Pittston Gazette

              ESTABLISHED! 8RO. » VOL. XLV. NO. 1H t Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. 1'ITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., I'A., FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1894. A Weekly local and Family Journal. l"A9I'E?Ax!iIJM the scene. Excitedly they searcned up and down the road in mingled hope and dread of finding the body of the marauder or some clew or trace. Nothing! Whoever he was. the fleet runner had vanished and made good his escape. "Who could it have been, sir?" asked the sergeant of the officer of the day. "Surely none of the men ever tome round this way." "I don't know, sergeant; I don't know. Just take your lamp and see if there is anything visible down there among the rocks. He mav have been hit and leaped the wall. Do you think you hit him, Leary?" "I can't say, sor. He came by me like a flash. I had Just a second's look at him, an—sure I niver saw such runninl"the other the picture, and in far less time than it takes to tell it Mr. Jerrold had wrenched it away and with quiet bow restored it to its rightful owner. lier heart, or the r.C ar, or somotning, nun tho ladies on their way home decided that it was possibly the heart, it was certainlv not the heat, it was unoues- or her own.' it not, aid tne morner Jtnow that nothing would tempt Howard Jerrold into an alliance with a dowerless daughter? These and many more were questions that came up o\ day. Tho garrison could talk of little else, and Alico Renwiek had been there just three weeks and was the acknowledged queen of hearts at Sibley when the rifle competitions began again, and a great array of officers and men from all over the northwest came to tho po6t by every train, and their canvas tents dotted the broad prairie to tho north. any one until he had confronted Jerrold with the evidence of his guilt &ud wringing from him his resignation send him far from the post before handing it in? Time and again he wished Frank Armitage were here. The youngest captain in the regiment, Armitage had been for years its adjutant and deep in the confidence of Colonel Maynard. He was a thorough soldier, a strong, self reliant courageous man, and one for whom Chester had ever felt a warm esteem. Armitage was on leave of absence, however—had been away some time on account of family matters and would not return, it was known, on til he had effected the removal of his mother and sister to the new home he had purchased for them in the distant east It was to his company that Jerrold had been promoted, and there was friction from the very week that the handsome subaltern Joined. FISHERMAN BILL NYE Mr. fox ate a cold Discmt ana went up to le top of the mountain, but he was tor honest to lie about it when he got back He is the most trustworthy young maa I ever knew. I've seen the sweetest oi 1 ladies on earth climb the Zermatt c Mont Blanc, or the Jungfrau to view the sunrise and then describe it and lie about it when they got back, for th clouds had obscured the sunrise entii and I've known white haired old me. vith blameless lives behind them to oil the most gigantic whacks and wh i.ipers about the sunrise on the Fooglehorn, or the Doodlehorn, or the Poodlehora Alps when the sun bad been obscured for a week. But Mr. Fox told me hone? Uy that the trip was no* a sucoess, and L orned to lie about it. Now when he . 3 that he pulled ■ 12 pound trout out of the water and lost him in the tall grass I believe ev«ry word be Bays. uonaoiy somerning, aim mat souieuitng was Jerrold, for she never took her eyes off him during the. entire evening and seemed unable to shake off the fascination. Next day Jerrold dined there, and from that time on he was a daily visitor. Every one noted Mrs. Maynard's strong interest in him, but no one could account for it. Sho was old enough to be his mother, said the garrison, but not until Alice ltenwick camo did another consideration appear. He was singularly like tho daughter. Both were tall, lithe, slender. Both had dark, lustrous eyes; dark, though almost perfect, skin, exquisitely chiseled features and slender, shapely hands and feet Alice was "the picture of her father," said Mrs. Maynard, and Mr. Renwiek had lived all his lifo in New York, while Mr. Jerrold was of an old southern family and his mother a Cuban beauty who was the toast of tho New Orleans clubs not many vears before tho war. "Oh, I say now, Jerrold, that's downnnhandsome of yon!" gasped I'd have been 011 my way homo HE LURES THE UNWARY TROUT IN THE MOUNTAIN STREAMS OF N. C. ripht Sloat. "Shut up, yon fool!" was the sharp, whisper. "Wait till I go home if you want to talk aliout it." And as quickly its be camo Mr. Jerrold slipped with it." The Hornet, He Says, as a Bait Is Very Effective, Both Before and After Fish- In*—Hard Work to Sit Down—A Man Who Knows It All. [Copyright, 1804, by Edgar W. Nye.] mt aeain noon themarjsa. Kkbsbbook, Buncombe County. ) Craggy Mountain. $ I am located here for the purpose of inaugurating an educational campaign against the evasive North American trout. There is a trout preserve here of 16,000 acres under the management of Mr. C. D. Cashing, who allows me to oome here and frolio with his game, knowing that I never could give needless pain to a dumb brute. This huge gob of preserves is soon to be turned over to a hunting and fishing club, and It Is One lovely evening in Angnst, just before the practice began, Colonel Maynard took bis wife to drive out and see the camp. Mr. Jerrold and Alice Renwick followed on horseback. The carriage was surrounded as it halted near the range, and balf a score of officers, old and young, were chatting with Mrs. Maynard, while others gathered about the lovely girl who sat there in the saddle. There came marching up from the railway a small squad of soldiers, competitors arriving from the far west Among them—apparently their senior noncommissioned officer — was a tall cavalry sergeant, superbly built, and with a bronzed and bearded and swarthy face that seemed to tell of years of campaigning over mountain and prairie. They were oil men of perfect physique, all in the neat, soldierly fatigue dress of the regular service, some wearing the spotless white stripes of the infantry, others the less artistic and equally destructible yellow of the cavalry. Their swinging stride, erect carriage and clear and handsome eyes all spoke of the perfection of health aL & ;ldierly development Curious glances were turned to them as they advanced, and Miss Renwick, catching sight of the party, exclaimed:[continued.] one fair girl who knew it well, but gently, almost entreatingly, repelled him. Her heart was wrapped up in another, the Adonis of his day in the gay old seaboard garrison. She was a soldier's child, barrack born, simply taught, knowing little of the vice and temptations, the follies and the frauds, of the whirling lifo of civilization. A good and gentle mother had reared her and been called hence. Her father, an officer whose saber arm was left at Molino del Rey, and whose heart was crushed when tho loving wifo was taken from him, turned to the child who so resembled her and centered there all his remaining love and life. He welcomed Chester to his home and tacitly favored his suit, but in his blindness never saw how jk few moonlit strolls on the old moss grown parapet, a few evening dances in the casemates with handsome, wooing, winning Will Forrester had done their work. She gave him all the wild, enthusiastic, worshiping love ot her girlish heart just abou# the time Captain and Mrs. Maynard came back from leave, and then he grew cold and negligent there, but lived at Maynard's fireside, and one day there came a sensation—a tragedy—and Mrs. Mavnard went away and died abroad, and a shocked and broken hearted girl hid her face from all and pined at home, and Mr. Forrester's resignation was sent from no one knew just where, and no Due would have cared to know except Maynard. He would have followed him, pistol in hand, but Forrester gave him no chance. Years afterward Chester r.jjain sought her and offered her his love and his name. It was useless, she told him sadly. Sho lived only for her father now and would never leave him all he died, and then she prayed she might go too. Memories like this will come up at such times in these same "still watches of the night" Chester was in a moody frame of mind when about half an hour later he came back past tho guardhouse. Tho sergeant was standing near the lighted entrance, and the captain called him: The road in the rear was some 10 feet below the level of the parade inside the quadrangle, and consequently, as the house faced the parade, what was tho ground floor from that front became the second story at the rear. The kitchen, storeroom and servants' rooms were on this lower stage and opened upon the road, an outer stairway ran up to the center door at the back, but at the east and west flanks of the house the stone walls stood without port or window except those above the eaves— the dormers. Light and air in abundance streamed through the broad Venetian windows porta and south when light and air were nee 'C1 This nijr'-t. as usnul, ai: «u) closed below, all darkness aloft as he gianioh up at the dormers-hif.-'! ab ive his head.. As he did so his foot struck a sudden and sturdy obstacle. He stumbled and pitched heavily forward and found himself sprawling at full length upon a ladder lying on the ground almost in the middle of the roadway. _ "Coulft you see his face?" asked Chester in a low tone as the other men moved away to search the rocks. "Not his face, sor. 'Twas too dark." "Was there—did he look liko anybody you knew or had seen—anybody in the command?" "Well, sor, not among the men—that Is, there's none so tall an slim both an so light Sure he must 'a' worn gums, sor. You couldn't hear tho whisper of a footfall." ' 'But whom did he seem to resemble?'' "Well, if the captain will forgive me, sor, It's unwillin I am to say the worrd, but there's no one that tall an light an slim here, sor, but Loot'nant Jerrold. Sure it couldn't be him, sor." "Leary, will you promise me something on your word as a man?" "I will, sor." "Say not one word of this matter to any one except I tell you or you have to before a court" "I promise, sor." "And I believe you. Tell the sergeant I will soon be back." With that he turned and walked down the road until once more he came to the plank crossing and the passageway between the colonel's and bachelors' row. Here again he stopped short and waited with bated breath and scarcely beating heart The faint light he had seen before again illumined the room and cast its gleam upon the old gray wall. Even as he gazed there came silently to the window a tall, white robed form, and a slender white hand seized and lowered the shade noiselessly. Then, as before, the light faded away, but—she was awake. Waiting one moment in silence, Captain Chester then sprang up the wooden steps and passed under the piazza which ran the length of the bachelor quarters. Half way down tho row he turned sharply to his left, opened the green painted door and stood in a little dark hallway. Taking bis matchbox from his pocket, be struck alight and by its glare quickly read the card upon the first doorway to his right "Mr, Howard F. Jerrold, Armltage had long before "taken hie measure" and was In no wise pleased that bo lukewarm a soldier should have oome to him as senior subaltern. They had a very plain talk, for Armltage was straightforward as a dart, and m Jerrold showed occasional lanes. th» captain snut aown on some ox nis most cherished privileges, and, to the indignation of society, the failure of Mr. Jerrold to appear at one or two gatherings where he was confidently expected was speedily laid at his captain's door. The recent death of his father kept Armltage from appearing in public, and, as neither he nor the major (who commanded the regiment while Maynard was abroad) vouchsafed the faintest explanation, society was allowed to form its own conclusions and did to the effect that Mr. Jerrold was a wronged and persecuted man. It was just as the Maynards arrived at Sibley that Armltage departed on his leave, and, to his unspeakable bliss, Mr. Jerrold suooeeded to the command of his company. This fact, coupled with the charming relations which were straightway established with the colonel's family, placed him in a position of independence and gave him opportunities he bad never known before. It was speedily evident that he was neglecting his military duties, that Company B was running down much faster than Armitage had built it up, and yet no man felt like speaking of It to the colonel, who saw it only occasionally on dress parade. Chester had about determined to write to Armitage himself and suggest his speedy return when this eventful night arrived. Now He fully made up his mind it must be done at once and had seated himself at his desk when the roar of the sunrise gun and the blare of the bugles warned him that reveille had come and he must again go to his guard. Before he returned to his quarters another complication, even more embarrassing, had arisen, and the letter to Armitage was postponed.But I oan truly say that this is the most absolute and unmitigated week of unblemished delight that I have ever put In, and my life, too, has been one of exceptional enjoyment, for I am of a sunny nature and live in a geutle, genial atmosphere. We are not camping out and living on crickets or trusting to a man 000k who never tried it before. At the foot of Craggy mountain, by the bank of the brawling stream, stands a meat little cottage with real beds in it and a big fireplace where one may dry his wet feet and eat three meals a day prepared by Mrs. Barnard. Poor Sloatl He did not fancy Jerrold and was as jealous as so unselfish a mortal could lie of the immediate ascendancy the young fellow established in the colonel's household. It was bad enough before Alice joined them. After that it was well nigh unbearable. Then camo the 3d of July dinner and the colonel's 0110 annual jollification. No Of course the story was told with varied comment all over the post Several officers were injudicious enough to chaff the old subaltern about it, and— be was a little sor. headed the next day anyway—the usually placid Sloat grew the more indignant at Jerrold. He decided to go and upbraid him, and, as ill luck would have it, they met before noon on the stops of the clubroom. One ho*it X( i2€ll the XIT)}iftCd lITlnt. man ever heard of Sloat's being intoxicated. He rarely drank at all, but this evening the reminiscences of the day, the generous wine, the unaccustomed elegance of all his surroundings, duo to Mrs. Maynard s taste and supervision, and the influence of Alice Renwick's exquisite beauty had fairly carried him She is not a college cook in his fresh - man year, who knows things that the Creator has not yet given to the press. She can oook, however, and does not allow the smoking tobacco to get into the batter the way a man oook does. We don't have to tote water two miles when we are tired or sleep in our wet elothes with a thousand legged worm in each ear so as to get healthy. When we don't care to go fishing or gathering bouquets of bright red hornet bites, we oan sit on the porch and smoke a long stem pipe and read a novel. This, therefore, is a successful trip, and when we get enough of it we can take Mr. Coshing's swift horses and in 2 hours gat comfortably into Asheville, where we may be mixing up with the elite this evening in low neck and short sleeves if we want to "I want to say to you, Mr. Jerrold, that from an officer of your ago to one of mine I think your conduct bust night a pieco of impertinence." away. "D—n those painters!" he ptowled between hi* set teeth. ' 'They leave their infernal mantraps around in the vi r* hope of catching me, I bel'-vc. NC They were chatting in the parlor, while Miss Renwick was entertaining some young lady friends from town and listening to the hand on the parade. Bloat was expatiating oil her grace and beauty and going over the album for the twentieth time when the colonel, with a twinkling eye, remarked to Airs. Maynard: "I had a perfect right to do what I did," replied Jerrold coolly. "You were taking a most unwarrantable lib- ' 'Oh, who are these? And what a tall soldier that sergeant is I" erty in trying to carry off that picture." "That sergeant, Miss Renwick," said a slow, deliberate voice, "is the man I believe will knock Mr. Jerrold out of tho first prize. That is Sergeant Mc- Leod." "How did you know what it was? Von had never seen it!" THOCT FISHING. who but a painter would ladder in such a p!a e ;is tin jve I eminently fitted for that purpose as It is one of the most beautiful spots on earth, and the trout stream is a perfect picture. It is shaded well, and therefore very oool, yet it is not 90 full of anoga and dead logs as to consume a library of fly books per mile. Rising rueful knee vith his h i ru h" I i---d 1- ' 'Tlx re's where you are mistaken, Mr. Sloat" (and Jerrold purposely and exasprratingly refused to recognize the customary brevet). "I had seen it—frequently. " As though he heard his name pronounced, the tall cavalryman glanced for the first time at the group, brought his rifle to tho carry, as if about to salute and was just stepping upon the roadside, where he came in full view of the occupants of tho carriage, when a sudden pallor she* across his face, and he plunged heavily forward and went down like a shot. Sympathetic officers and comrades surrounded the prostrate fonn in an instant. The colonel himself sprang from his carriage and joined tne group, a Diannet was qulo&iy brought from a neighboring tent, and the sergeant was borne thither and laid upon a cot. A surgeon felt his puis* and looked inquiringly around: Iv ab( 1 a t'ie s "I think you ought to show Major [By act of congress officers may be ad dressed by tho title- of the highest rank held by them in the. volunteer servici during tho war. The* colonel alway.- punctiliously so addressed his friend and subordinate, although in the army wr.v ;D Two officers were standing by, and one of them turned sharply and faced Jerrold as he spoke. It was his former company commander. Jerrold noted the symptom and flushed, but set his teeth doggedly. Mr. Prank Chapman of Asheville and John Fox., Jr., the delightful author of ' The Cumberland Vendetta," are along. It would please you to see two or three literary giants out after bait on days when the trout does not rise to the fly, but keeps his seat at the bottom of the pool 011 a 1. vritb t by a 1 igh» of si the level of the j a mar -ut to du ■s a.id The agricultural interests here seem to be centered very largely in the herb Industry. Every morning about 80 or 40 men go by here on their way to the heart of the forest, with a mattock over one shoulder and a gunny sack over rearrange his belt a;. I sword. He stood leaning against the wall and facing the pray s'one gable end oi the row of old fashioned quarters that bounded thc- s i ll his grade was simply that of first lieutenant] Sloat the 'directoiro' picture, my dear.'' "Why, Mr. Jerrold! Mrs. Maynard said she never showed that to any one," said Sloat in much surprise. "You heard her, did you not, Captain Chester?""Alice would never forgive me," said madam, laughing, "though I considei it the most beautiful wo have of hen." Yesterday was a grand sort of day, with low mutterlngs of thunder, just such a day as the true sport loves to go forth, rod in hand, to present his arguments for the consideration of his speckled constituents. It was a perfect day for late summer fishing in the North Carolina mountains. I caught 28T trout and the seat of my seoond best pantaes. Kersbrook was so named by Mr. Cashing and rises in the broad hrow of Craggy mountain. It is a succession of silvery cataracts, shadowed by huge tulip trees and giant bowlders of micaceous granite upholstered with silken moss of pallid green. Below the melodious cataract, where the frothy pool eddies and whirls about, bearing the empty bur of the chestnut, or the red fruit of the oaoumber tree, In a shady corner of the oool water, lies the alert little boy trout, hungry, bat oonserva tive, gamy, fieroe and venturesome, bat wary of the educated foe. parade upon the southwest. All was still darkness and silence. "Oh, where is it?" "Oh, do let u? see it, Mrs. Maynard!" was the chorus of exclamations from the few lartio present. "Oh, I insist on seeing it, madam," was,Sloat's characteristic contribution to the clamor. I did, certainly," was the reply. "Confound this sword!" he muttered again. "The thin, made rattle and racket enough to w: ke tho dead. Wonder if I disturbed a r D■ \ at the colonel's?""All the same, I repeat what I've said," was Jerrold's sullen answer. "I have seen it frequently, and, what's more''— Ho suddenly stopped. "There's a ladder lying back of the colonel's quarters on the roadway. Some i)f those painters left it, I suppose. It's a wonder some of the reliefs have not broken their nocks over it going around tonight. Let the next one pick it up and move it out of the way. Hasn't it been reported?" "Any of you cavalrymen know him well? Has he been affected this way before?" th Infantpr, U. S. A." Opening this door, he bolted straight "Well, what's more?" said Sloat suggestively.As though in a swer to hi supgestlon there suddail,; appeared, bigii 011 the blank wall hefor him, t-j« reflection of a faint li,,ht. , l.u ' a little night lamp been turned on ;n . iie front room el llie upper story': The gleam ca»i.e from th'C north win w on the Di '.e. He paw plainly the s; .dow of tl- • preity "I want you to understand it," said Mrs. Maynard, pleased, but still hesitating. "We are very daft about Alice at home, you know, :uid it's quite a wonder she has not been utterly spoiled by her aunts and uncles, but this picture was a specialty. An artist friend of ours fairly made us havo it taken in the wedding dress worn by her grandmother. You know the Josephine Beauharaais 'directoire' that was worn in seventeen ninety Something. Her neck and shoulders are lovely, and that was why we consented. I went, and so did the artist, and wo posed her, and the photograph is simply of her face and neck, too, but when Alice, saw it slio blushed furiously and forbade my haviug them finished. Afterward, though, she yielded when her Aunt Kate and I begged so hard and promised that none should be given away, and so just half a dozen were finished. Indeed the dress is by no means as decollete as many girls wear theirs at dinner now in New York, but poor Alice was scandalized when she saw it last month, and she never would let me put one in the album." A young corporal who had been bending anxiously over the sergeant straightened up and saluted: throngh the little parlor to the bedroom in the rear. A dim light was burning on the mantel. The bed was unruffled, untouched, and Mr. Jerrold was not there. Five minutes afterward Captain Chester, all alone, had laboriously and cautiously dragged the ladder from the side to the rear of the colonel's house, stretched it in the roadway where ho had first stumbled upon it, then returned to the searching party on No. 5. "Send two men to put that ladder back," he ordered. "It is where I told you—on the road behind the colonel's." "Never mind. I don't care to talk of the matter, " replied Jerrold and started to walk away. He had received the "present" of his guard and verified the presence of all his prisoners when he saw Major Sloat still standing out in the middle of the parade, where the adjutant usually received the reports of the roll calls. Several company officers, having made their reports, were scurrying back to quarters for another snooze before breakfast time or to get their cup of coffee before going ont to the range. Chester strolled over toward him. But Sloat was angry, nettled, jealous. He had meant to show his intense loyalty and admiration for everything that was his colonel's and had been snubbed and called a fool by an officer many years though not so many "files" his junior. He never had liked him, and now there was an air of conscious superiority about Jerrold that fairly exasperated him. He angrily followed and called to Lira to stop, but Jerrold walked on. Captain Chester stood still and watched them. The little man had almost to run before he overtook the tall una They were out of earshot when he finally did so. There were a few words on both sides. Then Jerrold shifted his light cane into his left hand, and Chester started forward, half expecting a fracas. To his astonishment, the two officers shook hands and parted. "I know him well, sir, and have been with him five years. He's only had one sick spell in all that time—'twas just like this—and then he told me he'd been sunstruck once." "Not to me, sir. Corporal Schreiber has command of th}9 relief, and he has said nothing about it Hery he js, 6ir." lace curtains loo; Then the shade was gi was for aa inst.iu the silhrueite of a eicader band and wrist uud th • shadow of a lace bordered sleeve. Then the light receded, as though en-Tied 1 across the room, waned, as ti;ougn s.owly extinguished, and the last shadows showed the curtains still looped back, the rolling shade still raised. 1 there "Didn't you eee it or stnmble over it when posting yonr relief, corporal?" asked Chester. •• rnisis no case 01 sunstroke, • 6aia the doctor. "It looks more like the heart How long ago was the attach you speak of?" "No, indeed, sir. I—I think tho capt in must have been mistaken in thinking it a ladder. We would surely have -truck it it it had been." "Three years ago last April, sir. I remember it, because we'd just got into Fort Haines after a long scout. He'd been the solidest man in the troop all through the cold and storm and snow we had in the mountains, and we were in the reading room, and ho'd picked up a newspaper and was reading while the rest of us were talking and laughing, and, first thing we knew, he was down on the floor, just like he was tonight"[TO BE GOMTKUm] "No mistake at all, corporal. I lifted it. It is a long, heavy ladder, over 20 feet, I should say." CHAPTER IIL Bow CboUj'a Crease Won llim « WIM. We are using today the grab of the unhatohed hornet for bail I never triep that before, bat it works well. To* slid op to a large gray hornets' nest, and while the family are at tea in the rear of their residence you plug up the front entranoe and drown the inmates by plunging the whole nest into the creek. Opening the beautiful structure, you disoover several oombs like those of the honeybee, only filled with the white or pale sulphur oolored grub at the yellow jacket, or Little Mammoth Surprise Package of the Blue Bidge. I gathered one of these hornets' nests once in an unguarded moment* watching my chanoe to plug up the front door just as no one was ooming in. Bat the last one oat suddenly thought of something that he wanted to tell his wife and oame back while I was there. Annoyed evidently at something I had said perhaps in a spirit of banter, he baakei up against the bridge of my nose and closed one of my eyes in a comparatively short apaoe of time. I dropped my glasses and decided to abandon the undertaking, but forgot to fully oomplete ay plugging arrangements before going. Several of the Mamma Tooohmenots, who had been on the nest, followed me and terraoed the top of my head as we jogged along together toward Mobile. When Mrs. Maynard came to Sibley in May and the officers with their wives were making their welcoming call she had with motherly pride and pleasure yielded to their constant importunities and shown to one party after another an album of photographs—likenesses of her only daughter. There were little cartes de visite representing her in  and baby caps; quaint little pictures of a chubby faced, chubby legged infant a few months older; charming studies of a little girl with great black eyes and delicate features; then of a tall, slender slip of a maiden, decidedly foreign looking; then of a sweet and pensive face, with great dark eyes, long, beautiful curling lashes and very heavy, low arched brows, exquisitely molded mouth and chin and most luxuriant dark hair; then others, still older, in every variety of dress, even in fancy costume, such as the girl had worn at fair or masquerade. "1 thought so," he. growled. "One tumble like that is enough to wake the seven sleepers, let alone a lovesick girl who is probably dreaming over Jerrold's parting words. She is spirited and blue blooded enough to have more sense, too, that superb brunette. Ah, Miss Alice, I wonder if you think that fellow's love worth having? It is.two hours since he left you—more than tint —and here you are awake yet—cannot sleep, want more air and have to come and raise yonr shade. No such warm night either." These were his reflections as he picked up his offending sword and more slowly and cautiously now groped his waj along tl; western terrace. He passed the row of bachelor quarters and was well out beyond the limits of the fort before he came upon the next sentry—No. 3—and recognized in the sharp "Who comes thC ?" and * "There is such a ladder back here, captain," said the sergeant, "but it always hangs on the fence just behind the young officers' quarters — bachelors' row, sir, I mean." the other, and at night they come home with a bushel or so of jelico root, worth from 97 to 89 cents. This root, when dried, is sold to the store and thence to the wholesale chemists of New York. Sometimes they get a little ginseng, -or "sang," as it is called, which the Chinese pay a high prioe for. UTTLK MAMMOTH HORNETS. "And that ladder was there an hour ago when I went my rounds,'' said the corporal earnestly. "I had my hurricane lamp, sir, and saw it on the fence plainly. And there was nothing behind the colonel's at that hour." "Hm!" said the surgeon. "Yes; that's plenty, steward Give him that. Raise his head a little, corporal. Now he'll come round all right" "Well," Hiiifl he as Sloat came back, with an angry yet bewildered face, "I'm ulad you shook hands. I almost feared a row and was just going to stop it 80 ho apologized, did he?" Driving home that night, Colonel Maynard musingly remarked: Chester turned away, thoughtful and silent. Without a word he walked straight into the quadrangle, past the low line of stone buildings, the offices of the adjutant and quartermaster, the home of the sergeant major, the club and billiard room, past the long piazza shaded row of bachelor quarters and come upon the plank walk at the oorin r of the colonel's fence Ten more ■ -, and he stood stockstill at the head of tiie ihght of wooden stairs. "Oil, do go and get it, Mrs. Maynard!" pleaded the ladies. "Oh, please let 1110 hoc it, Mrs. Maynard!" added Slo.it, and at last the mother pride prevailed. Mrs. Maynard rustled up stairs and presently returned, holding in her hands a delicate silver frame in filigree work, a quaint, fureign affair, and inclosed therein was a cabinet photograph en vignette—the head, neck and shoulders of a beautiful girl, and the dainty, diminutive, what-there-was-of-it waist of the old fashioned gown, sashed almost immediately under the exquisite bust, revealed quite materially the cause of Alice Reuwick's blushes. But a more beautiful portrait was never photographed. The women fairly gasped with delight and envy. Sloat could not restrain his impatience to get it in his own hands, and finally he grasped it and then eyed it in rapture. It was two minutes before he spoke a word, while the colonel sat laughing at his worshiping gaze. Mrs. Maynard somewhat uneasily stretched forth her hand, and the other ladies impatiently strove to regain jxissession. Some of the land here is pretty good, bat more of it iB not. It reminds me of • section in Dakota where James Whitoomb Riley says the land was so poor that they hadn't raised an umbrella on tt for over eight years. He claimed in his conversation with me also that over there it took two birds to sing ' 'peewee,'' one singing "pee" and the other "wee." The trees, however, are very beautiful here, and above where we are living and near the trout stream there is a tulip poplar over 9 feet in diameter. This poplar fa a wonderfully beautiful wood and sometimes when curly is the handsomest ornamental wood I ever saw. It has a pale green shade and a satin gloss, which, with the wavy grain and watered silk effect, cannot be equaled by any imported wood in the world. These mountains are heavily timbered to their very summits with every variety of oak, aah, elm, ohestnut, walnut, mountain mahogany, oherry, poplar, pine and a hundred other valuable kinds of timber. I am surprised that so little northern capital has gone into these cheap mountain lands, covered with valuable wooda, where a portable sawmill and aheap labor waald yield millions of feet of the most beautiful finishing woods. "No, nothing like it" "Then what did you mean by shaking "Did you see that splendid fellow who fainted away?" "*• "That'snothing—never yon mind," said Sloat confusedly. "I haven't forgiven him, by a good deal. The man's conceit is enough to disgust anything— but a woman, I suppose," ho finished ruefully. hands?" "No," answered his wife; "yon all gathered about him so quickly and carried him away. I could not even catch a glimpse of him. But he had recovered, VmH hp nnt.?'1 '"Yes. tstill I was thinking what a singular fact it is that occasionally a man slips through the surgeon's examinations with such a malady as this. Now, here is one of the finest athletes and shots in the whole army, a man who has been through some hard service and stirring fights, has won a tiptop name for himself and was on the high road to a commission, and yet this will block him effectually." "Well, it's none of my business, Sloat, but pardon my saying I don't see what there was to bring about the apparent reconciliation. That handshake meant something." dropped to the charge the weil known challenge of Private Leary, one of the oldest and most reliable soldiers in the regiment the stern rattle of the These and others still had Mrs. Maynard shown them, with repressed pride and pleasure, and with sweet acknowledgment of their enthusiastic praises. Alice still tarried in the east, visiting relatives whom she had not seen since her father's death throe years earlier, and long before she came to join her paother at Sibley and to enter upon the life she so eagerly looked forward to— " 'way out in the west, you know, with officers and soldiers and the band and buffalo and Indians all around you"— there was not an officer or an officer's wife who had not delightedly examined that album. There was still another picture, but that one had been shown to only a chosen few just one week after her daughter's arrival, and rather an absurd soene had occurred, in which that most estimable officer, Lieutenant Sloat had figured as tiSftiero. A more simple minded, well intentioned fellow than Sloat there did not live. Ho was so full of kindness and good nature and readiness to do anything for anybody that it never seemed to occur to him that everybody on earth was not just as ready to be equally accommodating. He was a perpetual source of delight to the colonel and one of the most loyal and devoted of subalterns, despite the fact that his locks were long silvered with the frosts of years and that he had fought through the war of the rebellion and risen to the rank of a field offioer in Maynard's old brigade. The most temperate of men ordinarily, the colonel had one anniversary ho loved to celebrate, and Sloat was his standby when the 8d of July came round, just as he had been at his shoulder at that supreme moment when, heedless of the fearful sweep of shell and canister through their shattered ranks, Pickett's heroic Virginians breasted the slope of Cemetery Hill and surged over the low stone wall into Oushing's guns. Hard, stub born fighting had Maynard's men to do that day, and for serene courage and determination no man had beaten Sloat. There, dimly visible against the southern sky, its base on the plank walk below him, its top resting upon the eaves midway between the dormer window an.l the roof of the piazza, so that one could step easily from it into the one or onto the other, was the very ladder that half an hour before was lying on the ground behind the house. "Oh, well—d—n it! Wo had some words, and he—or I—well, there's a bet, and we shook hands on it" "All right on yonr post, Leary?" he asked after having given the countersign."All right, I think, sor, though if the captain had asked me that half an horn- ago I'd not have said so. It was so dark I couldn't see me hand afore me face, sor, but about half past 2 I was walkin very slow down back of the quarters whin just close by Loot'nant Jerrold's back gate I seen somethin movin, an as I come softly along it riz up, an sure I thought 'twas the loot'nant himself, whin he seemed to catch sight o' me or hear me, an he backed inside the gate an shut it I was sure 'twas he, he was so tall an slimlike, an so I niver said a word until 1 got to thinkin over it an then I couldn't spake Sure if it had been the loot'nant he wouldn't have backed away from A sintry—he'd 'a' come out bold an given the countersign—but I didn't think 0* that It looked like him in the dark, AO 'twas his quarters, an I thought it WM him until I thought ag'in, an then, sor, I wint back and searched the yard, but there was no one there. " "Seems to me that's pretty serious business, Sloat—a bet following such a talk as you two have Rid. I hope"  "Why, what is the trouble?" "Well, captain," interrupted Sloat, "I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been mad as blazes, but I made it and must stick to it. That's all." "Some affection of the heart Why! Hello 1 Stop, driver! Orderly, jump down and run back there. Mrs. Maynard has dropped her fan. What was it, dear?" he asked anxiously. "You started, and yon are white and trembling." We get the boys here to procure oar hornets' nests now, as there is a popular feeling engendered among the hornets against us. I do not mind seeing a bear, because I am so agile that I can throw an ordinary grlaaly bear with sooh force as to crush his skull, but the impatient little typhoid Jabber with the overheated prong is so swift in hfa movements that the average thought seems to be standing still aa he passes by- His heart stood still. He seemed powerless to move, even to think. Then a slight noise roused him, and with every nerve tingling ho crouched ready for a spring. With quick, agile movements, noiseless as a cat, sinuous and stealthy as a serpent, the dark figure of a man issued from Alice Renwick's chamber window and came gliding down. "Yon wouldn't mind telling me what It was, I suppose?" "I can't, and that ends it" "I—I don't know, colonel. Let us go home. It will bo over in a minute. Where are Alice and Mr. Jerrold? Call them, please. She must not be out riding after dark.' * i.nester iouuq rooa ior muci» thought and speculation over this incident, So far as ho was concerned, the abrupt, remark of Sloat by no means Hided it. In his distrust of Jerrold he, too, had taken alarm at the very substantial intimacy to which that young man was welcomed at the colonel's quarters. Prior to his marriage old Maynard had not liked him at all, but it was mainly because he had been so negligent of his duties and so determined a beau in city society after his arrival at Sibley. He had indeed threatened to have him transferred to a company still 011 frontier service if he did not reform, but then tho rifle practice season began, and Jerrold was a capital shot and sure to be on the list of competitors for the department team, so what was the use? He would be ordered in for the rifle camp anyway, and so tho colonel decided to keep him at headquarters. This was in the summer of the year gone by. Then came the colonel's long leave, his visit to Europe, his meeting with hia old friend, now the widow of the lamented Renwiek; their delightful winter together in Italy, liis courtship, her consent, their marriage and return to America. When Maynard came back to Sibley and the old regiment, ho was so jolly and content that every man was welconii d at his house, and it was really a source of pride and pleasure to him that his accomplished wife should find any of his young officers so thoroughly agreeable as she pronounced Mr. Jerrold. Others were soldierly, courteous, well bred, but he had the air of a foreign court about him, she privately informed her lord, and it seems indeed that in days gone by Mr. Jerrold's father had spent many years in Franco and Spain, once as his country's representative near the throne. Though tho father died long before tho boy was out of his knickerbockers, he had left the impress of his grand manner, aud Jerrold, tC i women of any age, was at once a courtier and a knight. But the colonel nowr saw how her eyes followed tho tall young officer time and again. There Were women who soon noted it, and one of them said it was such a yearning, longing look. "C01110, Major Sloat, you've surely had it long enough. We want it again." One second more, and almost as noiselessly ho reached the ground, then quickly turned and raised the ladder, stepped with it to the edge of the roadway and peered around the angle as though to see that np sentry was in sight then vanished with his harden around the corner. Another second, and down the steps went Chester, three at a bound, tiptoeing it in pursuit Ten seconds brought him close to the culprit—a tall, slender shadow. "Never!" said Sloat, with melodramatic intensity. "Never 1 This is my ideal of perfection of divinity in woman. I will bear it homo with me, set it above my fireside and adoro it day and night" But they were not in sight, and it was considerably after dark when they reached tho fort Mr, Jerrold explained that his horso had picked up a stone and he had had to walk him all the way. Mr. Fox is a very active man both mentaity and physically, and yet his efforts In capturing the yellow Jacket squab have been attended with only moderate suooesa and a tumor on the brow, whid|9H9ates an overdevelopment Of sfnMHty. We gave out word at the schoolboose on our way up the branch that we would pay 86 oents apieoe for hornets' nests in a good state of preservation, and that evening we had one aid of the par oh fall of baby hornets for the morrow. I struck a highly intelligent party in town the other day who gave me a good deal of information about many matters and seemed to think that almost everything worthy of preservation had oome from Virginia. He had come from there himself. gljBpPv "Nonsense, Major Sloat!" said Mrs. Maynard, laughing, yet fiir from being at her ease. "Come, I must take it back. Alice may bo in any minute now, and if she knew I had betrayed her she would never forgive me. Come, surrender!" And she strovo to tak« it from him. CHAPTER IV. There was no »leep for Captain Ches ter the rest of tho night He went home, threw off his sword belt and seated him self in a big easy chair before his fireplace, deep in thought Once or twice ho aroso and paced restlessly up and down the room, as ho had done in hi.1 excited talk with Rollins somo few hours before. Then he was simply angry and argumentative or declamatory. Now he had settled down into a very different frame of mind. He seemed awed, stunned, crushed. Ho had all the bearing and mien of one who, having defiantly predicted a calamity, was thunderstruck by the verification of his prophecy. He olaimed everything from George Washington to the consul from Shenandoah who was to take the consulship at Amoy, China, and who got so full of Com liquor and noble impulses that his tody waa brought back from San Frauefaoo and resuscitated at home, where they had time to do it This young man of whom I speak was not over 19 years of age, but during that time had managed to obtain information that I always thought was being reserved for Gabriol to announoe later on. "You villain! Halt!" "Hm! Odd thing that, Leary! Why didn't you challenge at first?" Down went the ladder on the dusty road. The hand that Chester had clinched upon the broad shoulder was hurled aside. There was a sudden whirl, a lightning blow that took the captain full in the chest and staggered him back But Sloat was in ono of his utterly asinine moods. He would havo been perfectly willing to give any sum ho possessed for so perfect a picture as this. He never dreamed that there were good and sufficient reasons why no man should have it. He so loved and honored his colonel that he was ready to lay down his life for any of his household. In laying claim to this picture he honestly believed that it was tho highest proof ho could givo of his admiration and devotion. A tamo surrender now meant that his protestations were empty words. "Therefore," argued Sloat, "I must stand firm." "Sure, sor, he lept inside the fince quick as iver we set eyes on each other. He was bendin down, an I thought it was one of the hound pups when I first sighted him." I carried a oomb full of hornets all day In my hip pooket, bat toward evening the warmth of my person had taken the place of the mamma hornet to such an extent that 11 full sized pap hornets emerged from their little •hells and stong me most bitterly- I did not tell the other gentlemen a boot it, bat they noticed that I was sad, and that even the broiled trout at eventide and the low planky plank of the banjo at the oabin did not give me joy. They "And he hasn't been around since?" "No, sor, nor nobody till the officer pf the day came along.'' Be had never been north and seemed to have an idea that New Yorkers did the most of their trading in Richmond. I did not interfere until he claimed 'all the literattkiAand maintained that Charles was a Virginia man, and then I murmured. Alter a heated discussion he at last yielded, bnt went away offering to bet that George Eliot was a Virginia man anyhow. These are facta which I can prove. His gentle assurance was worthy of Brown oounty, ]n& I like to see a man loyal hta state, bat he should also have a casual knowledge of how to pound sand Chester walked away puzzled. Sibley a quiet and orderly garrison. N prowlers had pever been he*rd n over hero at (hC; south —Yale Record. Uht Li all his determined arraignment of Mr. Jerrold, in all the harsh things he had said and thought of him, he had never imagined any such depth of scoundrelism as tho revelations of the night foreshadowed. Chester differed from many of his brotherhood. There was no room for rejoicing in his heart that the worst he had ever said of Jerrold was unequal to the apparent truth. He took no comfort to his soul that those, who called him cynical, crabbed, unjust, even malicious, would pow be compelled to admit ho was light in his estimate. Liko tho best of us, Chester could not ordinarily say "Yade retro" to the {captation to think, If not to say, "Didn't I tell you so?" when in everyday affairs his oft disputed views were proved well founded. But in tho face of such a catastropho as now appeared engulfing the fair fame of his regiment and tho honor of tho6e whom his colonel held dear, Chester could feel only dismay and grief. What was h'p duty in tho light of tho discoveries he had made? To the best of his belief, ho was the only piau in tho garrison who had evidenco of Jerrold's absenoe from his own quarters and of tho presence of some one at her window. He had taken prompt measures to prevent its being suspected by others. Ho purposely sent his guards to search along the cliff in the opposite direction, while he went to Jerrold's room and thence back to remove the telltale ladder. Should he tell K quality of Sex. It is natural for a woman to resent the imputation that the feminine mind ia not so strong as the masculine, and this spirit of independence was early manifested in a schoolgirl living in a Massachusetts town. She had, too often perhaps, been made to acknowledge the superiority of her brothers. southwest fronts. The enlisted nun go Ing to pr from town passed across i Ik big high bridge or went at once tC their own quarters on the east ant; north. This southwestern terraoo in-bini: also noticed that I carried a large pillow around with me and sat on it to keep from taking cold on the dewy •arth. "Madam,"said he, "I'd die first." And with that ho began backing to tho door. This morning eight boys oame to where we were fishing. All of them had large, beautiful welts over the eye, and they said that they were a oummittee sent to demand an advance en the prloe of bait I told them that there was nothing to arbitrate, bat Mr. Fox thought best to aooede tQ the demand of the oommittee, so we are paying 40 oents now, but require the striken to furnish $eir own soda and ammonia. Mr. Fox arose early this morning to SD to the summit of Craggy mountain, is desire was to see the glorious sun arise far o'er yon mountain gray, and, as be mounted op the sky, the darkness flee away. the bachelors' row was the mo. t «■ ed spot on the whole post, so much so that when a fire broke out there a:noug the fuel heaps one sharp wintr r's night a year agone it had well nigh enveloped the whole line before its existence wa discovered. Indeed not until alter thipeenrrence was a sentry posted on that front at all, and once ordered there he bad so little to do and was so comparatively sure to be undisturbed that the old Boldiers eagerly sought the post, in preference to any other and were given It as a peace privilege. For months relief after relifef tramped around the fort found the terrace post as humdrum find silent as an empty church, but this pight No. 5 leaped suddenly into notoriety.Both officers had bullet hole mementos to carry from that field, both had won their brevets for conspicuous gallantry, and Sloat was a happy and grateful man when, years afterward, his old commander secured him a lieutenancy in thb regular service. He was the colonel'* henchman, although he never had brninC* cuougn to vT.il a place oil uie rt-guueuuu staff, and when Mrs. Maynard came he overwhelmed her with cumbrous compliments and incessant calls. He was, to his confident belief, her chosen and accepted knight for full two days after her arrival. Then Jerrold came back from a brief absence, and as in duty bound went to pay his respects to his colonel's wife, and that night there had been a singular Mrs. Maynard had stopped suddenly in her laughing chat with two ladies, had started froni her seat, wildly staring at the tall, slender subaltern who entered the gateway, and then fell back in her chair, fairly swooning as he made his bow. Alarmed now, Mrs. Maynard sprang after him, and the little major leaped upon a chair, his face aglow, jolly, rubicund, beaming with bliss and triumph. She looked up, almost wringing her bands, and turned half appealinKly to tho colonel, who was laughing heartily on tho sofa, never dreaming Sloat could be in earnest. One day her mother remarked upon the apparently utter lack of intelligence in • ben. "Yon oan't teach a hen anything," she said. "They have ruined more of the garden than a drove of cattle would. You can teach a cat, dog or pig something, but a hfii—never I" 4 lightning blow took the captain full in the chest. A Box Party. upon the treacherous and entangling rungs, and ero he could recover himself the noiseless stranger had fairly whizzed into space aiid vanished in the darkness up the road. Chester sprang in pursuit- He heard the startled challenge of the sentry and then Leary's excited "Halt, I say I Halt!" and then he shouted: "Here, I'll give you DacK tno Irarne I don't want that," said Sloat and began fumbling at tho back of the photograph. This was too much for the ladies. They, too, rushed to tho rescue. On" of them sprang and shut the door; theothor seized and violently shook the back of his chair, and (sloat leaped to the floor, still clinging to his prize and laughing as though he had never had so much entertainment in his life. The long Venetian windows opened upon the piazza, and toward the nearest on© he retreated, holding aloft the precious gage and waving off the attacking party with the other hand. Hi* was within a yard of tho blinds when they were suddenly thrown open, a tall, slender form stepped quickly in, one hand seized tho uplifted wrist, "H'm!" exclaimed the child indignantly. "I think they know just as much as roosters!"—Youth's Companion.• * ** ~ •— r " • A Jlopelesa Undertaking. "The United States army ia the only one in which there never is any matiny."Cariosity of that kind used to bother me years ago, but now I oan control it better. I heard him getting np in thu night, it seemed to me, and falling over my celebrated waterproof porpoise hide shoes, which I have had over a and yet they have that same dumb but powerful method of letting people know where they are. They are full of fish oil, and all last winter while traveling } was not allowed to put up at the beet hotels, many of the guests thinking that pofgbly these shoes oontagious. "Fire on him, Learyl down!" Bring him , "No wonder. Is it likely that one private would mutiny against so many Gfikers?"—Kate Field's Washington. (pstead of going home, Chester kept 00 across the plateau and took a long W*lk on the northern side of the reservation, where the quartermaster's stables and corrals were placed. He was affected by a strange unrest His talk with Rollins nronsfd t' m- ri s of years lon„' by, oi days he, too, was young and full of hope and faith—aye, full of love—all lavished on Bang! went tho ready rifle with sharp, snllen roar that woko the echoes across the valley. Bang! again as Leary sent a second shot after tho first. Then as tho captain came panting to tho spot ■hey followed up the road. No sign of the runner. Attracted by the shots, the sergeant of the guard and one or two men, lantern bearing, came running to Was Mrs. Maynard really happy? they asked each other. Pid she really want to see Alice mate with him, tho handsome, tho dangerous, tho selfish fellow they knew him to be? If not, could anything bomore imprudent than that they should lx! thrown together as they were being, day after day? Had Alice wealth That Was the Cause. Haverly—I cannot understand how it is you have become so careless in your dress. Those trousers yon have on are distinctly bagged at the knees. Sloat had rushed into the house to call the colonel and get some water, while Jerrold stood paralysed at so strango a reception of his first call. Mrp. Maynard revived presently, explained that it was —Life* Austen — I'm engaged. — Brooklyn Life. Subscribe for. the Gazxttx.