wom There had always been a long since said good-byg Beau-ichamp- s. e hoarse, deep, cheering, a roaring wav oi menace made up of little sounds. An officer spraug up to the top of the breastworks and waved his sword, shouting out dhmetblng which no one heard or cared to hear. The line in the trenches, boys and veterans, reserves and remnants of the columns of defense, rose and poured volley after volley, as they could, into the thick and concealing woods that lay before them. None the less, there appeared soon a long, dusty, faded line, trotting, running, walking, falling, stumbling, but coming on. It swept like a long serpent parallel to the works, writhing, smitten but surviving. It came on through the wood, writhing, tearing at the cruel abattis laid to entrap it. It writhed, roared, but it broke through. It swept over the rail fences that lay between the lines and the abattis, and still came on! This , was not war, but Fate! There came a cloud of smoke, hiding the face of the intrenchraent. Then the boys of Louisburg saw bursting through this suffocating curtain a few faces, many faces, long rows of faces, some pale, some red, some laughing, some horrified, some shouting, some swearing a long row of faces that swept through the smoke, following a line of steel a line of steel that flickered, waved and dipped. CHAPTER III. The Victory. The bandmaster marshaled his music at the head of the column of occupation which was to march into The game had been adLouisburg. mirably played. The victory was complete. There was no need to occupy the trenches, for those who lay in them or near them would never rally for another battle. There was no longer need for hurry. Before the middle of the morning the lines would start on the march of the few short miles. During the delay a young officer of engineers, Captain Edward Franklin by name, asked permission of his colonel to advance along the line of march until he came to the earthworks, to which he wished to give some examination. Joining his regiment as it passed beyond the fortifications on its march. The colonel gave his consent, not altogether willingly. "You may see more over there than you want to see, young man, Bald THE FATAL REQUEST OR FOUND OUT By A. L. Harris Author of "Mine Own Familiar Friend." etc. Copyright, let l, t by$ o C a t til 8p tvbr lit tt hit Ag C ompany. Smith. t, by Copyright, CHAPTER VI. Continued. railway accident has taken place on the Southeastern railway. A goods train from London to Maidstone, which contained two wagons loaded with petroleum barrels, through some mistake in the signals, ran into the 4:30 up train from Dover, at the point where the lines cross. The engine, tender, and three first-clas- s carriages have been smashed up and burnt by the petroleum. Twenty-three passengers are either dead or dying. The perspiration stood upon his brow as he read this this grim and ghastly paragraph over and over again. How could I possibly let them see this? he groaned to himself. They would go out of their minds with the horror of it. And yet, the thought struck him, what is to prevent them from reading it all, and more beside. In the morning papers? Though, of course, there is hope there must be a gleam of hope! Some must have escaped! How slow this train is. And yet, why should I want to travel faster? How do I know what awaits me at my journeys end? When the train reached London Bridge, a little before ten, he found all was bustle and confusion. The news of the accident had spread like wildfire, and a momentarily increasing throng of agonized friends and relatives besieged the officials, attacked the telegraph office and hurried hither and thither, backwards and forwards, in search of something definite in the shape of information. Ted Burritt forced himself through the crowd which was gahered round some person in authority, and put the same questions which burst from so many lips at once. Was anything more known about the accident? When would the line be clear, and when would a train be allowed to run to the scene of the A dreadful disaster? clue, no possibility of recognizing or identifying any. Ted Burritt approached and looked 'down upon one; then staggered and nearly fell. Are these all? he asked, in a dreadful whisper. The man who was In charge of this ghastly detachment answered, briefly, There be a heap more on em in the church yonder! CHAPTER VII. In the Vestry. There was very little sleep for anyone at Magnolia Lodge that night. Mrs. Burritt was at last persuaded to go and lie down upon her bed, where she was ministered to by her daughter and the cook. So in lamentations and torturing suspense, together with brief intervals of broken rest, the night wore away. The servants, with scared faces, crept about the house and prepared the breakfast, which nobody touched. May Burritt came down stairs about eight oclock, and the first thing that she saw was the daily paper lying in its accustomed place beside the urn. Ah! she gasped, now to know the worst! The account she sought was assigned the most prominent position, and was headed in large capitals, Terrible Railway Accident! Thirty-tw- o lives lost! Numbers roasted to death! She read the brief paragraph, into which so much horror was condensed, and stood as though turned to stone. Then coming back to herself, she murmured: Mother must never see this, And she left the it would kill her! room, taking the paper with her. After all, though, she ventured to hope, there have been some saved. Why may not he be among them? Surely Ted will send a telegram soon. Poor boy! I wonder what he is doing? A little later in the morning, when 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 and 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 a dream! There could have been no battle here. This that had been a dream was changed into a horrid nightmare as 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 responsibility. They held large lands, and In the almost feudal creed of the times they gave large services in re- turn. It was considered a matter of course son of 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 'to become his father's 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 burled her husband and sent away her son. There were yet traditions to sup- that young Henry Fairfax, Colonel 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 ail 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 port. to Mary their belts, making themselves ComHenry Fairfax said good-byEllen upon the gallery of the old home, fortable for what time there yet rebeneath a solemn, white-facemoon, mained. amid the odors of the drooping honey At last there came a continued, e d I 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 Now 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 agonies left for survivors to see and remember, so that they should no more go to war. Again, they lay so peacefully calm that all the lesson was acclaim for happy, painless war. Some, lay upon their backs where they had turned, thrusting up a knee in the last struggle. Some lay face downward as the slaughtered fall. It was all a hideous and cruel dream. Surely it could be nothing more. It could not be reality. The birds gurgled and twittered. The squirrels barked and The sky was innocent. It played. must be a dream. (To be continued.) No Time for Kindness. Don't you think the modern woman is in danger of getting so busy she has no time to be kind? asked a sweet old lady the other day. We hear so much about making every minute count and always having some work or course of study for spare hours and systematizing our activities that there is no room left for way-sid- e We get so tremenkindnesses. dously absorbed in our own affairs, so so intent on not missing anything that is going on, that we pass by a thousand little gracious acts that, if we had been living fifty years back, instead of now, we should have thought of. It isnt only the lame, the halt and the blind that need our love. There are hundreds who never fall by the way or ask publicly for the cup of cold water, who yet are perishing for lack of it. I think the woman had the advantage new woman in over the quickness of sympathy and responsNew York Tribune. iveness. A Technical "Y'ou say your road Point. carried a million passengers last year? Y'es, sir; and I can prove It You can? Yes. sir. "Well, now, lets get right down to facts. Can you make two passengers out of one man? Of course not. No doubt in some cases you've carried the same man fifteen or twenty times. Unquestionably. Well, does that make fifteen or twenty passengers of him? No-o- . In view of that, can you say that youve carried a million But the railroad man retired angrily. He never did have any usa tot a technically exact man anyway. coot Turned to swallow y what little ligbj there was. Yheyve 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 hoi edifice. At last Ted Burritt, with a gum determination, approached the railing. Inside, the bodies, or what had once been bodies, were disposed in two t rows, 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-banside. 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 & 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: JThats 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 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 d father? There only remained one or two more belonging to that row, and they, too, were unrecognizable. After that nothing was left but the poor heaps of ashes on the other side. This is all, ladies 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 siza, and runnin short o coffins. E 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- And the answers, repeated over and over again, and passed from mouth to mouth, were: No further details of the accident had been ascertained, and no names of the victims had yet been published, as the lines had been brok-en- . Mrs. Burritt was just being coaxed to take a little beef tea, the fateful double knock once more through the house. Whats that? cried Mrs. Burritt, sitting bolt upright. Perhaps hes come back safe after all! Run, May, telegraph and sec The first train to Bannock Bridge, The housemaid met her on the the scene of the disaster, would be stairs, bearing a yellow envelope. run as soon as the line was clear, and The boy is waiting to know if there that could not be for some hours long- is any answer, miss, she said, and er. The unfortunate people who lingered in the expectation of hearing craved to know what might be the something of the contents. dearnearest and of some of their fate The girl seized it and tore it ! est, could do nothing but wait, hour open after hour, every minute of which To return to her brother, who had seemed an age, and each separate been told that there were yet many hour an eternity. more bodies in the church, for which And so, at last, the hours wore room could not be found elsewhere, away, and very early in the morning and who, accompanied by a detacha train started, bearing its weary, hag- ment of other seekers, thereupon left gard load of men and women, each the station for the sacred edifice. It hoping that God had at least been W'as a relief to find themselves again merciful to him, or her, whoever else in the open air, after the ghastly He might have bereaved. sight that had just met their eyes. Ted Burritt sat in his corner of the But there was horror in the thought carriage, and let his thoughts wander that they were only exchanging one where they would. All at once the such scene for another. Could he have been one of those? thought occurred to him. What had The friend was the awful thought which pursued become of the friend? one of those fearful, whom his father went to meet, and the young man And was it who was to return with him? But indescribable objects! what did it matter about him? Why, such a thing as that that he must but for him, though the accident take home with him, if it should prove would have taken place all the same, by any means possible to separate the it would have had notHing to do with identity of the one from the other? He came in sight of the church, that pleasant, peaceful home at Dulwhich was not far from the station. wich! Arriving at the porch, the foremost of By the time he had recovered himself a little he saw that the day was the party discovered that the door beginning to dawn. Surely they must was locked. Here was a sudden check be very near the scene of the disas- and they began to consult together as to where the key might be found. ter. As they did so, a window of one of Even in the faint early light, which was all they had to illumine the the little cottages opposite the church scene, signs of the recent catastrophe was thrown up, and an old man, in a began to appear. By the side of the quaint, old fashioned nightcap, stuck line they saw drawn up some of the his head out. I be he cried; ye must ruined carriages. Another moment, and the train drew up at the pictur- jest bide a bit, and Ill be with ee. This was evidently the clerk or sexesque little country station, which had now been converted into a tem- ton; at any rate, he was the individual The mournful, required, and there was nothing to porary dead-houswild-eyecavalcade, which alighted do but to bide, as he had desired at the platform, were met by the them. who merely motioned with At last the churchyard gate clicked, his arm, and said, In there. and a shriveled, bent figure made its The whole crowd, with one accord, appearance, dangling a bunch of great keys In one hand. He threw the great poured in the direction indicated. A dreadful sight met their eyes. In door open with a clang, and the people the waiting room and booking office entered the church. It was very dark a dozen charred remnants of human inside. The windows were most of them of colored glass and high up, and beings were laid out on tarpaulins each one of which had lost all sem- the old fashioned pews and the thick blance to humanity. There was no squat columns which supported the d 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 wild, natural state. I 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 rican? it Were they Well, not exactly African They were dandelions. Af- llone. 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 of 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? v |