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Show THE GIRL AT THE HALFWAY HOUSE BY STORY K. H I1 j H ('ayyrtekud, , A I' T 11)03. H by OFOF THE STORY T R l . Ayyltten i CHAPTER III Continued. part of the wood the dead were mingled from both sides of the contest, the faded blue and the faded gray sometimes scarce distinguishable. (Then there came a thickening of the gray, and in turn, as the traveler advanced toward the fences and abattis, the Northern dead predominated, though still there were many faces yellofi In this w-pale, It H 6 PLAINS OP CO WHO? THH Ctmyany, A tv Ytrk moved, rode on across the field of Loulsburg. The music was no longer the hymn of triumph. Softly and sadly, sweetly and soothingly, the trumpets sang a melody of other days, an air long loved in the South. And Annie Laurie, weeping, heard and listened, and wept the more, and blessed God for her old-tim- tears! dark-frame- Franklin passed over the ahattis, over the remaining fenres, and Into where the final the intrenchments etand had been. The dead lay thick, among them many who were young. Franklin stook looking out over the fields. In the direction of the town. And there he saw a sight fitly to be called the ultimate horror of all these things horrible that he had seen. Over the fields of Loulsburg there came a fearful sound, growing, rising, falling, stopping the singing and the twitter of the birds. Across the land there came a horrible procession, advancing with short, uncertain, broken pauses a procession which advanced, paused, halted, broke Into groups; advanced, paused, stopped, and stooped; a procession which came with waitings and bitter cries, with wringing of hands, with heads now and then laid upon the shoulders of others for support; a procession which stooped uncertainly, horribly. It was the women of Loulsburg coming to seek their slain a sight most monstrous, most terrible, unknown upon any field of civilized war, and unfit to be tolerated even in the thought! It Is for men, who sow the fields of battle, to attend also to the reaping. Franklin stood at the Inner edge of the earthworks, half hidden by a little clump of trees. He saw approaching him, slowly but almost in direct line, two figures, an older lady and a girl. They came on, as did the others, always with that slow, searching attitude, the walk broken with pauses and BOOK II. The Day of the Buffalo. CHAPTER IV. Batteralelgh of the Rile Irish. sat in his tent engaged in the composition of a document which occasioned him concern, That Col. Uattersleigh. should be using his tent as office and residence for that such was the fact even the most casual glance must have determined was for him a circumstance offering no special or extraordinary features. His life had been spent under canvas. Brought up in the profession of arms, so long as fighting and forage were good it had mattered little to him In what clime he found his home. He had fought with the English in India, carried sabre in the Austrian horse, and on his private account drilled regiments for the Grand Sultan, deep within the interior of a country which knew how to keep its secrets. When the American civil war began he drifted to the newest scene of activity as metal to a magnet. Chance sent him with the Union army, and there he found opportunity for a cavalry command. "A gintleman like Iiatterslolgh of the Rile Irish always rides," he said, and natural horseman as well as trained cavalryman was and tall, lean, martial even under his sixty admitted years. It was his boast that no horse Col. Henry Uattersleigh in which Col. Battersleigh The was now writing was an old one yellow and patched in places. In size it was similar to that of the bedroom la New York, and its furnishings were much the same. A narrow bunk held a bed over which there was spread e single blanket. It was silent in the tent, save for the scratching of the writer's pen; so that now and then there might easily have been heard a faint rustling of paper. Indeed, this rustling .was caused by the small feet of the prairie mice, which now and then ran over the newspaper which lay beneath the blanket. Battersleigh's table was again a rude one, manufactured from a box. The visible seats were also boxes, two or three in number. Upon one of these sat Batterslelgh, busy at bis writing Occasionally he gazed out upon a sweet blue sky, unfretted by any cloud. His eye crossed a sea of faintly waving grasses. The liquid call of a mile-higmysterious plover came to him. In the line of vision from the tent door there could be seen no token of a human nelghbprhood, nor could there be heard any sound of human life. The canvas house stood alone and apart. Battersleigh gaaud, out of the door as he folded hisl i J Its grand, Just grand, he f-so he turned comfortably to 1 ing of his mice, which nlbbleyThis fingers Intimately, as had many mice of many lands with Battersleigl h CHAPTER V. The Turning of the Road. At the close of the war Capt. Edward Franklin returned to a shrunken The little Illinois village world. which had been his home no longer served to bound his ambitions, but offered only a of duties so petty, a horizon of opportunities so restricted, as to cause In his mind a feeling of distress equivalent at times to absolute abhorrence. The perspective of all things had changed. The men who had once seemed great to him in this little world now appeared In the light of a wider judgment, B3 they really were small, boastful, pompous, cowardly, deceitful, pretentious. Franklin was himself now a man, and a man graduated from that severe and exacting school which so quickly matured a generation of American youth. As his hand had fitted naturally a weapon, so his mind turned naturally to larger things than those offered in these long-tillefields of life. He came back from the war disillusionized, irreverent, impatient, and full of that surging fretfulness which fell upon all the land. To this young man, ardent, energetic, malcontent, there appeared the vision of wide regions of rude, active life, offering full outlet for all the bodily vigor of a man, and appealing not less powerfully to his imagination. This West no man had come back from it who was not eager to return to it again! For the weak and slotholdr-ful it might do to remain in communities, to reap In the longilTed fields, but for the strong, for1 the unattached, for the enterprising, this unknown, unexplored, uncertain country offered a scene whose possibilities For two made irresistible appeal. years Franklin did the best he could at reading law in a country office. Every time he looked out of the window he saw a white-toppewagon moving West. Men came back and told him of this West. Men wrote letters from the West to friends wtrtf remained in the East. Presently these friends also, seized upon by some vast impulse which they could not control, in turn arranged their affairs and departed for the West (To be continued.) mill-roun- d tlt d stoppings. The quest was but too obvious. And even as Franklin gazed, uncertain and unable to escape, it seemed apparent that the two had found that which they had sought. The girl, slightly in advance, ran forward a few paces, paused, and then ran hack. Oh, there! there!" she cried. And then the older woman took the girls head upon her bosom. With hared head and his own hand at his eyes, Franklin hurried away, hoping himself unseen, but bearing indelibly pictured on his brain the scene of which he had been witness. He wanted to cry out, to halt the advancing columns which would soon be here, to tell them that they must not come upon tbia field, made sacred by such woe. Near the intrenchraent where the bitter close had been, and where there was need alike for note of triumph and forgetfulness, the band major marshaled his music, four deep and forty strong, and swung out into the anthem of the flag. The head of the column broke from the last cover of the wood and came into full sight at the edge of the open country. Thus there came into view the whole panorama of the field, dotted with the slain and with those who sought the slain. The music of triumph was encountered by the concerted voice of grief and woe. There appeared for the feet of this army not a mere road, a mere battlefield, but a ground sacred, hedged high about, not rudely to be violated. But the band major was a poet, a great man. There came to him no order telling him what he should do, but the thing was in his soul that should be done. There came to him, wafted from the field of sorrow, a note which was command, a voice which sounded to him above the voices of his own brasses, above the tapping of A gesture of comthe kettledrums. mand, and the music ceased absolutely. A moment, and it had resumed. The forty black horses which made up this regimental band were the pride of the division. Four deep, forty strong, with arching necks, with fore feet reaching far and drooping softly, each horse of the famous cavalry band passed on out upon the field of Louis-bur- g with such carriage as showed it sensible of its mission. The reins lay loose upon their necks, but they kept step to the music which they felt. Forty horses paced slowly forward, keeping step. Forty trumpeters, each man with his right hand aloft, holding his Instrument, his left hand at nis jside, bearing the cap which he had re- on earth could unseat him. Perhaps none ever had until he came to the Plains. For this was on the Plains. As all America was under canvas, it was not strange that Col. Batterslelgh should find his home in a tent, and that this tent should be pitched upon the Western Plains. Not that he had gone directly to the West after the mustering out of his regiment. To the contrary. his first abode had been in the city of New York, where during his brief Btay he acquired a certain acquaintance. What were the financial resources of Batterslelgh after the cessation of his pay as cavalry officer not even his best friends could accurately have told. It was rumored that he was the commissioner in America of the London Times. He was credited with being a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. That he had a history no one could doubt who saw him come down the street with his broad hat, his sweeping cloak, his gauntlets, his neatly varnished boots. In reality Col. Henry Battersleigh lived, during his city life, in a small, a very small room, up more than oue no flight of stairs. This room, larger than a tent, was military in its neatness. Battersleigh, bachelor and soldier, was in nowise forgetful of the truth that personal neatness and personal valor go well hand in hand. The bed, a very narrow one, had but meager covering, and during the winter months its single blanket There's nothrattled to the touch. ing in the world so warm as newspapers, me boy. said Battersleigh. Upon the table, which was a box, there was displayed always an invariCol. Battersleigh's able arrangement. riding whip (without which he was rarely seen in public) was placed upon the table first. Above the whip were laid the gauntlets, crossed at On top of whip and sixty degrees. gloves rested the hat. indented never more nor less. Beyond these, the personal belongings of Battersleigh of the Rile Irish were at best few and humble. In the big city, busy with reviving commerce, there were few who cared how Battersleigh lived. It was a vagrant wind of March that one day blew aside the cloak of Battersleigh as he raised his hat in salutation to a friend a vagrant wind, cynical and merciless, which showed somewhat of the poverty with which Battersleigh had struggled like a soldier and a gentleman. Battersleigh. poor and proud, then went out into the Y.'est. Tried to Pull Her Tongue Out. Jacob Gittel, of Southington, Conn., is in trouble. As a matter of fact the gentleman has been in trouble for years. His wife is one of these unbearable nuisances which the Puritans used to hold under the town pump a village gossNp. He has tried every argument and used every threat to induce her to cease her chatter and let him sleep o' nights, but in vain. Driven finally to desperation, he determined to put a stop for good and all to her incessant talk by pulling her tongue out. The cure would have been heroic but effective. But, weakened as he was by his loss of sleep and by the continued strain on his nervous system, the unfortunate husband had not the strength to hold his wife with one hand while he performed the operation with the other. She got away and complained to the authorities. The result is that, while everybody sympathizes with him, the husband is in jail and the woman is still talking. He Did Not Mote. The motor cyclist was careering down the remote country hillside at a speed which would have made a Surrey policeman chortle with glee. Suddenly there was a 4.7 report, a view of a motor-cyclis- t and his machine, and then both reposed in a roadside ditch, each considerably the worse for the experience. and Help! cried the motor-cyclisin response to the cry a farm laborer hurried out from a field near by. ; For an instant he gazed at the smuggling mass in the ditch, particularly focusing his vision upon the still revolving wheels 'f the cycle, theilike of which, as he explained afterwards, he had never seen before. Then! he V grabbed a big stone. Tell me where to hit her. he shouted, "and I'll dash her bn ins I London Answers. out! t; Utterly Useless. Educatin some men, said Ui Eben, "is a good deal like givii Fiji Islander a check on de natk Hes got it, but what is bank. gwine to do wif it? Washing cle a nal he on Star. i I V THE FATAL REQUEST and secure old Mother Jinmans roonv A small urchin who was hangings about the door, was induced, by of twopence, to show the way to the old dames cottage. Having seen the room, a funny little -up under the roof, in which he place By A. L. Harris Author of Mine Own Familiar Friend. etc. could barely stand upright, but which by C a $ t I I Pvbliohing Company Copyright, tool, 13 spotlessly clean as it was, seemed 0 3, t by a very haven of rest to the worn out young man, and having expressed him as satisfied, and paid five shill CHAPTER VII. Continued. of dust, or how many of the aqes sell in advance, as a token of good ings For some reason Ted Burritt re- they may claim as their own. Comdeparted in search faith, I behind. mained Ill let them go pare your case with theirs, and think of newthelaidold damefrom her own hens eggs, first, he said to himself. you will agree with me, that you Live In the meantime, those who had a great deal to be thankful for. iou to serve up for her new lodgers break fast. inbeen to view the body in the vestry re- can have your dead decently In the meantime the young man turned. It was evident from tneir terred, with his name upon his hnd-stonhimself into a chair with a threw and had the time short manner, they which the good old soul sigh, heavy been absent, that no identification Ted Burritt raised his head, which had taken place. was sunken between his should s. heard as she shut the door upon him She returned to the room, in about Ted Burritt, with his heart beating "You are right, he said firmly, I hi.ve half an hour's time with a tray, which wildly now, turned in the same direc- a great deal to be thankful for, contained the homely but excellent tion. On the extemporized bier a body yet. she had prepared, and lay, the lower iimbs of which were Thats right, said the doctor, re- country nofare notice taken of the knock finding covered with a cloth, leaving the face suming his brisk, every-dalone, with which she announced the arrival and the upper part of the Ixidy exthats the way to look at the matter. of pushed open the door posed to view. Ted Burritt saw that lowering his voice aga n and breakfast, entered. I may as well tell you that I was It was the face of a man of about She found the new lodger fast fifty years of age, with features that one of the party who helped to find must have been handsome in their day the poor gentleman," and he motioned asleep on his chair, with his head but which In death wore an expression with his head toward the corpse. resting on the table, and, depositing of agonized ex Yes as the other made a sudden her tray thereon also, stood regarding expectancy the he was in the him with motherly solicitude. pression of one who recognized the step toward him Poor, dear, young gentleman, she full horror of the fate that awaited fourth carriage from the engine, a if e dont look him. first class carriage it was, and he was murmured to herself, dead beat! Ill jest put the breakfast It was the face of his own father! was This the only occupant. carriage im, so as e can see it when e thought to be empty, as no cries were by wakes. CHAPTER VIII. was believed and it generally heard, She left the room, (losing the door that whatever passengers it might behind her, and still the young man Dr. Jeremiah Cartwright have contained had made their escape A few moments elapsed, at the end before the flames reached it. Of slept on, in spite of his constrained atof which time the door of the vestry course, the supposition is that he was titude and the hardness of his pillow. Another half hour passed, at the opened again. This time to admit a disabled, perhaps killed outright, by end of which time another step middle-agecarBmall, gentleman, whose the effects of the collision; for the ascending the crazy little woodsomewhat imposing Roman nose was riage was much damaged, and we had surmounted by a pair of some considerable difficulty in extri- en staircase a firmer step, but at the same time lighter than the other; and spectacles, and whose civil garb had cating him. an almost military cut and preciseness The young man nodded his head another voice this time a masculine about it and an expression of relief spread one might have been heard to say, All right, Mrs. Jinman don't He cleared his throat and gave a itself over his countenance. will announce myself! I should like to think that, he said, sharp little cough like a double knock. Which the speaker proceeded to doI beg your pardon, my dear sir, I it would be a great alleviation if I first of all by the application of his could believn he perished like that, hope Im not disturbing you. but Ted Burritt rose to his feet and instead of enduring the agony of that knuckles, which, proving ineffectual, seemed, all at once, to wake from other hideous death, and, as he spoke was followed by the lifting of the the apathy of grief which had over- he shuddered and set his teeth to- latch, and the appearance ot the figure of Dr. Jeremiah Cartwright upon the come him when he realized that his gether. threshold. worst fears had been surpassed, and Depend upon it, that was the truth He, too, contemplated the sleeping that his beloved parent had met with of the matter, rejoined the little doche reHumph! a horrible death, such as the most tor. He might have been struck figure doubtfully. Asleep, eh? abandoned criminal might have shud- senseless by a blow upon the head. At marked, half aloud. dered at. His eyes were bloodshot; any rate I shall find out that when I Good thing, too; gone through a lot; worn himself out. Hullo! Whats this? Breakfast, eh? All got cold, too! Better wake him up after all! This he did very gently; and Ted Burritt started up, rubbing his eyes. Then, recognizing the situation as well as the personality of the individual who confronted him. Oh, Lord! he cried, with a groan, I d forgotten all about it. But tell me what the exam The doctor interrupted him with a Whats that I see? lookgesture. ing at the viands through his gold Tea? eggs? butrimmed spectacles. ter? cream? brown bread? My news will keep; your breakfast wont, or, rather has been kept too long already. Sit down at once 'and dispone of the contents of that tray, or yon dont get another word out of me. Ted was astonished to find how hungry he was, and had soon cleared the board; though, at the same time, he found it rather embarrassing to feel that he was an object of interest to an individual in specIt was the face of his own fatherl tacles, who stared at him persistently his hair tossed and tumbled, as though make my examination of the remains. through them,' and kept up a running had been clutched at and dishevel-'- v I don't know whether you care to stop commentary under his breath all the His dress while I ? No? in answer to a vio- time. Some of the ejaculations, too, muscular fingers. and he lent shake of the head. and disordered, Well, per- which caught his ear were decidedly jsty of a nature to arouse curiosity on the not. unwashed it's better appear- haps haggard And you think, Ted Burritt in- part of the hearer, who now and then in spite of these drawbacks, quired, that the examination will could not avoid overhearing such fragments as these Mysterious affair other ejaculated under his breath: show you how my father died? Seems The doctor nodded his head. You should like to get at the bottom of it. A fine fellow. Humph! sensational incidents! Talk about uncommonly cut up, too rather un- remain for the inquest, I suppose? etc. ? began the young man. Wonder how hell take it! When usual thing in these days. Seems to said the young man, And now, But the garrulous little gentleman be something like genuine feeling turning round upon him, tell me Monhere. And I like to see it! I like to did not allow him to finish. see it! he what Is the result you have arrived day morning twelve oclock, Having arrived at the conclusion of jerked out. Youll find the place very at? (To be continued.) these remarks, some of which might full, but very likely youll be able to have been distinctly audible, had the get a bed somewhere. If not come HOW TO MANAGE A WIFE. listener chosen to lend an ear in their to me and Ill put you up. Ted Burritt, moved by this generous direction, he continued out loud : Some Suggestions Which Are Said to let me introduce my- offer on the part of a stranger, thankBe of Value. self. My names Cartwright Jere- ed him in a few broken, but heartfelt A great many methods have been miah Cartwright, surgeon, etc., late of words. He made his way back to the sta- suggested as to the best way to manthe 47th. Ted Burritt turned toward him with tion, and found that another train age a husband, but up to date no one something liko an appearance of in- had just arrived bearing a still fur- has thought it best to guide the poor inhusband. The following will thereterest, and the doctor, seeing this, ther load of anxious, went on: quirers. fore be found the best way to manHe wrote out a telegraphic message age a wife. It has never been known Yes, Ive been on the spot ever since the accident took place. Youve and consigned it to one of the clerks: to fail. heard how it was, of course? It was not one of whom had had his hand off Never contradict her. You are right an awful sight, and what made it the instrument all night. of course nine times out of ten, and On the line groups of men, under more so was the fact that little or she knows it, but to tell her so makes were still her nothing could be done to help. The proper superintendence, always unmanageable. were something busily engaged in searching among groans and shrieks Never oppose her. When she sugawful, and what was more, the front the heaps of debris. As Ted Burritt stood and watched gests that in the absence of the cook of" the train was completely enveloped smoke from the them at their work, suddenly the you get up and light the fire do so at in a black pitch-likas oil which, you know, had thought flashed across his mind again once, willingly and cheerfully. If she burning concussion-thro- ugh his fathers friend! What had be- wishes you to walk the floor with the from the exploded baby obey with alacrity. which the flames leaped and come of him? Never deny her. Possibly she will hissed. It was quite an hour eure exceed her allowance, but this is alCHAPTER IX. they had burnt themselves out, and, even then, the heat was so intense ways your fault, because you are not A Startling Discovery. man enough to support her. that there was no opportunity of apNever be cross. When you come The telegram which Ted Burritt proaching the carriages for some home at night, having failed once or hours after that. And when we did sent to his sister was as follows: Have found my father. Am re- twice during the day, or been insulted he paused impressively and threw did, there maining until after the inquest. Break by a total stranger, or with a large, out his hands when was nothing left but smoking skele- the news gently. powerful pain in your stomach, laugh tons of men, women and children Having disposed of this duty, it it off, and conceal your real feelings. Never tell her the truth. When yes, sir, children and in some in- occurred to him that he would be the stances, as you may have seen for better for a wash and a meal. There she asks how you like her new hat, was an unassuming little inn not far swear that it is the greatest thing yourself, not even that! Ted Burritt uttered a groan, as the from where he stood. It looked clean for the money you "ever saw. When doctor wound up in a breathless con- and inviting to the weary young fel- she shows you her new gown, be lost dition. in admiration. When she is cross and low, and thither he bent his steps Terrible, wasnt it? said the latter, only to find that the modest little irritable, tell her she is an angel. But hostelry was already besieged by Never disagree with her. When recovering himself in no time. laying his hand on the young those whose errand had been the same she suggests that you have a cold and you need a hot mustard plaster, grin and mans shoulder you mustnt give as his own. He was told by the landJust consider these lord himself, almost before he had bear it. When she tells you she needs i way, you know. other poor folks the church is full time to frame the inquiry, that they a change, tell her you are glad she ; but it mentioned it. of them. They, many of them, have were full up to the Never interrupt her. nothing left of their 4 tad, but a few was just possible that he might. find This is the only way to manage a ashes a handful of black dust. What someone in the village who might be is mors. In most cases, they do not able to take him in. Mine host strongwife. Tom Masson in New York Hen even know which particular handful ly recommended the gentleman to go aid. OR FOUND-OU- 8trt Copyright, Smith. y . was-hear- d gold-rimme- d you-troubl- - gold-rimme- d "By-the-b- grief-stricke- n e w-- e hay-loft- |