| OCR Text |
Show desire," he said, addressing the Austrian Aus-trian commander, "the privilege of evacuating our quarters, with all the honors of war; with arms and baggage, bag-gage, and colors flying." "Your demands are granted," replied the gallant Austrian, who immediately drew up his men in two lines to receive re-ceive the devoted garrison. Then out walked Latour d'Auvergne, alone. "Well," said the Austrian commander, command-er, "where is the garrison?" "Here, sir, as you see," answered the Frenchman, raising his hand in salute. "But where is it?" asked the Austrian, Aus-trian, visibly affected. "Here!" repeated the grenadier. "'What! You alone defended the mill?" , "I was there alone; I was the only garrison," rejoined the soldier with a quiet smile. "And how came you to undertake so bold an attempt?" ' "The honor of France was in peril, sir. I could do no differently," answered an-swered the heroic grenadier. The haughty Austrian bowed in admiration. ad-miration. "You are the bravest of the brave," he said; and he ordered the thirty -muskets to be sent after him to the French army, and wrote a letter complimenting com-plimenting his heroism. Napoleon offered Latour the command com-mand of a regiment, but this he refused, re-fused, preferring to serve in the ranks. "I cannot leave my comrades," he said, "and any one of them would have done the same as I." " But ever after that he was known v as the "First Grenadier of France." Fred Myron Colby in Philadelphia Times. THOMPSON'S ISLANO TOADS. There are not many toads on this island, probably because they cannot breed where there are not many pools of fresh water, and that is the way it is here. About two and a half months ago, Mr. Bradley, thinking it would be a good thing to have some toads down here, asked Mr. Hart, the deputy superintendent of the Concord reformatory, reform-atory, to send us some. Mr. Hart got fifty toads and put them in a box about 2 feet long, IV2 feet wide and 6 inches deep, half full of moist loam. FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. J SOME GOOD STORIES FOR OUR JUNIOR READERS. A Bear Takes Possession of a House In a Wild Part of California and Peeps Out of the Window How He Made His Escape. 1 HERE'S A 6KAR STORY. William Hamilton lives in a wild part of California, and has a honeybee honey-bee ranch. One day, when he was absent ab-sent his wife .went out to the potato field to do a little hoeing, and when she came back to the house she found a big bear walking about the kitchen. She didn't stand still and scream, as a woman in this part of the country would have done, but ran to the woodpile wood-pile for the axe, and then back to attack at-tack Mr. Bruin. She met him coming out, but he darted back at sight of her, and finding himself cohered knocked the axe out of her hand with one blow of his paw. Being thus disarmed, the woman rushed out of the kitchen, Blamming the door after her, and started off for help. Meanwhile, Mrs. David, a neighbor, who lived in an opposite op-posite direction, was on her way to Ihe Hamilton farm. WI.en she reached the house she was frightened half out of her senses at seeing a bear look-" ing out of a half open window, and she turned and ran all the way home, where she told her sixteen-year-old son that there was a big bear in the Hamilton house, and that he had undoubtedly un-doubtedly eaten up Mrs. Hamilton, for that good woman was nowhere in sight. So the boy 'picked up his gun and he started for the scene of the tragedy. Having reached the place they looked all about, but no bear was to be seen. The boy saw that the cellar cel-lar door was open, and concluded that the beast might have gone down there, he began cautiously to descend the steps. He had not gone very far down when he heard a snort and a growl, and saw the bear coming toward him out of the darkness. Then he didn't feel nearly so brave as be thought he was, and dropping his gun, he rushed up the steps into the kitchen, and out into the yard, shutting the kitchen door behind him. He started off in one direction and his mother in another, and presently the boy met the Hamiltons and a friend of theirs who had a rifle. They approached the house cautiously, but saw no signs of the bear, nor could they find him in any of the .rooms. They concluded, therefore, that he had squeezed through the partly open window win-dow and made off. But on going outside out-side they ' happened to look up, and there was Mr. Bruin's head poking out of the top of the chimney. He drew it in right away, but they soon made him scramble out by lighting a bundle of straw on the hearth. The man with the rifle was on watch, but his shot missed, and the bear got away to the brush with a whole skin. Philadelphia Times. A GRENADIER OF FRANCE. No French soldier is more honorably remembered than Latour d'Auvergne, who belonged to a regiment of grenadiers grena-diers in the arjny of the great Napoleon. Napol-eon. His defense of the pass, single-handed, single-handed, against an army of Austrians, has made his name almost as memorable memor-able as that of Horatius, the brave Roman who kept the bridge., It was during the war with Austria in 1796, and Later d' 'vrvie was a stalwart young sol'i" r.f : ' y y-nrs. During a scout be " ? detachment of the em ', ' ' r-h-nrr 'forward with the. inlc:..Io s uvin.i a mountain moun-tain pass, to p.-pv.v.t in important I movement that the French army was 1 then on the march to accomplish. The i Austrians were but a few hours distant, dis-tant, and Latour had no. time to seek the main arniy for assistance. He 1 knew that the pass was defended by j a force of only thirty men, who were j stationed in an old stone mill that commanded the route through the mountains, and he made up his mind to hasten on and warn them, and take part in the defense. When he reached the mill, however, he found it deserted. desert-ed. The soldiers, having heard of the advance of the Austrians, had fled, leaving the pass unguarded. Latour understood military affairs well enough to realize the importance of holding the post, and he decided to defend de-fend himself if he could. There were plenty of arms and ammunition in the mill, and he at once set about getting ready for the expected attack of the Austrians. . In a short time they appeared ap-peared and demanded the surrender of the place. Latour refused and the struggle began. There were thirty muskets in the mill, and these he kept loading and discharging, giving the Austrians the impression that quite a with a wire screening stretched over ' the top. They came one night and ' were taken up to the boys' flower gardens, gar-dens, where thirty were let out. Every boy was anxious to get one for his garden. There were not enough to go around, and so Mr. Bradley let the toads choose which boy should own them. He drew a large circle around the box and had the boys line up to it. He then let the tcads out one by one. As soon as one hopped out to the circle, the boy in front of whom it was could have it. As soon as a boy got one he put it in his garden. The next morning when they were looked for only four were to be found; but it was soon discovered where they went. They bury themselves in the earth and come out to feed or when it is going to rain. The remaining twenty twen-ty were let lose in Ihe flower beds on the lawns. Later on another box of seventy toads came from Mr. W. G. Fancher, superintendent of the Stan-wood Stan-wood school at Topsfisld, Mass. These were put into the different vegetable gardens on the farm. These animals ( were got down here because they are very useful in killing and preventing the increase of noxious insects and worms. George G. Noren in Thompson's Thomp-son's Island Beacon, printed by the boys of the farm school in Bosltoa harbor. THE, MYSTERIOUS VOICE. It was a warm summer night and the hour was midnight. The scene was Madison Square Park, New York. The ilicemen on the four sides of the rectangle were getting dull with sleepiness. So one of them said afterward after-ward the man who tells the story. Suddenly into the stillness of the night a shrRl cry projected itself: "Help! Help! Murder! Murder!" The crp appeared to come from within with-in the square. And simultaneously the two policemen nearest at hand rushed into the park, the leather prongs on , their night sticks in place for striking. strik-ing. "They're killing me! Help! Help!" spurred them on. The policemen made a systematic , search of the green area, ending finally . in the center. ., "Well, where is it?" asked one. . r. , "Give it up. I thought 'twas here," . was the reply. "Keep away! Keep away! Don't come near me!" cried the shrill voice. Slowly and warily the policemen made their way to a bench a little to the south of the center, which seemei to be the spot whence the voice came. And there they stood for a moment. force was defending it. They kept up a close fire on it, however, and several times attempted to carry it by storm. The sharp defense, however, forced them each time to retire witfa great loss. Finally, when his gunpowder was nearly exhausted, and he himself was worn out by the protracted struggle, strug-gle, Latour raised a flag of truce. Instantly In-stantly the firing ceased, and a moment after a window in the mill was opened and a grenadier showed himself. "We wondering what it meant. Then from the branches of the maple overhead a wheedling voice said: "Polly wants a cracker.".. The mystery was solved. It was somebody's parrot, escaped from its cage, which had played this joke on two of New York's cleverest policemen. The bird remained in the park for a nay or so, resisting all efforts ef-forts to be captured, and then disappeared, disap-peared, having perhaps found its waj back to its cage. , |
