1 files changed, 3629 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/23751-8.txt b/23751-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..196b58a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23751-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3629 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Southern Stories, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Southern Stories
+       Retold from St. Nicholas
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: December 6, 2007 [EBook #23751]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOUTHERN STORIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Janet Blenkinship, Linda McKeown
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+SOUTHERN STORIES
+
+
+RETOLD FROM ST. NICHOLAS
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1907
+
+Copyright, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1894, 1898, 1900, 1902, 1903, 1907,
+by THE CENTURY CO.
+
+THE DE VINNE PRESS
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: A REAL UNCLE REMUS STORY.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+  A REAL UNCLE REMUS STORY                                 _Frontispiece_
+
+  HIS HERO   _Margaret Minor_                                          3
+
+  JERICHO BOB    _Anna Eichberg King_                                 18
+
+  HOW WE BOUGHT LOUISIANA   _Helen Lockwood Coffin_                   28
+
+  THE CITY THAT LIVES OUTDOORS   _W. S. Harwood_                      34
+
+  QUEER AMERICAN RIVERS   _F. H. Spearman_                            52
+
+  THE WATERMELON STOCKINGS   _Alice Caldwell Hegan_                   65
+
+  THE "'GATOR"   _Clarence B. Moore_                                  80
+
+  THE EARTHQUAKE AT CHARLESTON   _Ewing Gibson_                       96
+
+  HIDING PLACES IN WAR TIMES   _J. H. Gore_                          102
+
+  ST. AUGUSTINE   _Frank R. Stockton_                                108
+
+  CATCHING TERRAPIN   _Alfred Kappes_                                126
+
+  "LOCOED"   _Edward Marshall_                                       130
+
+  A DIVIDED DUTY   _M. A. Cassidy_                                   165
+
+  THE "WALKING-BEAM BOY"   _L. E. Stofiel_                           178
+
+  THE CREATURE WITH NO CLAWS   _Joel Chandler Harris_                185
+
+
+
+
+SOUTHERN STORIES
+
+
+
+
+SOUTH
+
+
+  Beautiful is the land, with its prairies and forests of fruit-trees;
+  Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of heavens
+  Bending above, and resting its dome on the walls of the forest.
+
+                                                     _Longfellow._
+
+
+
+
+HIS HERO
+
+BY MARGARET MINOR
+
+
+It was an October afternoon, and through Indian summer's tulle-like haze
+a low-swinging sun sent shafts of scarlet light at the highest peaks of
+the Blue Ridge. The sweet-gum leaves looked like blood-colored stars as
+they floated slowly to the ground, and brown chestnuts gleamed
+satin-like through their gaping burs; while over all there rested a
+dense stillness, cut now and then by the sharp yelp of a dog as he
+scurried through the bushes after a rabbit.
+
+Surrounded by this splendid autumn beauty stood Mountain Top Inn, near
+the crest of the Blue Ridge in Rockfish Gap, its historical value dating
+from the time when Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, after a long and
+spirited discussion in one of its low-ceiled rooms, decided upon the
+location of the University of Virginia.
+
+On the porch of this old inn there now sat a little boy, idly swinging a
+pair of sun-tanned legs. Occasionally he tickled an old liver-colored
+hound that lay dozing in a limp heap; but being rewarded only by
+toothless snaps at very long intervals, he finally grew tired of this
+amusement, and stretching himself out on his back, he began to dream
+with wide-open eyes. At these dream-times, when he let his thoughts
+loose, they always bore him to the very same field, and here his fancy
+painted pictures with the vivid colors of a boy's imagination: pictures
+so strong that they left him flushed and tingling with pride; again,
+pictures that brought a cool, choking feeling to his throat; and at
+times pictures that made his childish mouth quiver and droop. Among all
+of these thought-born scenes, at intervals there would stand out the
+real ones, scenes that were etched on the clean walls of his memory in
+everlasting strokes.
+
+He never tired thinking of that first morning--that morning when all the
+world seemed gilded with sunshine and throbbing with martial music. His
+grandfather had lifted him up on one of the "big gate" posts to see the
+soldiers march by. With mingled feelings of admiration and childish envy
+he had watched them drill for many weeks, but they had never seemed such
+real, grand soldiers until now, as they came marching by with quick,
+firm steps, keeping time to the clear, staccato notes, marching off to
+real battle-fields. It was all so beautiful, splendid, and gay--the
+music, the soldiers, the people, the hurrahing! It stirred his sentient
+little body through and through with a kind of joy, and he thought it so
+strange that his mother's eyes were full of tears.
+
+Just a few days later he had listened eagerly to the sharp, crackling
+sound of guns and the rumbling thunder of cannon, so near that the air
+seemed to vibrate. He and another little boy had stood and talked in
+high, quick tones, bragging and predicting breathlessly the result of
+the battle as they used the term "our men."
+
+Finally they climbed the tallest oak on the lawn, and strained their
+young eyes to see which was "gettin' whipped."
+
+A little while after this he remembered following his father through the
+long hospital ward. Over the first bed he saw him stoop and loosen the
+white cotton bandages of a wounded man. On the next narrow cot there
+was a slender boy of fifteen, who lay with clenched hands watching the
+work of the surgeon. Then they passed a woman, who was gently bathing
+the forehead of a man whose soldier days seemed likely to come to an
+early end.
+
+Some weeks had gone by, when one day he followed a party of men to
+Marye's Heights. It was a short time after the battle of Fredericksburg.
+A light snow had fallen the night before, which the wind whirled and
+sifted about the dead, in a way that made them appear to be shuddering.
+Once a sharp gust blew the snow off a body lying on its face, and the
+boy's eyes filled. He scarcely heeded the talk of the men with whom he
+had gone. His thoughts were held fast by the awful scene which lay
+spread before his young eyes.
+
+How often since then had the boy pictured himself a grown man, seated on
+just such a fine horse and following Lee! It was always Lee; in his
+dreamland through the heart of the battle he always followed General
+Robert E. Lee, his hero, whom he had never seen, but whom he had carried
+halo-crowned in his heart ever since he could remember.
+
+And then the very saddest day in his life had come--the day when the
+first news of Lee's surrender lay heavy on the hearts of the household.
+For a while he had followed his mother as she went silently, with closed
+white lips, from one duty to another. Finally he went out to seek
+comfort from Uncle Jake, whom he found sitting with his back propped
+against the side of the corn-crib, drawing little quick puffs of smoke
+from his pipe.
+
+"Uncle Jake," he said, "Lee's just _had_ to s'render."
+
+"Yes, honey." And as he looked into Uncle Jake's little red, watery
+eyes, he saw no comfort there, and turned away.
+
+Seven months had gone by since the war had ended; still, on this October
+afternoon, as the boy lay stretched out on the porch of the old inn, he
+dreamed his boyish dreams of romance and heroism.
+
+Suddenly his attention was attracted by the sound of hoofs, and turning
+his head he saw a man riding slowly down the road. A new arrival at the
+inn was always most interesting. An eager light came into the boy's eyes
+as he watched the rider, who was now near enough for him to see how
+firmly he sat in his saddle. The man seemed a very part of the strongly
+built horse, which carried him with an ease that indicated long habit.
+
+A wiry little negro had also seen the approaching horseman, and was now
+hurrying across the lawn to meet him.
+
+"May I spend the night here, my man?" asked the stranger.
+
+"Yessuh--yessuh!" answered Uncle Jake, quickly, and opening the gate he
+stepped out and caught the bridle near the bit, as the horseman swung
+out of the creaking saddle to the ground.
+
+"Uncle Jake, take the horse around to the stable!" called out the boy,
+who felt that the honors of hospitality rested on him, there being no
+one else in sight. Then he ran briskly down the walk to meet the
+stranger, who extended his fine, strong hand with a little smile, and
+said very kindly:
+
+"How do you do, sir?"
+
+"I'm well," replied the boy.
+
+"And what is your name?"
+
+"Jimmy."
+
+"Jimmy? Well, Jimmy is a nice name," he said. Then he turned, and still
+held the boy's hand as he watched the little old negro, who stood with
+his head under the saddle-skirt, tiptoeing and straining in his effort
+to unfasten the girth. Finally, when he succeeded, he flung the saddle
+on the ground, and the horse, feeling relieved of his burden, first
+shook himself violently, and then expressed his comfort again and again
+in deep chest-tones.
+
+During all this time Jimmy's eyes had been fastened on the stranger's
+spurs, and a peculiar feeling of incredulity gradually filled his mind.
+
+Silver, indeed! He could not fool him! No one was rich enough to have
+real silver spurs! So sternly did he resent what he thought to be an
+attempt at deception that he drew his small brown hand slowly out of the
+stranger's gentle clasp.
+
+After slipping off the bridle from the horse's head and dropping it by
+the saddle, Uncle Jake led him away by his forelock to the stable, and
+Jimmy walked toward the inn with his guest, who said as they reached the
+steps:
+
+"Jimmy, we will sit here for a while, and then I will go over to the
+stable and see about my horse."
+
+As they sat down the old hound came cautiously down the steps, wheezing
+out a husky greeting.
+
+"She is too old to hurt any one," said Jimmy.
+
+"Is she yours?"
+
+"No, sir. Tip's mine. Listen!" he exclaimed, as the sharp yelp of a dog
+again broke the stillness. "That's Tip! He goes off and runs rabbits all
+by himself."
+
+"Perhaps he is after a fox."
+
+"No, sir; Tip won't run a fox."
+
+"Jimmy, can you tell from a dog's cry whether he is running a fox or a
+rabbit?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, if he is trailing a rabbit he does not bark continually, but if
+he is after a fox he does; so you can always tell if you listen
+carefully."
+
+"Never heard about that before," replied Jimmy, with a smile.
+
+After this there followed a long pause, during which the stranger looked
+about inquiringly, then said:
+
+"Jimmy, how long have you been living here?"
+
+"Not very long. We refugeed over in North Carolina the first part of the
+war. Then we came back to Spottsylvania County while father was in
+prison. Why, we just came here after the s'render. You remember when Lee
+just had to s'render?" he asked, looking up into the stranger's face.
+
+[Illustration: "'YOU REMEMBER WHEN LEE JUST HAD TO S'RENDER?' ASKED
+JIMMY."]
+
+The boy's mouth, as usual, quivered as he uttered the word "s'render,"
+but the man did not appear to see this. He seemed to be looking at a
+far-off mountain peak. After a pause he replied, "Yes, I remember," as
+he arose and started toward the stable.
+
+"I'll show you the way," said Jimmy.
+
+"Thank you, sir," he answered gravely.
+
+When they entered the stable the big gray horse greeted his master with
+some soft little nickerings. "Oh, he knows you without even looking!"
+exclaimed Jimmy, in tones expressing delight and surprise.
+
+"Yes, he knows me pretty well," the man replied, as he looked with
+anxious sympathy at a saddle-galled place on the horse's back.
+
+Jimmy had climbed up on the side of the stall, and was also looking with
+much interest. Suddenly he exclaimed: "I know what's good for that! Some
+stuff down in the bottom of the chalybeate spring."
+
+He pronounced each syllable of the word "chalybeate" very clearly, for
+it was a newly learned word, and he was proud of his ability to use it.
+
+"Why, yes; the iron in it ought to be healing. How far is the spring?"
+
+"Oh, just a little way; I'll show you," Jimmy replied, jumping to the
+ground and quickly opening the stable door. "Let me lead him," he added.
+
+"Hadn't you rather ride him, Jimmy?"
+
+"Yes, sir," he replied, in rather shy but pleased tones.
+
+"All right," said the man, as he swung the little fellow up on the
+horse. "There! Sit farther back, so you will not hurt that galled place.
+Now I'll lead him, and you tell me in which direction to go."
+
+"Down the road there, just on the other side of the ice-pond," said
+Jimmy, pointing in that direction as they moved off.
+
+The boy was happy as he cupped his bare legs close around the body of
+the horse, and watched the square shoulders of the man who walked slowly
+ahead. He thought him exceedingly nice and kind, and his feelings in
+regard to the spurs were not nearly so intense. The desire to ask if
+they were real silver, though, was strong, but he felt that perhaps it
+would not be polite, so he said nothing.
+
+After they had gone some distance Jimmy exclaimed, "There's the spring!"
+Then he slid quickly to the ground, and without other words knelt down
+and, baring one arm, dipped out of the bottom of the spring a handful of
+rust-colored flakes.
+
+"This is what you put on his back," he said. "Just lay it right on. It
+doesn't hurt; it just feels cool."
+
+The directions were quietly obeyed, and the horse made no movement, save
+a slight quiver of the skin, as if to shake off a fly.
+
+"Uncle Jake says that doctors can't make any finer medicine than this,"
+he said, as he scooped up another handful.
+
+"Well, Jimmy, I am very much obliged to you, and I'm sure that my horse
+is also," said the stranger, as they started on back to the stable.
+
+In the meantime the saddle left by Uncle Jake near the horse-rack had
+attracted the attention of a young man as he came through the front
+gate. After looking at it for a few minutes, idle curiosity prompted him
+to turn it over with his foot, and as he did so three bright brass
+letters--"R. E. L."--greeted him. He looked sharply at them at first,
+then his eyes dilated, and a little prickly thrill ran through him. "I
+wonder if it can be!" he said. Suddenly some convincing feeling seemed
+to fill his mind, and then he almost ran to the house. On reaching the
+steps, he sprang up them two at a time, and entered the hall, where he
+met Mrs. Claverly.
+
+"Mrs. Claverly--" he began, and stopped.
+
+"Well?" she asked, smiling at his hesitation. "What is it, Charley?"
+
+"Ah, do you know, Mrs. Claverly, I think that General Lee is here." His
+voice was husky with excitement.
+
+"General Lee! Where?" But without waiting for a reply, she stepped
+quickly to the door of the old-fashioned parlor, and exclaimed in soft,
+suppressed tones to a group of women sitting there:
+
+"They think that General Lee is here!"
+
+"What makes them think so?" asked a thin, gray-haired woman, as she
+hastily arose.
+
+"Why," replied the young man, his tones now quite positive, "his saddle
+with 'R. E. L.' on it is out there by the gate."
+
+"There he comes now," said one of the group, eagerly; "at least, I
+suppose that it is he."
+
+"Let me see," said Mrs. Claverly, going rapidly to the window. "I saw
+him once at the Greenbrier White, and I am sure that I would know him.
+Yes, it is he!" she exclaimed, as she looked at the man coming slowly
+across the lawn, talking earnestly to the barefoot boy at his side. His
+thoughts were so completely occupied by what he was saying that not
+until he was quite near the inn did he see the group on the porch, and
+his face flushed slightly as he realized that they were there to greet
+him. Lifting his hat, he ascended the steps with bared head. Mrs.
+Claverly walked quickly forward, and extended her slim white hand.
+
+"General Lee, I believe."
+
+"Yes, madam," he replied gravely, as he bowed low over her hand.
+
+At the sound of Lee's name Jimmy's eyes grew round, and filled with
+astonishment. For one brief moment he stood gazing up at the stately old
+soldier, whom every one was greeting, then he backed slowly away until
+he reached the door. There he stood another moment, seeing nothing but
+his hero.
+
+Suddenly he turned and darted down the long hall, up the stairway, and
+into his mother's room.
+
+"Mother!" he exclaimed in breathless wonderment, "mother! General Lee is
+downstairs, and he is just splendid, and--er--mother, he's just exactly
+like anybody else!"[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: This story is based upon the personal experience of one who
+related it to the author.]
+
+
+
+
+JERICHO BOB
+
+BY ANNA EICHBERG KING
+
+
+Jericho Bob, when he was four years old, hoped that one day he might be
+allowed to eat just as much turkey as he possibly could. He was eight
+now, but that hope had not been realized.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mrs. Jericho Bob, his mother, kept hens for a living, and she expected
+that they would lay enough eggs in the course of time to help her son to
+an independent career as a bootblack.
+
+They lived in a tumble-down house in a waste of land near the steam
+cars, and besides her hens Mrs. Bob owned a goat.
+
+Our story has, however, nothing to do with the goat except to say he was
+there, and that he was on nibbling terms, not only with Jericho Bob,
+but with Bob's bosom friend, Julius Cæsar Fish, and it was surprising
+how many old hat-brims and other tidbits of clothing he could swallow
+during a day.
+
+As Mrs. Bob truly said, it was no earthly use to get something new for
+Jericho, even if she could afford it; for the goat browsed all over him,
+and had been known to carry away even a leg of his trousers.
+
+Jericho Bob was eight years old, and the friend of his bosom, Julius
+Cæsar Fish, was nine. They were both of a lovely black; a tallow-dip
+couldn't take the kink out of their hair, and the hardest whipping did
+not disturb the even cheerfulness of their spirits. They were so much
+alike that if it hadn't been for Jericho's bow-legs and his turn-up
+nose, you really could not have told them apart.
+
+A kindred taste for turkey also united them.
+
+In honor of Thanksgiving day Mrs. Bob always sacrificed a hen which
+would, but for such blessed release, have died of old age. One drumstick
+was given to Jericho, whose interior remained an unsatisfied void.
+
+Jericho Bob had heard of turkey as a fowl larger, sweeter, and more
+tender than hen; and about Thanksgiving time he would linger around the
+provision stores and gaze with open mouth at the noble array of turkeys
+hanging, head downward, over bushels of cranberries, as if even at that
+uncooked stage, they were destined for one another. And turkey was his
+dream.
+
+It was spring-time, and the hens were being a credit to themselves. The
+goat in the yard, tied to a stake, was varying a meal of old shoe and
+tomato-can by a nibble of fresh green grass. Mrs. Bob was laid up with
+rheumatism.
+
+"Jericho Bob!" she said to her son, shaking her red and yellow turban at
+him, "Jericho Bob, you go down an' fetch de eggs to-day. Ef I find yer
+don't bring me twenty-three, I'll--well, never mind what I'll do, but
+yer won't like it."
+
+Now, Jericho Bob meant to be honest, but the fact was he found
+twenty-four, and the twenty-fourth was so big, so remarkably big.
+
+Twenty-three eggs he brought to Mrs. Bob, but the twenty-fourth he
+sinfully left in charge of the discreet hen.
+
+On his return he met Julius Cæsar Fish, with his hands in his pockets
+and his head extinguished by his grandfather's fur cap.
+
+Together they went toward the hen-coop and Julius Cæsar Fish spoke, or
+rather lisped (he had lost some of his front teeth):
+
+"Jericho Bobth, that 'th a turkey'th egg."
+
+"Yer don't say so?"
+
+"I think i'th a-goin' ter hatch." No sooner said than they heard a pick
+and a peck in the shell.
+
+"Pick!" a tiny beak broke through the shell. "Peck!" more beak. "Crack!"
+a funny little head, a long, bare neck, and then "Pick! Peck! Crack!"
+before them stood the funniest, fluffiest brown ball resting on two weak
+little legs.
+
+"Hooray!" shouted the woolly heads.
+
+"Peep!" said turkeykin.
+
+"It's mine!" Jericho shouted excitedly.
+
+"I'th Marm Pitkin'th turkey'th; she laid it there."
+
+"It's mine, and I'm going to keep it, and next Thanksgiving I'm going
+ter eat him."
+
+"Think your ma'll let you feed him up for thath?" Julius Cæsar asked,
+triumphantly.
+
+Jericho Bob's next Thanksgiving dinner seemed destined to be a dream.
+His face fell.
+
+"I'll tell yer whath I'll do," his friend said, benevolently; "I'll keep
+'m for you, and Thanksgivin' we'll go halvth."
+
+[Illustration: JERICHO BOB AND JULIUS CÆSAR FISH PLANNING THEIR
+THANKSGIVING DINNER.]
+
+Jericho resigned himself to the inevitable, and the infant turkey was
+borne home by his friend.
+
+Fish, Jr., lived next door, and the only difference in the premises was
+a freight-car permanently switched off before the broken-down fence of
+the Fish yard; and in this car turkeykin took up his abode.
+
+I will not tell you how he grew and more than realized the hopes of his
+foster-fathers, nor with what impatience and anticipation they saw
+spring, summer, and autumn pass, while they watched their Thanksgiving
+dinner stalk proudly up the bare yard, and even hop across the railroad
+tracks.
+
+But, alas! the possession of the turkey brought with it strife and
+discord.
+
+Quarrels arose between the friends as to the prospective disposal of his
+remains. We grieve to say that the question of who was to cook him led
+to blows.
+
+It was the day before Thanksgiving. There was a coldness between the
+friends which was not dispelled by the bringing of a pint of cranberries
+to the common store by Jericho, and the contributing thereto of a couple
+of cold boiled sweet potatoes by Julius Cæsar Fish.
+
+The friends sat on an ancient wash-tub in the back yard, and there was a
+momentary truce between them. Before them stood the freight-car, and
+along the track beyond an occasional train tore down the road, which so
+far excited their mutual sympathy that they rose and shouted as one man.
+
+At the open door of the freight-car stood the unsuspecting turkey, and
+looked meditatively out on the landscape and at the two figures on the
+wash-tub.
+
+One had bow-legs, a turn-up nose, and a huge straw hat. The other wore a
+fur cap and a gentleman's swallow-tail coat, with the tails caught up
+because they were too long.
+
+The turkey hopped out of the car and gazed confidingly at his
+protectors. In point of size he was altogether their superior.
+
+"I think," said Jericho Bob, "we'd better ketch 'im; to-morrow's
+Thanksgiving. Yum!"
+
+And he looked with great joy at the innocent, the unsuspecting fowl.
+
+"Butcher Tham 'th goin' ter kill 'im for uth," Julius Cæsar hastened to
+say, "an' I kin cook 'im."
+
+"No, you ain't. I'm goin' to cook 'im," Jericho Bob cried, resentfully.
+"He's mine."
+
+"He ain'th; he'th mine."
+
+"He was my egg," and Jericho Bob danced defiance at his friend.
+
+The turkey looked on with some surprise, and he became alarmed when he
+saw his foster-fathers clasped in an embrace more of anger than of love.
+
+"I'll eat 'im all alone!" Jericho Bob cried.
+
+"No, yer sha'n't!" the other shouted.
+
+The turkey fled in a circle about the yard.
+
+"Now, look yere," said Julius Cæsar, who had conquered. "We're goin' to
+be squar'. He wath your egg, but who brought 'im up? Me! Who'th got a
+friend to kill 'im? Me! Who'th got a fire to cook 'im? Me! Now you git
+up and we'll kitch 'im. Ef you thay another word about your egg I'll
+jeth eat 'im up all mythelf."
+
+Jericho Bob was conquered. With mutual understanding they approached the
+turkey.
+
+"Come yere; come yere," Julius Cæsar said, coaxingly.
+
+For a moment the bird gazed at both, uncertain what to do.
+
+"Come yere," Julius Cæsar repeated, and made a dive for him. The turkey
+spread his tail. Oh, didn't he run!
+
+"Now I've got yer!" the wicked Jericho Bob cried, and thought he had
+captured the fowl; when with a shriek from Jericho Bob, as the turkey
+knocked him over, the Thanksgiving dinner spread his wings, rose in the
+air, and alighted on the roof of the freight-car.
+
+The turkey looked down over the edge of the car at his enemies, and they
+gazed up at him. Both parties surveyed the situation.
+
+"We've got him," Julius Cæsar cried at last, exultantly. "You git on the
+roof, and ef you don't kitch 'im up thar, I'll kitch 'im down yere."
+
+With the help of the wash-tub, an old chair, Julius Cæsar's back, and
+much scrambling, Jericho Bob was hoisted on top of the car. The turkey
+was stalking solemnly up and down the roof with tail and wings half
+spread.
+
+"I've got yer now," Jericho Bob said, creeping softly after him. "I've
+got yer now, sure," he was just repeating, when with a deafening roar
+the express-train came tearing down the road.
+
+For what possible reason it slowed up on approaching the freight-car
+nobody ever knew; but the fact remains that it did, just as Jericho Bob
+laid his wicked black paw on the turkey's tail.
+
+The turkey shrieked, spread his wings, shook the small black boy's
+grasp from his tail, and with a mighty swoop alighted on the roof of the
+very last car as it passed; and in a moment more Jericho Bob's
+Thanksgiving dinner had vanished, like a beautiful dream, down the road!
+
+What became of that Thanksgiving dinner no one ever knew. If you happen
+to meet a traveling turkey without any luggage, but with a smile on his
+countenance, please send word to Jericho Bob.
+
+Every evening he and Julius Cæsar Fish stand by the broken-down fence
+and look up and down the road, as if they expected some one.
+
+Jericho Bob has a turn-up nose and bow-legs. Julius Cæsar still wears
+his dress-coat, and both are watching for a Thanksgiving dinner that ran
+away.
+
+
+
+
+HOW WE BOUGHT LOUISIANA
+
+BY HELEN LOCKWOOD COFFIN
+
+
+It is a hard matter to tell just how much power a little thing has,
+because little things have the habit of growing. That was the trouble
+that France and England and Spain and all the other big nations had with
+America at first. The thirteen colonies occupied so small and
+unimportant a strip of land that few people thought they would ever
+amount to much. How could such insignificance ever bother old England,
+for instance, big and powerful as she was? To England's great loss she
+soon learned her error in underestimating the importance or strength of
+her colonies.
+
+France watched the giant and the pygmy fighting together, and learned
+several lessons while she was watching. For one thing, she found out
+that the little American colonies were going to grow, and so she said to
+herself: "I will be a sort of back-stop to them. These Americans are
+going to be foolish over this bit of success, and think that just
+because they have won the Revolution they can do anything they wish to
+do. They'll think they can spread out all over this country and grow to
+be as big as England herself; and of course anybody can see that that is
+impossible. I'll just put up a net along the Mississippi River, and
+prevent them crossing over it. That will be the only way to keep them
+within bounds."
+
+And so France held the Mississippi, and from there back to the Rocky
+Mountains, and whenever the United States citizen desired to go west of
+the Mississippi, France said: "No, dear child. Stay within your own yard
+and play, like a good little boy," or something to that effect.
+
+Now the United States citizen didn't like this at all; he had pushed his
+way with much trouble and expense and hard work through bands of Indians
+and through forests and over rivers and mountains, into Wisconsin and
+Illinois, and he wished to go farther. And, besides, he wanted to have
+the right to sail up and down the Mississippi, and so save himself the
+trouble of walking over the land and cutting out his own roads as he
+went. So when France said, "No, dear," and told him to "be a good
+little boy and not tease," the United States citizen very naturally
+rebelled.
+
+Mr. Jefferson was President of the United States at that time, and he
+was a man who hated war of any description. He certainly did not wish to
+fight with his own countrymen, and he as certainly did not wish to fight
+with any other nation, so he searched around for some sort of a
+compromise. He thought that if America could own even one port on this
+useful river and had the right of Mississippi navigation, the matter
+would be settled with satisfaction to all parties. So he sent James
+Monroe over to Paris to join our minister, Mr. Livingston, and see if
+the two of them together could not persuade France to sell them the
+island of New Orleans, on which was the city of the same name.
+
+Now Napoleon was the ruler of France, and he was dreaming dreams and
+seeing visions in which France was the most important power in America,
+because she owned this wonderful Mississippi River and all this
+"Louisiana" which stretched back from the river to the Rockies. He
+already held forts along the river, and he was planning to strengthen
+these and build some new ones. But you know what happens to the plans of
+mice and men sometimes. Napoleon was depending upon his army to help
+him out on these plans, but his armies in San Domingo were swept away by
+war and sickness, so that on the day he had set for them to move up into
+Louisiana not a man was able to go. At the same time Napoleon had on
+hand another scheme against England, which was even more important than
+his plans for America, and which demanded men and money. Besides this,
+he was shrewd enough to know that he could not hold this far-away
+territory for any long time against England, which had so many more
+ships than France. He suddenly changed his mind about his American
+possessions, and nearly sent Mr. Monroe and Mr. Livingston into a state
+of collapse by offering to sell them not only New Orleans but also the
+whole Province of Louisiana.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE
+
+UNITED STATES
+
+SHOWING
+
+THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
+
+AND OTHER
+
+ACCESSIONS OF TERRITORY.]
+
+There was no time to write to President Jefferson and ask his advice,
+and this was before the days of the cable; so Monroe and Livingston took
+the matter into their own hands, and signed the contract which
+transferred the Louisiana territory to the United States for a
+consideration of $15,000,000. They were severely criticized by many of
+their own countrymen, and they had some doubts of their own about the
+wisdom of their action. You see, nobody knew then that corn and wheat
+would grow so abundantly in this territory, or that beyond the
+Mississippi there were such stretches of glorious pasture-lands, or that
+underneath its mountainous regions were such mines of gold, silver, and
+copper. Americans saw only the commercial possibilities of the river,
+and all they wanted was the right of navigating it and the permission to
+explore the unknown country to the westward.
+
+But Jefferson and Monroe and Livingston builded better than they knew.
+All this happened a hundred years ago; and to-day that old Louisiana
+territory is, in natural resources, the wealthiest part of the whole
+United States. Without that territory in our possession we should have
+no Colorado and no Wyoming, no Dakotas, or Nebraska, or Minnesota, or
+Montana, or Missouri, or Iowa, or Kansas, or Arkansas, or Louisiana, or
+Oklahoma, or Indian Territory.
+
+For all these reasons we owe our most sincere and hearty thanks to the
+patriotic and far-sighted men who were concerned in buying this
+territory for the United States.
+
+
+
+
+THE CITY THAT LIVES OUTDOORS
+
+BY W. S. HARWOOD
+
+
+When the wind is howling through the days of the mad March far up in the
+lands where snow and ice thick cover the earth, here in this city that
+lives outdoors the roses are clambering over the "galleries" and the
+wistaria is drooping in purplish splendor from the low branches of the
+trees and from the red heights of brick walls.
+
+The yellow jonquils, too, are swelling, and the geraniums are throwing
+out their scarlet flame across wide stretches of greensward, while the
+violets are nodding at the feet of the gigantic magnolias, whose huge
+yellowish-gray buds will soon burst into white beauty, crowning this
+noblest of flower-bearing trees.
+
+It is a strange old city, this city that lives outdoors--a city rich in
+romantic history, throbbing with tragedy and fascinating events, a
+beautiful old city, with a child by its side as beautiful as the mother.
+The child is the newer, more modern city, and the child, like the
+parent, lives out of doors.
+
+The people seem to come into closer touch with nature than the people of
+most other portions of the land. The climate, the constant invitation of
+the earth and sky, seem to demand a life lived in the open. This city
+that lives outdoors is a real city, with all a city's varied life; but
+it is a country place as well--a city set in the country, or the country
+moved into town.
+
+For at least nine months in the twelve, the people of this rare old town
+live out of doors nearly all the waking hours of the twenty-four. For
+the remaining three months of the year, December, January, and February,
+they delude themselves into the notion that they are having a winter,
+when they gather around a winter-time hearth and listen to imaginary
+wind-roarings in the chimney, and see through the panes fictitious and
+spectral snow-storms, and dream that they are housed so snug and warm.
+But when the day comes the sun is shining and there is no trace of white
+on the ground, and the grass is green and there are industrious buds
+breaking out of cover, and the earth is sleeping very lightly.
+Open-eyed, the youngsters sit by these December firesides and listen to
+their elders tell of the snow-storms in the long ago that came so very,
+very deep--ah, yes, so deep that the darkies were full of fear and would
+not stir from their cabins to do the work of the white people; when
+snowballs were flying in the streets, and the earth was white, and the
+"banquettes," or sidewalks, were ankle-deep in slush.
+
+All the long years of the two centuries since this old city was born, a
+mighty river has been flowing by its doors, never so far forgetting its
+purpose to live outdoors as to freeze its yellow crest, stealing softly
+past by night and by day, bearing along the city's front a vast commerce
+on down to the blue waters of the Gulf, and enriching the city by its
+cargoes from the outer world and from the plantations of the upper
+river. Strangely enough, the great yellow river flows above the city,
+its surface being nearly thirty feet above the streets in time of flood.
+It is held in its course by vast banks of earth.
+
+[Illustration: THE SPANISH DAGGER IN BLOOM.]
+
+It is a cold, drear March where the north star shines high overhead; but
+here, where it seems suddenly to have lost its balance and to have
+dropped low in the brilliant night, March is like June. It is June
+indeed, June with its wealth of grasses, its noble avenue of
+magnolias, its great green spread of live-oaks--most magnificent of
+Southern trees; June with its soft balm, and its sweet sunshine, and its
+perfume-laden air. And if you have never seen the pole star in the sky
+of the north, where the star is almost directly over your head, you
+cannot realize how strange a sight it is to see it so low in the sky as
+it is here.
+
+There is a large garden in this city--it is, in fact, a part of the city
+proper. It was once a beautiful faubourg, now known as the Garden
+District, where the people live outdoors in a fine old aristocratic way,
+and where all the beauty in nature seen in the other sections of the
+city seems to be outdone. Very many rare old homes are in this garden
+region, with its deep hedges and ample grounds, inclosed in high stone
+walls, and a wealth of flowers and noble courts and an abounding
+hospitality. But what, after all, are houses to a people that lives
+outdoors? Conveniences only; for such a people, better than houses are
+the air of the open, the scent of the roses, the blue of the Southern
+sky, the vast, strong sweep of the brilliant stars!
+
+If we pause here along this street where run such every-day things as
+electric street-cars, we shall see on one side of the splendid avenue a
+smooth-paved roadway for the carriages, on the other a course for the
+horsemen, and in the center a noble inner avenue of trees set in a
+velvet-like carpet of grass; and here and there along the way, almost in
+touch of your hand from the open car window, appears the Spanish dagger,
+with its green, sharp blades and its snowy, showy plume. Not far away
+stands a lowly negro cabin, where the sun beats down hot and fierce upon
+a great straggling rose-bush, reaching up to the eaves, beating back the
+rays of the sun defiantly and gaining fresh strength in the struggle. On
+such a bush one day I counted two hundred and ninety roses.
+
+This city which lives outdoors must play most in the open, and in its
+noble park, with its vast stretches of bright green, here empurpled by
+masses of the dainty grass-flower, there yellowing with the sheen of the
+buttercup, one finds the tireless golf-players leisurely strolling over
+the links; from yonder come the cries of the boys at ball; and in the
+farther distance you may see through the frame-like branches of a
+giant live-oak the students of a great university hard set at a
+game of tennis. And yet--is it the air, or the race, or the
+traditions?--something it is which makes the sportsmen, like the spring,
+seem slow to move.
+
+[Illustration: FAR IN THE PINEY WOODS.]
+
+And here even the palms grow outdoors in the city yards. And should you
+go past the city's limits, and yet within seeing distance of its
+blue-tiled housetops, you will find the palms growing rank in the great
+swamps, which you must search if you care to hunt for the languid
+alligators--palms growing so thick and rank that it is quite like
+looking into some vast conservatory, with the blue dome of the sky for
+glass. And here grow the magnolias in their wild, barbaric splendor of
+bloom, and the live-oaks, mighty of girth and spread, draped in somber
+gray moss as if for the funeral of some god of the deep green wood. At
+the fringe of the swamp, tempting you until near to jumping into the
+morass after them, are the huge fleurs-de-lis, each gorgeous blossom
+fully seven inches across its purple top.
+
+To the north, somewhat apart from the reach of the treacherous river,
+lie the health-giving piny woods, and along the big, sullen stream the
+sugar plantations, some of them still the home of a lavish hospitality,
+some of them transformed into mere places of trade, where thrift and
+push have elbowed out all that fine gallantry and ease and ample
+hospitality of an earlier day--that hospitality which will ever remain a
+leading characteristic of the people. To be a Southern man or a Southern
+woman and to be inhospitable--that is not possible in the nature of
+things.
+
+[Illustration: A PICTURESQUE FRONT IN THE FRENCH QUARTER.]
+
+It is, when all is said and done, on the gallery that this city lives
+most of its life--on the gallery even more than on the evening-thronged
+banquette, which is the sidewalk of the North, or the boulevards, or
+even the fragrant parks, where life flows in a fair, placid stream. Some
+there must be who toil by day in shop, or at counter, or in dim
+accounting-rooms, or on the floors of the marts where fortunes are made
+and lost in sugar or cotton or rice. For such the gallery is a haven of
+rest. If they must pass the earlier day indoors, for them the gallery
+during the long, late afternoon, and the ghost of a twilight, and the
+long evenings far into the starry night. The ghost of a twilight
+indeed--the South knows no other. Sometimes I have watched the long,
+splendid twilight come down over the wild Canadian forest--slowly
+delaying; creeping up the low mountains; halting from hour to hour in
+the glades below; shade after shade in the glorious sky of the west
+gradually merging into the dimness of the oncoming dusk; the moments
+passing so slowly, the day fading so elusively, until, at last, when
+even the low moon has hung out its silver sign in the west and the stars
+are pricking through, it is still twilight along the lower earth. And
+still farther to the north, around the globe in the far upper Europe,
+with the polar circle below you, it is like living on a planet of
+eternal day to sit through the northern light and feel about you the
+all-pervasive twilight of the land of the midnight sun. But the night is
+so hasty here, and the day is swift; and between them runs but a
+slender, dim thread.
+
+[Illustration: OLD PLANTATION VILLA ON ANNUNCIATION STREET.]
+
+The gallery is a feature of every house in this city that lives
+outdoors, be it big or little, humble or grand, or lowly or mean. It is
+on the first floor or the second, or even the third, though the third it
+seldom reaches, for few people care for houses of great height. Indeed,
+there are hundreds of homes of but one story, full of the costliest
+tokens of the taste of an artistic people. And the soil below is so like
+a morass that ample space must be left between floor and earth; while as
+for cellars, I have heard of but two in all the great city. The
+gallery may run around the entire house, flanked and set off by splendid
+pillars with capitals rich and ornate; it may run across one end of the
+residence and be a marvel of rich ironwork, as fine as art and
+handicraft can make it, with, mayhap, the figures of its field outlined
+in some bit of color, as gold or green; it may be but a single cheap
+wooden affair, paintless, dingy, dilapidated, weather-worn, and stained
+with neglect; but a gallery it is still, an important social feature of
+this outdoor life.
+
+Over the gallery grow the roses; out near at hand a bignonia-vine lifts
+its yellow flare aloft and throws down a fluttering shower of bell-like
+blooms, and all the air is heavy with the scents of the South. So
+through the long evening the people sit upon the gallery and chat or
+read or sing or doze or plan or discuss their family affairs. By day the
+galleries are protected with gay-colored awnings or those filmy woven
+sheets of reeds which keep out the glare and let through the light and
+the fragrant breeze. Children make of the gallery a play-house; young
+people here entertain their friends; the elders discuss the affairs of a
+nation or dwell on that wonderful past through which this ancient
+Southern city has come tumultuously down through the lines of Castilian
+and Saxon and Gaul.
+
+[Illustration: OLD SPANISH HOUSES.]
+
+If you should take your map of the United States and run your finger far
+down its surface until it rested upon the largest city in all the
+beautiful South, and the metropolis of a vast inner empire which holds
+two civilizations, one French-Spanish, one American, both slowly, very
+slowly, merging through the centuries; or, better still, if you should
+stroll along the streets on a sweet March day, peering into its curious
+quarters, watching the beautiful little children and the dark-eyed men
+and the gaily dressed women and all the throngs of people, city people
+who can never long remain away from the green fields and the noble old
+trees and the scent of the roses--then you could not fail to hit upon
+this charming old place, New Orleans--in many ways the most interesting
+of all the cities in America, the beautiful city that lives outdoors.
+
+
+
+
+QUEER AMERICAN RIVERS
+
+BY F. H. SPEARMAN
+
+
+I wonder if my readers realize what a story of the vast extent of our
+country is told by its rivers?
+
+Every variety of river in the world seems to have a cousin in our
+collection. What other country on the face of the globe affords such an
+assortment of streams for fishing and boating and swimming and
+skating--besides having any number of streams on which you can do none
+of these things? One can hardly imagine rivers like that; but we have
+them, plenty of them, as you shall see.
+
+As for fishing, the American boy may cast his flies for salmon in the
+Arctic circle, or angle for sharks under a tropical sun in Florida,
+without leaving the domain of the American flag. But the fishing-rivers
+are not the most curious, nor the most instructive as to diversity of
+climate, soil, and that sort of thing--physical geography, the teacher
+calls it.
+
+[Illustration: A LIVE-OAK WITH SPANISH MOSS.]
+
+For instance, if you want to get a good idea of what tropical heat and
+moisture will do for a country, slip your canoe from a Florida steamer
+into the Ocklawaha River. It is as odd as its name, and appears to be
+hopelessly undecided as to whether it had better continue in the fish
+and alligator and drainage business, or devote itself to raising
+live-oak and cypress-trees, with Spanish moss for mattresses as a side
+product.
+
+In this fickle-minded state it does a little of all these things, so
+that when you are really on the river you think you are lost in the
+woods; and when you actually get lost in the woods, you are quite
+confident your canoe is at last on the river. This confusion is due to
+the low, flat country, and the luxuriance of a tropical vegetation.
+
+To say that such a river overflows its banks would hardly be correct;
+for that would imply that it was not behaving itself; besides, it has
+n't any banks--or, at least, very few! The fact is, those peaceful
+Florida rivers seem to wander pretty much where they like over the
+pretty peninsula without giving offense; but if Jack Frost takes such a
+liberty--presto! you should see how the people get after _him_ with
+weather-bulletins and danger-signals and formidable smudges. So the
+Ocklawaha River and a score of its kind roam through the woods,--or
+maybe it is the woods that roam through them,--and the moss sways from
+the live-oaks, and the cypress trees stick their knees up through the
+water in the oddest way imaginable.
+
+In Florida one may have another odd experience: a river ride in an
+ox-cart. Florida rivers are usually shallow, and when the water is high
+you can travel for miles across country behind oxen, with more or less
+river under you all the way. There are ancient jokes about Florida
+steamboats that travel on heavy dews, and use spades for paddle-wheels.
+
+But those of you who have been on its rivers know there is but one
+Florida, with its bearded oaks and fronded palms; its dusky woods,
+carpeted with glassy waters; its cypress bays, where lonely cranes pose,
+silently thoughtful (of stray polliwogs); and its birds of wondrous
+plumage that rise with startled splash when the noiseless canoe glides
+down upon their haunts.
+
+[Illustration: MOSS-DRAPED LIVE-OAKS.]
+
+Every strange fowl and every hideous reptile, every singular plant and
+every tangled jungle, will tell the American boy how far he is to the
+south. Florida is, in fact, his corner of the tropics; and the clear
+waters of its rivers, stained to brown and wine-color with the juices
+of a tropical vegetation, will tell him, if he reads nature's book, how
+different the sandy soil of the South is from the yellow mold of the
+great Western plains.
+
+Such a boy hardly need ask the conductor how far west he is if he can
+catch a glimpse of one of the rivers. All the rivers of the plains are
+alike full of yellow mud, because the soil of the plains melts at the
+touch of water. These are our spendthrift rivers, full to the banks at
+times, but most of the year desperately in need of water. It is only
+with the greatest effort that they can keep their places in the summer:
+there is just a scanty thread of water strung along a great, rambling
+bed of sand, to restrain Dame Nature from revoking their licenses to run
+and turning them into cattle-ranches.
+
+No wonder that fish refuse to have anything to do with such streams, and
+refuse tempting offers of free worms, free transportation, and
+protection from the fatal nets. Fancy trying to raise a family of little
+fish, and not knowing one day where water is coming from the next!
+
+Not but what there is water enough at times; only, those rivers of the
+great plains, like the Platte and the Kansas and the Arkansas, are so
+wasteful of their supply in the spring that by July they are gasping for
+a shower. So, part of the year they revel in luxury, and during the rest
+they go shabby--like shiftless people.
+
+But the irrigation engineers have lately discovered something wonderful
+about even these despised rivers. During the very driest seasons, when
+the stream is apparently quite dry, there is still a great body of water
+running in the sand. Like a vast sponge, the sand holds the water, yet
+it flows continually, just as if it were in plain sight, but more slowly
+of course. The volume may be estimated by the depth and breadth of the
+sand. One pint of it will hold three quarters of a pint of water. This
+is called the underground flow, and is peculiar to this class of rivers.
+By means of ditches this water may be brought to the surface for
+irrigation.
+
+Scattered among the foot-hills of the Rockies are rivers still more
+wilful in their habits. Instead of keeping to their duties in a
+methodical way, they rush their annual work through in a month or two;
+then they take long vacations. For months together they carry no water
+at all; and one may plant and build and live and sleep in their deserted
+beds--but beware! Without warning, they resume active business. Maybe
+on a Sunday, or in the middle of the night, a storm-cloud visits the
+mountains. There is a roar, a tearing, a crashing, and down comes a
+terrible wall of water, sweeping away houses and barns and people. No
+fishing, no boating, no swimming, no skating on those treacherous
+rivers; only surprise and shock and disaster!
+
+So different that they seem to belong in a different world are the great
+inter-mountain streams, like the Yellowstone and the Colorado.
+
+They flow through landscapes of desolate grandeur, vast expanses
+compassed by endless mountain-ranges that chill the bright skies with
+never-melting snows. The countless peaks look down on the clouds, while
+far below the clouds wind valleys that the sunlight never reaches.
+Twisting in gloomy dusk through these valleys, a gaping cañon yawns.
+Peering fearfully into its black, forbidding depths, an echo reaches the
+ear. It is the fury of a mighty river, so far below that only a sullen
+roar rises to the light of day. With frightful velocity it rushes
+through a channel cut during centuries of patience deep into the
+stubborn rock. Now mad with whirlpools, now silently awful with
+stretches of green water, that wait to lure the boatman to death, the
+mighty river rushes darkly through the Grand Colorado Cañon.
+
+No sport, no fun, no frolic there. Here are only awe-inspiring gloom and
+grandeur, and dangers so hideous that only a handful of men have ever
+braved them--fewer still survived.
+
+Grandest of American rivers though it is, you will be glad to get away
+from it to a noble stream like the Columbia, to a headstrong flood like
+the Missouri, or an inland sea like the Mississippi; on them at least
+you can draw a full breath and speak aloud without a feeling that the
+silent mountains may fall on you or the raging river swallow you up.
+
+In the vast territory lying between the Missouri River and the Pacific
+Ocean the rivers are fast being harnessed for a work that will one day
+make the most barren spots fertile. Irrigation is claiming every year
+more of the flow of Western rivers. Even the tricksy old Missouri is
+contributing somewhat to irrigation, but in the queerest possible way.
+
+With all its other eccentricities, the Missouri River leaks badly; for
+you know there are leaky rivers as well as leaky boats. The government
+engineers once measured the flow of the Missouri away up in Montana, and
+again some hundred miles further down stream. To their surprise, they
+found that the Missouri, instead of growing bigger down stream, as every
+rational river should, was actually 20,000 second-feet[1] smaller at the
+lower point.
+
+[Footnote 1: The volume of rivers is measured by the number of cubic
+feet of water flowing past a given point every second. The breadth of
+the river is multiplied by its average depth, and the ascertained speed
+of the current gives the number of cubic feet of water flowing by the
+point of measurement each second. This will explain the term
+second-feet.]
+
+Now, while 20,000 second-feet could be spared from such a tremendous
+river, that amount of water makes a considerable stream of itself. Many
+very celebrated rivers never had so much water in their lives. Hence
+there was great amazement when the discrepancy was discovered. But of
+late years Dakota farmers away to the south and east of those points on
+the Missouri, sinking artesian wells, found immense volumes of water
+where the geologists said there would n't be any. So it is believed that
+the farmers have tapped the water leaking from that big hole in the
+Missouri River away up in Montana; and from these wells they irrigate
+large tracts of land, and, naturally, they don't want the river-bed
+mended. Fancy what a blessing it is, when the weather is dry, to have a
+river boiling out of your well, ready to flow where you want it over the
+wheat-fields! For of all manner of work that a river can be put to,
+irrigation is, I think, the most useful. But isn't that a queer way for
+the Missouri to wander about underneath the ground?
+
+
+
+
+THE WATERMELON STOCKINGS
+
+BY ALICE CALDWELL HEGAN
+
+(Author of "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch")
+
+
+"Jes' look at dat ornery little nigger!" exclaimed Aunt Melvy, as she
+deposited a basket of clothes on the cabin floor. "I lef her to clean
+up, an' to put de 'taters on to bile, an' to shoo de flies offen de
+twinses, an' I wisht you 'd look at her!"
+
+Nell Tracy, who had come down with Aunt Melvy from the big house on the
+hill, viewed the culprit ruefully. 'Mazin' Grace was Aunt Melvy's eighth
+daughter, and had been named for her mother's favorite hymn, which began
+"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound." She was very short and very fat,
+and her kinky hair was plaited into ten tight pigtails, each of which
+was bound with a piece of leather shoe-string. At present she sat with
+her back propped against the door, her mouth wide open, and slept
+peacefully while the flood of her mother's wrath passed over her.
+
+[Illustration: "'MAZIN' GRACE SLEPT PEACEFULLY."]
+
+"Oh, but, Aunt Melvy, won't you please let her come?" begged Nell,
+throwing off her sun-bonnet and letting down a tangle of yellow curls.
+"I have n't got anybody to play with me. Mother drove to town with
+father, and she said I was to get 'Mazin' Grace to stay with me."
+
+"Why, I'se gwine to let her come, honey," said Aunt Melvy, "co'se I is.
+I wouldn't mek you cry fer nothin'! Only, I'se gwine to whup her fust.
+She ain't 'sponsible on her word, dat's what's de matter wid her. She
+done 'low to me she would n't wink her eyeball while I was gone. What
+you think I ketch her doin' one time?" Aunt Melvy's voice sank to a
+whisper. "She sewed, on a Sunday! She knowed as well as me dat w'en she
+gits to heben she'll hab to pick out ebery one ob dem stitches wid her
+nose."
+
+Nell looked at the sleeper's round pug-nose and wondered how she would
+ever be able to do it. But it was no use thinking of the punishment in
+the next world, when an immediate whipping was promised in this;
+consequently she turned the whole battery of her eloquence upon Aunt
+Melvy, who in the end gave in.
+
+[Illustration: "'AND I AM GOING TO WEAR THE WATERMELON STOCKINGS,' CRIED
+NELL."]
+
+Ten minutes later the two little playmates were skipping down the avenue
+under the shady old beech-trees where their fathers had played
+together in the long ago.
+
+"Is yer maw gwine lemme tek you to de Christian an' Debil Society?"
+asked 'Mazin' Grace, as they skirted the house, and made their way into
+the back yard.
+
+"Yes," cried Nell, gleefully, "and I am going to wear the watermelon
+stockings!"
+
+If 'Mazin' Grace had not been so black, a cloud might have been seen
+passing over her face. She was the sharer of all Nell's woes, and of all
+but one of her joys. The exception was the possession of the watermelon
+stockings.
+
+These were a sort of heirloom among the children of the family, and were
+regarded with reverence and pride. They were of a peculiar shade of pink
+silk, with clockwork up the sides and sprays of white flowers
+embroidered over the instep. A long time ago they had belonged to Cousin
+Mary, who was quite a big girl now, and she had sent them to Uncle
+Robert's boy up in Ohio. He learned to waltz in them, and in time sent
+them to little Agnes in Virginia, who wore them for a year on state
+occasions, then sent them back to Kentucky to little Cousin Nell.
+
+If ever a tempted soul longed for a forbidden treasure, 'Mazin' Grace
+longed for the watermelon stockings. "Effen they was mine, I'd give you
+one anyways," she argued with Nell, but to no avail.
+
+In the back yard stood a big old chicken-coop, which had been cleaned
+out and nicely whitewashed for the children to use as a play-house. It
+had an upstairs and a downstairs, and a square little door that fastened
+on the outside with a wooden peg. Nell could climb in easily; but
+'Mazin' Grace was too fat, and after many efforts she had given up,
+contenting herself with watching the play from outside.
+
+To-day a doll funeral was in progress, and Nell, moving comfortably
+about inside the coop, arranged the broken bits of china in a spool-box,
+tied a sweeping piece of crape on her biggest doll, and allowed her
+imagination full swing in depicting the grief of the doll family.
+
+'Mazin' Grace, sitting under the apple-tree outside, took little
+interest in the proceedings. The hot sun beat down on the long stretch
+of blue-grass, and up from the creek came the warm odor of mint; a fat
+old bumblebee hummed close to her head, but she did not stir. She was
+thinking about the watermelon stockings.
+
+[Illustration: "NELL TIED A SWEEPING PIECE OF CRAPE ON HER BIGGEST
+DOLL."]
+
+Presently she began to move stealthily toward the coop, watching Nell
+cautiously from the corner of her eyes. "Ain't nobody to home but me an'
+her," she whispered to herself, "an' there wouldn't nobody know, an'--"
+With a deft movement she closed the small door and fastened it with the
+wooden peg. Then she turned, and, leaving the unconscious prisoner, sped
+softly up the garden path, through the basement, and up the stairs.
+
+In Mrs. Tracy's bedroom was a wide old mahogany dresser with big glass
+knobs that seemed to glare unwinking reproof at 'Mazin' Grace as she
+opened the bottom drawer.
+
+"Dis heah is where dey stays at," she said, tossing aside ribbons and
+laces in her eagerness. "Oh, goody, goody! Heah dey is!"
+
+Tearing away the tissue-paper, she gazed with delight at the coveted
+stockings. The knobs might glare as much as they liked; the sparrows
+might scold themselves hoarse on the window-sill; 'Mazin' Grace was lost
+in the rapture of the moment, and refused to consider consequences. She
+traced the pattern of the embroidery with her stubby finger, she rubbed
+the silk against her cheek, and even tied one stocking around her head
+and stood on tiptoe to see the result in the mirror. The more she
+handled them the more reckless she became.
+
+"I 'spect I 'se gwine to try dese heah stockin's on!" she said, with a
+giggle, as she drew the silken lengths over her bare, dusty feet. "Gee
+Bob! Ain't them scrumptious! I look lak a shore-'nuff circus lady!"
+
+[Illustration: "CATCHING HER RAGGED SKIRTS IN EITHER HAND, SHE BOWED LOW
+TO HER IMAGE."]
+
+She tipped the mirror in order to get the full reflection, and stood for
+a moment entranced. Then catching her ragged skirts in either hand,
+she bowed low to her image, and, after cutting a formal and elaborate
+pigeonwing, settled down to a shuffle that shook the floor. Music and
+motion were as much a part of 'Mazin' Grace as her brown skin and her
+white teeth. All Aunt Melvy's piety had failed to convince her of the
+awful wickedness of "shaking her foot" and "singing reel chunes." She
+danced now with utter abandon, and the harder she danced the louder she
+sang:
+
+  "Suzanne Goffin, don't you cry;
+  Take dat apron from your eye.
+  Don't let de niggers see you sigh;
+  You'll git a pahtner by an' by."
+
+The small figure with its flying pigtails swayed and swung, and the pink
+legs darted in and out. Backward, forward, right glide, left glide, two
+skips sidewise. Her breath was almost gone, but she rallied her forces
+for a grand finale. With a curtsy to the bedpost and hands all around,
+she dashed into the rollicking ecstasy of the "Mobile Buck":
+
+  "Way up yonder in de moon,
+  Yaller gal lickin' a silver spoon.
+  Cynthy, my darlin', who tol' you so?
+  Cynthy, my darlin', how do you know?"
+
+As she dropped panting on the floor, something arrested her attention.
+She held up her head and sniffed the air. It was a familiar odor that
+roused her conscience as nothing else could have done. Something burning
+usually meant that she had failed to watch the stove, and that
+catastrophe usually meant a whipping. She scrambled to her feet and ran
+to the window. Over across the road, the big barn where Mr. Tracy stored
+his grain was wrapped in flames. The wind was blowing from that
+direction, and it fanned the smoke into 'Mazin' Grace's eyes.
+
+"Gee! Dat was a spark of fire," she cried, as she snatched her hand from
+the window-sill. She climbed out of the window upon the porch, and
+looked anxiously up and down the road. Nothing was to be seen save the
+long stretch of empty turnpike, with the hot sun beating down upon it.
+As she turned to go back inside the window, she stopped, horrified. On
+the cornice of the roof above her a glowing ember was smoldering
+dangerously. 'Mazin' Grace wrung her hands.
+
+"Mammy said I was gwine to git burned up fer bein' so wicked. An' Marse
+Jim's house, what's belonged to we-all sence de wah! An' de settin'-room
+where we hangs up our stockin's ebery Christmas! An' dere ain't nobody
+to take keer ob it all but me! Oh, Lordy! Lordy! what mus' I do?--what
+mus' I do?"
+
+As she stood there, wild-eyed and tearful, a thought made its way
+through the kinky hair into her bewildered brain. She darted back into
+the house, and reappeared with a broom.
+
+"I'se gwine up dat ladder," she said with grim determination, "an' I'se
+gwine to sweep dem sparks off. An' effen I can't sweep 'em off I kin
+spank 'em out."
+
+The fire at the barn was now raging; great volumes of smoke swept toward
+the house, heavily laden with live embers. 'Mazin' Grace, choking and
+frightened, wielded her broom with telling effect; no sooner did a spark
+touch the roof than it was brushed off into the long grass below. But
+they were coming faster and faster, and, watch as she would, she could
+not keep some of them from igniting the dry shingles. From side to side
+she scrambled, sweeping, beating, fighting the fire with all the
+strength in her little body. Her eyes smarted fiercely, her feet were
+bruised, the heat was suffocating; but 'Mazin' Grace never thought of
+deserting the post: she worked, as she had danced, with all her might
+and main, pitting her puny strength valiantly against that of the
+flames.
+
+[Illustration: "FROM SIDE TO SIDE SHE SCRAMBLED, SWEEPING, BEATING, AND
+FIGHTING THE FIRE."]
+
+But courage does not always bring success. Just when the fire at the
+barn began to subside, and the sparks ceased to fall on the roof, a tiny
+column of smoke began to curl up from the gabled roof of the porch.
+'Mazin' Grace clambered down the ladder, and, sitting astride of the
+angle, worked her way outward toward the fire. She could not carry the
+broom, but if she could only reach the blaze perhaps she could beat it
+out with her hands! Excitement gave her fresh strength. On either side
+the roof sloped abruptly, but she worked her way on, inch by inch. Two
+shingles had caught--three! The smoke had changed into a blaze. Leaning
+over as far as she dared, 'Mazin' Grace stretched out her hand toward
+the flame. She could not reach it.
+
+With a cry of terror and despair, she fell forward on the ridge; all her
+courage and strength suddenly deserted her--she could only cling there
+face downward, and sob and sob as if her heart would break. "Effen our
+house burns down, I want to die too," she whispered. "But Miss Lucy an'
+Marse Jim won't never know how I tried to take keer on it. 'Deed I did."
+
+Up from the creek came the faint perfume of the mint; the sparrows
+scolded in the beech-trees. Nellie, who had broken her prison bars,
+called again and again from the playground, while slowly but surely up
+the roof crawled the ever-increasing flames. But 'Mazin' Grace heard
+nothing, saw nothing; she lay unconscious on the roof, an absurdly
+pitiful little figure in her ragged dress and pink silk stockings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was six weeks before 'Mazin' Grace's burns were sufficiently healed
+for her to walk. Mr. Tracy, hearing of the fire on his farm, had driven
+home just in time to save the child's life. His porch was completely
+destroyed; but the old homestead, with its host of memories and
+associations, stood intact--a monument to the faithfulness of a very
+naughty little girl.
+
+Almost the first time 'Mazin' Grace was allowed to go out, she took Nell
+to the "Christian an' Debil" Society. She limped as she walked, for her
+feet were still tender from the recent blisters; but, in spite of the
+pain, her smile was one of unalloyed bliss. Two pairs of sturdy little
+legs were keeping step in two new pairs of watermelon stockings.
+
+
+
+The "'Gator"
+
+BY CLARENCE B. MOORE
+
+
+The alligator, or "'gator," as it is usually called throughout its home,
+the Southern States, is an object of great curiosity at the North. Every
+winter many tourists visit Florida and carry back baby alligators,
+together with more or less magnified accounts of the creature's doings
+and habits, and their stories are probably the cause of this very
+widespread interest.
+
+Though the alligator is rapidly disappearing from the banks of the lower
+St. John's River, in Lake Washington and in the Saw Grass Lake (where
+that river has its source), and in waters still farther south, they are
+still to be found in almost undiminished numbers, and are hunted for a
+living by native hunters. They are commonly sought at night, by
+torch-light, for in this way they can be approached with the utmost
+ease.
+
+[Illustration: THE ALLIGATOR HUNTERS IN THEIR CAMP.]
+
+A rifle-ball will readily penetrate an alligator's hide, although there
+exists an unfounded belief to the contrary. The creatures will "stand a
+deal of killing," however, and frequently roll off a bank and are lost
+even after being shot through and through.
+
+The alligator builds a nest of mud and grass, and lays a large number of
+oblong white eggs, but the little ones when hatched often serve as lunch
+for their unnatural papa, and this cannibalism, more than the rifle,
+prevents their numbers from increasing. The alligator is not particular
+as to diet. I once found the stomach of a ten-footer to be literally
+filled with pine chips from some tree which had been felled near the
+river's bank! They are fond of wallowing in marshes, and many a man out
+snipe shooting has taken an involuntary bath by stumbling into their
+wallows. In dry seasons alligators will traverse long distances overland
+to reach water, and travelers have come suddenly upon alligators
+crawling amid prairies or woods, in the most unexpected manner. The
+alligator as a rule is very wary, but at times sleeps quite soundly. I
+saw one struck twice with an oar before it woke.
+
+[Illustration: The Haunt of the "Gator".]
+
+There is a very prevalent impression that the alligator differs from the
+crocodile in that one moves the upper jaw and the other the lower. Such,
+however, is not the case. Both animals move the lower jaw, though the
+raising of the head as the mouth opens sometimes gives the appearance
+of moving the upper jaw only. But alligators and crocodiles differ in
+the arrangement of the teeth, and the snout of the crocodile is more
+sharply pointed.
+
+The hides are salted to preserve them and are shipped to dealers in
+Jacksonville, where those less than six feet long are worth a dollar,
+while for those which exceed this length twenty-five cents extra is
+allowed. A fair estimate of the number of alligators killed for sale in
+Florida alone, and not counting those shot by tourists, would be ten
+thousand annually. One hears very conflicting reports as to the length
+of large alligators. A prominent dealer in Jacksonville said that out of
+ten thousand hides handled by him none were over twelve feet long. I am
+told that at the Centennial, side by side with a crocodile from the
+Nile, there was shown an alligator from Florida sixteen feet in length.
+
+Years ago near a place called Enterprise, on a point jumping into Lake
+Monroe, during all bright days a certain big alligator used to lie
+basking in the sun. He was well known to the whole neighborhood. The
+entire coterie of sportsmen at the only hotel used to call him "Big
+Ben," and proud hunters would talk, and even dream, of the time when a
+well-aimed rifle-shot would end his long career. But Big Ben was as
+cunning as a serpent, and whenever any one, afoot or afloat, came
+unpleasantly near, he would slide off into the water,--which meant
+"good-by" for the rest of the day.
+
+One fine morning one of these sportsmen, paddling up the lake, luckily
+with his rifle in his canoe, came upon Big Ben so sound asleep that he
+stole up within range and put a bullet through the alligator's brain.
+What to do next was a problem. He could not tow the monster all the way
+to Enterprise with his small canoe. A bright idea struck him. He put his
+visiting-card in the beast's mouth and paddled swiftly back. A number of
+hunters were at the wharf, and the slayer of Big Ben hastened to inform
+them with apparent sincerity that while out paddling he had come within
+easy range of the "'gator," who was, no doubt, still lying motionless on
+the point. A flotilla of boats and canoes, manned by an army with
+rifles, instantly started for the point. To avoid confusion it was
+unanimously agreed that all should go down together, and that the entire
+party, if they were lucky enough to find Big Ben still there, should
+fire a volley at the word of command. As they approached the point,
+the hearts of all beat quickly; and when, with straining eyes, they saw
+Big Ben apparently asleep and motionless upon the bank, even the coolest
+could scarcely control his feelings. The boats were silently drawn up
+within easy shot, and the word was given. Bang, bang! went a score of
+rifles and Big Ben, riddled with bullets, lay motionless upon the point!
+With a cheer of triumph the excited sportsmen leaped ashore, and
+fastening a rope around the dead alligator, speedily towed him to
+Enterprise. There the original slayer awaited them upon the wharf. When
+Big Ben was laid upon the shore, opening the animal's mighty jaws he
+disclosed his visiting-card, and thanked them most politely for their
+kindness in bringing his 'gator home for him.
+
+[Illustration: A QUIET NAP ON THE RIVER BANK.]
+
+I once met with a curious adventure. Man is rarely attacked by
+alligators in Florida, except by the female alligator called upon to
+defend her young. Some years ago, in a small steamer chartered for the
+purpose, I had gone up a branch of the St. John's beyond Salt Lake until
+we could proceed no farther, because the top of the river had become
+solid with floating vegetation under which the water flowed. We tied up
+for the night, and shortly after were boarded by two men who said
+that their camp was near by and that they shot alligators and
+plume-birds for a living. One of the men carried his rifle, a
+muzzle-loader, and from its barrel projected the ramrod, which had
+become fast immediately above the ball while loading. He intended to
+draw it out after they should return to camp.
+
+[Illustration: CATCHING AN ALLIGATOR ASLEEP.]
+
+We went ashore with these men to look at an alligator's nest near by,
+and were filling our pockets with baby-alligators, when we heard a
+grunting sound and saw an alligator eight or nine feet long coming
+directly at us. With the exception of the man already referred to, we
+were all unarmed and affairs began to look a little unpleasant, for the
+creature evidently meant mischief. When it was within a few feet, the
+man with the rifle, knowing that he alone had a weapon, took deliberate
+aim and fired bullet, ramrod, and all down the 'gator's throat. The
+animal turned over twice, and rolling off the bank, sank out of sight.
+
+The alligators of the Amazon River in South America are very numerous,
+and owing to scarcity of hunters attain a very great size. In the upper
+waters apparently they are entirely unaccustomed to the report of
+firearms, and if not actually hit will lie still while shot after shot
+is fired. The largest I ever killed and measured was thirteen feet and
+four inches in length; but this was much smaller than many which I shot
+from dugouts and canoes too far away from shore to tow them in.
+
+Buried an inch deep in one of these dead alligators I once found a
+piraña, that troublesome fish which makes swimming in some parts of the
+Amazon a risky matter. It bores into flesh very much after the manner of
+a circular punch, and when it starts, its habit is to go to the bone.
+The piraña of course could not penetrate the hide of the alligator, but
+entering by the bullet-hole it had turned to one side and partially
+buried itself in the flesh. I have seen men bearing very ugly scars, the
+results of wounds inflicted by the piraña while they were bathing. If
+this fish is cut open after having bored its way into an animal a solid
+round mass of flesh will be found inside corresponding to the hole it
+has made, showing that the fish really bores its way in.
+
+[Illustration: ONE OF THE "BIG FELLOWS."]
+
+It is said that the alligator of the Amazon is more likely to attack man
+than its brother of our Southern States. The captain of a small steamer
+running between Iquitos and Para, told me that on the preceding trip
+he had carried to a doctor a boy who had lost his arm from the bite of
+an alligator, while allowing his arm to hang in the water from a raft.
+The same captain, however, also informed me that he had been treed by
+one of these animals and compelled to remain "up a tree" for some time;
+so that I have some hesitation in quoting him as an authority upon the
+nature and habits of these alligators. The flesh of young alligators is
+considered a delicacy in Brazil and is regularly sold in the markets.
+
+
+
+
+THE EARTHQUAKE AT CHARLESTON
+
+BY EWING GIBSON
+
+
+On Tuesday, the 31st of August, 1886, every one in Charleston, South
+Carolina, complained of the severe heat and sultriness of the air. Not a
+breath cooled the atmosphere, parched by the burning summer sun's rays.
+In the afternoon the usual sea breeze failed to appear, and there was no
+relief from the intense closeness and almost overpowering warmth. The
+sky was clear, but with a misty, steamy appearance which reminded one
+strongly of glowing, tropical countries.
+
+As the night came on, the absence of the glare of the sun was the only
+relief to the parched and panting population. Seated in the parlor of a
+large three-storied brick house in the central portion of the city, I
+spent the evening after tea conversing with two friends who had called
+to see me. After a few hours of pleasant conversation, one of my friends
+said it was time to leave. Taking out his watch, he continued, "Six
+minutes of ten, and--_what is that?_" A low, deep rumbling noise as of
+thunder, only beneath instead of above us, coming from afar and
+approaching us nearer and nearer, muttering and groaning, and ever
+increasing in volume,--it was upon us in an instant.
+
+The massive brick house we were in began to sway from side to
+side--gently at first with a rhythmical motion, then gradually
+increasing in force, until, springing to our feet, we seized one another
+by the hand and gazed with blanched and awe-struck faces at the
+tottering walls around us. We felt the floor beneath our feet heaving
+like the deck of a storm-tossed vessel, and heard the crashing of the
+falling masonry and ruins on every side. With almost stilled hearts we
+realized that we were in the power of an earthquake. The motion of the
+house, never ceasing, became now vertical. Up and down it went as though
+some monstrous giant had taken it in his hands as a plaything and were
+tossing it like a ball for his amusement. Recalling our dazed senses,
+and staggering to our feet as best we could, with one accord we rushed
+down the steps leading to the front door, and, grasping the handle,
+turned it. In vain--the door was jammed, and we were compelled to wait
+like rats in a trap until the shock had passed!
+
+Concentrating its energies into one final, convulsive effort, the huge
+earth-wave passed and left the earth palpitating and heaving like a
+tired animal. There came crashing down into our garden-plot the chimneys
+from the house in front of ours. Fortunately the falling bricks injured
+none of us. Making another trial, we succeeded in opening the door and
+rushed into the street.
+
+Now there came upon us an overpowering, suffocating odor of sulphur and
+brimstone, which filled the whole atmosphere. We were surrounded by a
+crowd of neighbors--men, women, and children--who had rushed out of
+their houses, as we had done, and who stood with us in the middle of the
+street, awaiting they knew not what.
+
+Suddenly there came again to our ears the now dreaded rumbling sound.
+Like some fierce animal, growling and seeking its victim, it approached,
+and we all prepared ourselves for the worst. The shock came, and for a
+moment the crowd was awed into silence. Fortunately this shock was not
+nearly so severe as the first. The earth became still once more, and the
+roaring died away in the distance.
+
+[Illustration: STREET SCENE DURING THE CHARLESTON EARTHQUAKE.]
+
+How the people shunned their houses and spent that and succeeding nights
+in the streets, private gardens, and on public squares, is well known
+from the many accounts given in the daily and illustrated papers at the
+time.
+
+So perfectly still and calm was the air during the night, that a lamp,
+which was taken out in the open air burnt as steadily as though
+protected in a room, and no flickering revealed the presence of a breath
+of wind.
+
+Again, some strong and powerful buildings in certain portions of the
+city were wrecked completely, while others older and undoubtedly weaker
+passed through the shock unharmed. A house on one corner was perfectly
+shattered, while, just a few hundred feet away, the house on the
+opposite corner was not damaged in the slightest except that a little
+plastering was shaken down.
+
+Knowing that a city with a population of sixty thousand had been wrecked
+in every direction by an earthquake, one would expect the death-list to
+be enormous; but not more than about forty were killed outright, and but
+a few more were wounded. Had the shock occurred in the daytime, when the
+streets were thronged, the loss of life must have been terrible.
+
+
+
+
+HIDING PLACES IN WAR TIMES
+
+BY J. H. GORE
+
+
+For some years after the close of our Civil War, the attention of our
+people was chiefly occupied with a study and recital of the most
+prominent battles, the decisive events, and the acts of famous officers.
+But when these bolder features of the war panorama had been examined and
+discussed, more time was taken to look at some of the details, to call
+up the minor incidents, to bestow meed of praise upon privates, or to
+record the littles that made up the much.
+
+The sacrifices of the women and children at home have been repeatedly
+referred to in general, but seldom do we see mention made of their daily
+privations, the petty but continual annoyances to which they were
+subjected, and the struggle they made to sow and reap, as well as the
+difficulties they met in saving the harvested crops.
+
+The hiding-places here described were all in _one_ house. This house was
+in Virginia, near a town which changed hands, under fire, eighty-two
+times during the war--a town whose hotel register shows on the same page
+the names of officers of both armies, a town where there are two large
+cities of the fallen soldiers, each embellished by the saddest of all
+epitaphs--"To the unknown dead." Out from this battered town run a
+number of turnpikes, and standing as close to one of these as a city
+house stands to the street was the house referred to--the home of a
+widow, three small children, a single domestic, and, for part of the
+time, an invalid cousin, whose ingenuity and skill fashioned the secret
+places, one of which was on several occasions his place of refuge.
+
+With fall came the "fattening time" for the hogs. They were then brought
+in from the distant fields, where they had passed the summer, and put in
+a pen by the side of the road. And although within ten feet of the
+soldiers as they marched by, they were never seen, for the pen was
+completely covered by the winter's wood-pile, except at the back, where
+there was a board fence through whose cracks the corn was thrown in.
+Whenever the passing advance-guard told us that an army was approaching,
+the hogs were hurriedly fed, so that the army might go by while they
+were taking their after-dinner nap, and thus not reveal their presence
+by an escaped grunt or squeal. Fortunately, the house was situated in a
+narrow valley, where the opportunities for bushwhacking were so great
+that the soldiers did not tarry long enough to search unsuspected
+wood-piles. On one occasion we thought the hogs were doomed. A wagon
+broke down near the house, and a soldier went to the wood-pile for a
+pole to be used in mending the break. Luckily, he found a stick to his
+liking without tearing the pile to pieces. This suggested that some
+nice, straight pieces be always left conveniently near for such an
+emergency, in case it should occur again.
+
+The house had a cellar with a door opening directly out upon the "big
+road," and never did a troop, large or small, pass by without countless
+soldiers seeking something eatable in this convenient cellar. It was
+never empty, but nothing was ever found. A partition had been run across
+about three feet from the back wall, so near that even a close
+inspection would not suggest a space back of it; and being without a
+door, no one would think there was a room beyond. The only access to
+this back cellar was through a trapdoor in the floor of the room above.
+This door was always kept covered by a carpet, and in case any danger
+was imminent, a lounge was put over this, and one of the boys, feigning
+illness, was there "put to bed." In this cellar apples, preserves,
+pickled pork, etc., were kept, and its existence was not known to any
+one outside of the family.
+
+The two garrets of the house had false ends, with narrow spaces beyond,
+where winter clothing, flour, and corn were safely stored. The partition
+in each was of weather-boarding, and nailed on from the inner side so as
+to appear like the true ends, and, being in blind gables, there was no
+suspicion aroused by the absence of windows. The entrance to these
+little attics was through small doors that were a part of the partition,
+and, as usual in country houses, the clothesline stretched across the
+end from rafter to rafter held enough old carpets and useless stuff to
+silence any question of secret doors. Several closets also were provided
+with false backs, where the surplus linen of the household found a safe
+hiding-place.
+
+In such an exposed place a company of scouts, or even a regiment, could
+appear so unexpectedly that it was necessary to keep everything out of
+sight. Even the provisions for the next meal had to be put away, or
+before the meal could be prepared a party of marauders might drop in and
+carry off the entire supply. In the kitchen a wood-box of large size
+stood by the stove. It had a false bottom. In the upper part was "wood
+dirt," a plentiful supply of chips, and so much stove-wood that the
+impression would be conveyed that at least there was a good stock of
+fuel always on hand. The box was made of tongued and grooved boards, and
+one of these in the front could be slipped out, thus forming a door.
+Into this box all the food and silverware were put. No little ingenuity
+was needed in making this contrivance. The nails that were drawn out to
+let this board slip back and forth left tell-tale nail-holes, but these
+were filled up with heads of nails, so that all the boards looked just
+alike. I remember once a soldier was sitting on this box while mother
+was cooking for him what seemed to be the last slice of bacon in the
+house. She was so afraid that he would drum on the box with his heels,
+as boys frequently do, and find that the box was hollow, that she
+continually asked him to get up while she took a piece of wood for the
+fire. It was necessary to disturb him a number of times before he found
+it advisable to take the proffered chair, and in the meantime a hotter
+fire had been made than the small piece of meat required.
+
+Of course it was advisable to have at least scraps of food lying
+around--their absence at any time would have aroused suspicion and
+started a search that might have disclosed all. The large loaves of
+bread were put in an unused bed in the place of bolsters; money, when
+there was any on hand, was rolled up in a strip of cotton which was tied
+as a string around a bunch of hoarhound that hung on a nail in the
+kitchen ceiling; the chickens were reared in a thicket some distance
+from the house, and, being fed there, seldom left it.
+
+Although this house was searched repeatedly, by day and by night, by
+regulars and by guerrillas, by soldiers of the North and of the South,
+the only loss sustained were a few eggs, and this loss was not serious,
+for the eggs were stale.
+
+
+
+
+ST. AUGUSTINE
+
+BY FRANK R. STOCKTON
+
+
+The city of St. Augustine, on the eastern coast of Florida, stands in
+one respect preeminent among all the cities of the United States--it is
+truly an old city. It has many other claims to consideration, but these
+are shared with other cities. But in regard to age it is the one member
+of its class.
+
+Compared with the cities of the Old World, St. Augustine would be called
+young; but in the United States a city whose buildings and monuments
+connect the Middle Ages with the present time, may be considered to have
+a good claim to be called ancient.
+
+After visiting some of our great towns, where the noise and bustle of
+traffic, the fire and din of manufactures, the long lines of buildings
+stretching out in every direction, with all the other evidences of
+active enterprise, proclaim these cities creations of the present day
+and hour, it is refreshing and restful to go down to quiet St.
+Augustine, where one may gaze into the dry moat of a fort of medieval
+architecture, walk over its drawbridges, pass under its portcullis, and
+go down into its dungeons; and where in soft semi-tropical air the
+visitor may wander through narrow streets resembling those of Spain and
+Italy, where the houses on each side lean over toward one another so
+that neighbors might almost shake hands from their upper windows, and
+are surrounded by orange-groves and rose-gardens which blossom all the
+year.
+
+St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, who was
+then Governor of Florida. Here he built a wooden fort which was
+afterward replaced by the massive edifice which still exists. St.
+Augustine needed defenses, for she passed through long periods of war,
+and many battles were fought for her possession. At first there were
+wars in Florida between the Spanish and the French; and when the town
+was just twenty-one years old, Sir Francis Drake captured the fort,
+carrying off two thousand pounds in money, and burned half the buildings
+in the town. Then the Indians frequently attacked the place and
+committed many atrocities; and, half a century after Drake, the
+celebrated English buccaneer Captain John Davis captured and plundered
+the town.
+
+Much later, General Moore, Governor of South Carolina, took the town and
+held it for three months, but was never able to take the fort. In 1740
+General Oglethorpe, Governor of Georgia, attacked St. Augustine,
+planting batteries on the island opposite, and maintaining a siege for
+forty days; but he was obliged to withdraw. Three years later he made
+another attack, but succeeded no better. Even now one can see the dents
+and holes made in the fort by the cannon-balls fired in these sieges.
+
+In 1819 Florida was ceded to our Government, and St. Augustine became a
+city of the United States.
+
+Approaching St. Augustine from the sea, the town looks as if it might be
+a port on the Mediterranean coast. The light-colored walls of its houses
+and gardens, masses of rich green foliage cropping up everywhere in the
+town and about it, the stern old fortress to the north of it, and the
+white and glittering sands of the island which separates its harbor from
+the sea, make it very unlike the ordinary idea of an American town.
+
+In the center of the city is a large open square called the Plaza de la
+Constitucion, surrounded by beautiful live-oaks and pride-of-India
+trees, with their long, hanging-mosses and sweet-smelling blossoms.
+
+Most of the streets are narrow, without sidewalks, and from the
+high-walled gardens comes the smell of orange-blossoms, while roses and
+other flowers bloom everywhere and all the time.
+
+At the southern end of the town stands the old Convent of St. Francis,
+which is now used as barracks for United States soldiers.
+
+The old palace of the governor still stands, but now contains the
+post-office and other public buildings. There was once a wall around the
+town, and one of the gates of this still remains. There is a tower on
+each side of the gateway, and the sentry-boxes, and loopholes through
+which the guards used to look out for Indians and other enemies, are
+still there. Along the harbor edge of the town is a wall nearly a mile
+long, built at great expense by the United States Government as a
+defense against the encroachments of the sea. This is called the sea
+wall, and its smooth top, four feet wide, is a favorite promenade.
+Walking northward on this wall, or on the street beside it, if you like
+that better, we reach, a little outside of the town, what I consider the
+most interesting feature of St. Augustine. This is the old fort of San
+Marco, which, since it came into the possession of our government, has
+been renamed Fort Marion.
+
+[Illustration: THE SPANISH COAT-OF-ARMS.]
+
+The old fort is not a ruin, but is one of the best-preserved specimens
+of the style of fortification of the Middle Ages. We cross the moat and
+the drawbridge, and over the stone door-way we see the Spanish
+coat-of-arms, and under it an inscription stating that the fort was
+built during the reign of King Ferdinand VI of Spain, with the names and
+titles of the dons who superintended the work. It took sixty years to
+build the fort, and nearly all the work was done by Indians who were
+captured and made slaves for the purpose. Passing through the solemn
+entrance, we come to an open square surrounded by the buildings and
+walls of the fort, which, in all, cover about an acre of ground. On the
+right is an inclined plane which serves as a stairway to reach the
+ramparts where the cannon were placed. The _terre-plein_, or wide, flat
+surface of the ramparts, makes a fine walk around the four sides of the
+fort from which we can have views of land and sea. At each corner was a
+watch-tower, three of which remain; and into these one can mount, and
+through the narrow slits of windows get a view of what is going on
+outside without being seen himself. At one end of the fort is the old
+Spanish chapel, and all around the square are the rooms that used to be
+occupied by the officers and the soldiers. Into the chapel the condemned
+prisoners used to be taken to hear their last mass before being marched
+up to the north rampart and shot.
+
+Down in the foundations of the fort are dungeons into which no ray of
+sunlight can enter. After the fort came into the possession of our
+government, a human skeleton was found in one of the dungeons, chained
+to a staple in the wall; and in another dungeon, without door or window
+and completely walled up, there were discovered two iron cages which had
+hung from the walls, each containing a human skeleton. The supports of
+one of the cages had rusted away, and it had fallen down, but the other
+was still in its place. A great many romantic stories were told about
+these skeletons, and by some persons it was supposed that they were the
+remains of certain heirs to the Spanish throne whose existence it was
+desirable utterly to blot out. One of the skeletons was that of a woman
+or girl. The cages and skeletons have been removed, but we can go into
+the dungeons if we take a lantern. Anything darker or blacker than these
+underground cells cannot be imagined. I have seen dungeons in Europe,
+but none of them were so hopelessly awful as these.
+
+In another part of the fort is a cell in which Osceola, the celebrated
+Indian chief, was once imprisoned, in company with another chief named
+Wild Cat. There is a little window near the top of the cell, protected
+by several iron bars; and it is said that Wild Cat starved himself until
+he was thin enough to squeeze between two of the bars, having first
+mounted on the shoulders of Osceola in order to reach them. Whether the
+starving part of the story is true or not, it is certain that he escaped
+through the window.
+
+When I last visited San Marco, it was full of Indian prisoners who had
+been captured in the far West. Some of them were notorious for their
+cruelties and crimes, but in the fort they were all peaceable enough. It
+was one of these Indians, a big, ugly fellow, who lighted me into the
+dungeon of the skeleton-cages.
+
+This fort, which is in many respects like a great castle, is not built
+of ordinary stone, but of coquina, a substance formed by the
+accumulation of sea-shells which, in the course of ages, have united
+into a mass like solid rock. On Anastasia Island, opposite St.
+Augustine, there are great quarries from which the coquina stone is
+taken, and of this material nearly the whole town is built. It is
+interesting to visit one of these quarries, and observe how in the
+upper strata the shells are quite distinct, while the lower we look down
+the more and more solid and stone-like the masses become.
+
+The harbor of St. Augustine is a portion of the sea cut off by Anastasia
+Island. Southward, the Matanzas River extends from the harbor; and in
+all these waters there is fine fishing. On the sea-beaches there is good
+bathing, for the water is not too cold even in winter. St. Augustine is
+an attractive place at all seasons of the year, and its three superb
+hotels--the Ponce de Leon, the Alcazar, and the Cordova--are among the
+most celebrated in America. In winter people come down from the North
+because its air is so warm and pleasant, and in summer people from the
+Southern States visit it because its sea-breezes are so cool and
+refreshing. It is a favorable resort for yachts, and in its wide, smooth
+harbor may often be seen some of the most beautiful vessels of this
+class.
+
+St. Augustine is not only a delightful place in which to stay, but it is
+easy to reach from there some points which are of great interest to
+travelers. The great St. John's River is only fourteen miles away, and
+is connected with the town by a little railroad. At Tocoi, the river
+terminus of the railroad, people who wish to penetrate into the heart of
+Florida, with its great forests and lakes and beautiful streams, can
+take a steamer and sail up the St. John's, which, by the way, flows
+northward some two hundred miles. In some parts the river is six miles
+wide, resembling a lake, and in its narrow portions the shores are very
+beautiful.
+
+About forty miles above Tocoi the Ocklawaha River runs into the St.
+John's, and there are few visitors to St. Augustine who do not desire to
+take a trip up the little river which is in many respects the most
+romantic and beautiful stream in the world. At Tocoi we take a small
+steamboat which looks like a very narrow two-story house mounted upon a
+little canal-boat, and in this we go up the St. John's until we see on
+the right an opening in the tree-covered banks. This is the mouth of the
+Ocklawaha, and, entering it, we steam directly into the heart of one of
+the great forests of Florida. The stream is very narrow, and full of
+turns and bends. Indeed, its name, which is Indian, signifies "crooked
+water"; and sometimes the bow of the boat has even to be pushed around
+by men with long poles. Of course we go slowly, but no one objects to
+that, for we do not wish to hurry through such scenery as this. On each
+side we see green trees with their thick evergreen foliage, with vines
+and moss hanging from many of them, and the ground beneath covered with
+the luxuriant shrubbery which grows in these warm regions.
+
+Sometimes we can see through the trees into the distant recesses of the
+forest, and then again we are shut in by walls of foliage. Now and then
+we may see an alligator sunning himself on a log, and as our boat
+approaches he rolls over into the water and plumps out of sight.
+Water-turkeys, whose bodies are concealed in the bushes, run out their
+long necks to look at us, presenting the appearance of snakes darting
+from between the leaves; while curlews, herons, and many other birds are
+seen on the banks and flying across the river. In some places the stream
+widens, and in the shallower portions near the banks grow many kinds of
+lilies, beautiful reeds, and other water-plants. For long distances
+there is no solid ground on either side of the river, the water
+penetrating far into the forest and forming swamps. Near the edge of the
+river we frequently see myriads of tree-roots bent almost at right
+angles, giving the trees the appearance of standing on spider-legs in
+the water.
+
+Sometimes the forest opens overhead, but nearly all the way we are
+covered by a roof of green, and at every turn appear new scenes of
+beauty and luxuriance. Occasionally the banks are moderately high, and
+we see long stretches of solid ground covered with verdure. There is one
+spot where two large trees stand, one on each bank, close to the water,
+and the distance between the two is so small that as our boat glides
+through this natural gateway there is scarcely a foot of room to spare
+on either side.
+
+Although the river is such a little one that we are apt to think all the
+time we are sailing on it that we must soon come to the end of its
+navigation, we go on more than a hundred miles before we come to the
+place where we stop and turn back. The trip up the Ocklawaha requires
+all the hours of a day and a great part of a night; and this night trip
+is like a journey through fairyland. On the highest part of the boat is
+a great iron basket, into which, as soon as it becomes dark, are thrown
+quantities of pine-knots. These are lighted in order that the pilot may
+see how to steer. The blazing of the resinous fuel lights up the forest
+for long distances in every direction, and, as may easily be imagined,
+the effect is wonderfully beautiful. When the fire blazes high the scene
+is like an illuminated lacework of tree-trunks, vines, leaves, and
+twigs, the smallest tendril shining out bright and distinct; while
+through it all the river gleams like a band of glittering silver. Then,
+as the pine-knots gradually burn out, the illumination fades and fades
+away until we think the whole glorious scene is about to melt into
+nothing, when more sticks are thrown on, the light blazes up again, and
+we have before us a new scene with different combinations of illuminated
+foliage and water.
+
+It often happens that during the night our little steamer crowds itself
+to one side of the river and stops. Then we may expect to see a splendid
+sight. Out of the dark depths of the forest comes a glowing, radiant
+apparition, small at first, but getting larger and larger until it moves
+down upon us like a tangle of moon and stars drifting through the trees.
+
+This is nothing but another little steamboat coming down the river with
+its lighted windows and decks, and its blazing basket of pine-knots.
+There is just room enough for her to squeeze past us, and then her
+radiance gradually fades away in the darkness behind us.
+
+[Illustration: FORT MARION--VIEW FROM WATER-BATTERY.]
+
+We travel thus, night and day, until we reach Silver Springs, which is
+the end of our journey. This is a small lake so transparent that we can
+see down to the very bottom of it, and watch the turtles and fishes as
+they swim about. A silver coin or any small object thrown into the water
+may be distinctly seen lying on the white sand far beneath us. The land
+is high and dry about Silver Springs, and the passengers generally go on
+shore and stroll through the woods for an hour or two. Then we reëmbark
+and return to St. Augustine as we came.
+
+It must not be supposed that St. Augustine contains nothing but
+buildings of the olden time. Although many parts of the town are the
+same as they were in the old Spanish days, and although we may even find
+the descendants of the Minorcans who were once its principal citizens,
+the city now contains many handsome modern dwellings and hotels, some of
+which are exceptionally large and grand. Hundreds of people from the
+North have come down to this city of orange-scented air, eternal
+verdure, and invigorating sea-breezes, and have built handsome houses;
+and during the winter there is a great deal of bustle and life in the
+narrow streets, in the Plaza, and on the sunny front of the town. Many
+of the shops are of a kind only to be found in semi-tropical towns by
+the sea, and have for sale bright-colored sea-beans, ornaments made of
+fish-scales of every variety of hue, corals, dried sea-ferns, and ever
+so many curiosities of the kind. We may even buy, if we choose, some
+little black alligators, alive and brisk and about a foot long. As to
+fruit, we can get here the best oranges in the world, which come from
+the Indian River in the southern part of Florida, and many sorts of
+tropical fruits that are seldom brought to Northern cities.
+
+If St. Augustine were like most American cities, and had been built by
+us or by our immediate ancestors, and presented an air of newness and
+progress and business prosperity, its delightful climate and its natural
+beauties would make it a most charming place to visit. But if we add to
+these attractions the fact that here alone we can see a bit of the old
+world without leaving our young Republic, and that in two or three days
+from the newness and busy din of New York or Chicago we may sit upon the
+ramparts of a medieval fort, and study the history of those olden days
+when the history of Spain, England, and France was also the history of
+this portion of our own land,--we cannot fail to admit that this little
+town of coquina walls and evergreen foliage and traditions of old-world
+antiquity occupies a position which is unique in the United States.
+
+
+
+
+CATCHING TERRAPIN
+
+BY ALFRED KAPPES
+
+
+In the shoal waters along the coast south of Cape Henlopen, terrapin are
+caught in various ways. Dredges dragged along in the wake of a sailing
+vessel pick them up. Nets stretched across some narrow arm of river or
+bay entangle the feet of any stray terrapin in their meshes; but these
+require the constant attendance of the fisherman to save the catch from
+drowning. In the winter, in the deeper water, the terrapin rise from
+their muddy quarters on mild sunny days and crawl along the bottom. They
+are then taken by tongs, their whereabouts being often betrayed by
+bubbles.
+
+The method shown in the drawing is resorted to only in the spring and in
+water not over a foot or two in depth. Turtles will rise at any noise,
+and usually the fisherman only claps his hands, though each hunter has
+his own way of attracting the terrapin. One hunter whom I saw when I
+made the drawing uttered a queer guttural noise that seemed to rise from
+his boots.
+
+[Illustration: CATCHING TERRAPIN IN THE SPRING.]
+
+Whatever the noise, all turtles within hearing--whether terrapin or
+"snapper"--will put their heads above water. Both are welcome and are
+quickly sold to the market-men. The snapper slowly appears and
+disappears, leaving scarcely a ripple; and the hunter cautiously
+approaching usually takes him by the tail. The terrapin, on the
+contrary, is quick, and will descend in an oblique direction, so that a
+hand-net is needed unless he happens to come up near by. If he is near
+enough the man jumps for him. The time for hunting is the still hour at
+either sunrise or sunset.
+
+
+
+
+"LOCOED"
+
+(_A story of a Texan girl._)
+
+BY EDWARD MARSHALL
+
+
+John Fredding had laughingly taken his sister Martha as a partner in his
+Texas saddle store. She made a good partner although she was only
+thirteen years old. There were other women on the ranch (the saddle
+store was only an adjunct of the big cattle-ranch itself), but the
+grandmother was very old, and the servant-girl was Welsh and would not
+learn to speak more English than was required in the daily routine of
+housework.
+
+Not far away was the town of Amarilla (pronounced Ah-ma-ree-ah). There
+were plenty of women and girls there, but Martha knew none of them well
+except the preacher's daughter, Scylla. Martha and Scylla were great
+friends. They saw each other as often as Martha could get time and
+permission to ride in to Amarilla. Scylla could seldom visit the ranch,
+for she was an invalid. When she had been a very little girl, a horse
+had kicked her. She was ill for many weeks, and after the doctor had
+told her parents that she would live, he had added that she might never
+have full use of her right side again. It was partially paralyzed.
+
+But Martha was seldom lonely. For in the daytime there was always
+something to do around the ranch or store. She had her pet calf to
+attend to, for one thing. He was given to her by a cow-boy who bought a
+saddle from her brother one day, and who cried that evening when Martha
+played "Home, Sweet Home" for him on her guitar. The calf was in several
+respects remarkable. In the first place, he was almost black--an unusual
+thing among Texas cattle. In the second place, he was not quite black,
+for he had a white spot on his forehead shaped almost exactly like
+Martha's guitar. That was why they called him "Gitter." In the third
+place, Martha had taught him several tricks. He had learned to low three
+times when he was thirsty, and twice when he was hungry; he would stand
+on his hind legs and paw the air with his front legs for a moment when
+Martha cried, "Up, Gitter!" and he would lie down and roll over on the
+grass when she commanded "Down, Gitter!" She had a cat that would climb
+up on her shoulder whenever he got the chance, and a clever dog that
+liked the cat. She had two horses, also. One of them was an ordinary
+"cow-pony," but the other was a big black Spanish horse who seemed to
+love Martha as well as she loved him. When she was on his back he never
+varied his long, swinging, graceful gallop by jumping or shying, but if
+any one else rode him, he was apt to make them hold fast when he went
+around corners. His name was "Dan." Martha thought almost as much of the
+cow-pony, though, as she did of Dan, and called him "Texas," after the
+great State she lived in.
+
+Her brother, too, did many things to make her happy. In the long winter
+evenings he often read to her for hours, or taught her new airs on the
+guitar, of which he was a master; and sometimes, when summer came, they
+took long rides off on the prairie together. These occurred when there
+was a band of cow-boys camped near by, and John generally combined
+business with pleasure by talking with them about cattle and saddles.
+But that did not detract at all from Martha's enjoyment of the rides.
+She always carried her guitar swung over her shoulder by a strap when
+she went out with her brother to see the cow-boys.
+
+[Illustration: "SOMETIMES WHEN SUMMER CAME THEY TOOK LONG RIDES ON THE
+PRAIRIE TOGETHER."]
+
+The little girl's life was a queer one, but then, she was a queer little
+girl and among queer people. For instance, there was "Mister Jim," who
+came up to the store every few weeks to lay in supplies. Mister Jim was
+one of the men who were hired to keep wild animals out of the Cañon. The
+Cañon was a favorite place for Amarilla's excursions and picnics, and
+was very beautiful; but it communicated with other cañons into which
+picnics could never penetrate, and in which there were wild beasts of
+many kinds. To prevent these unpleasant visitors from wandering where
+they were not wanted, men were stationed at various places to shoot
+them. Mister Jim was the one nearest to Martha's home, and he was
+Martha's stanch friend. He never went to the ranch without some gift for
+her--the soft pelt of an animal he had shot, the gay wings of a strange
+bird, or some crystal or stone he had found in his explorations of the
+Cañon. Martha returned his admiration. He lived in a cave, and that
+interested her--she thought she might like to try it herself some time.
+She considered his clothes very grand and impressive. In the Cañon he
+wore a leather suit; but when he visited the ranch he was always
+dressed in black velvet trimmed with gold braid, and wore a high,
+pointed hat wound with red ribbons like those of the seldom-appearing
+Mexican cow-boys, only much finer.
+
+But the "loco men" were Martha's favorites. There were three of
+them--Big Billy, Little Billy, and One-eyed Saylo. Why Saylo was called
+"one-eyed" was a mystery, for he had two of the very best eyes for
+spying the hated loco-weed ever known in that region. Loco-weed grows,
+when unmolested, to a height of sixteen or eighteen inches, and its
+queer leaves shine and sparkle in the sunlight like silver and crystals.
+Its effects on horses or cattle that happen to eat it are worse than
+deadly. One good, big meal of loco-weed will ruin an animal forever.
+
+A locoed horse, once locoed, is locoed until he dies. Apparently he may
+recover wholly, but he is not a safe animal to ride, for at any moment
+he may stagger and fall, or go suddenly mad. A locoed horse is almost
+certain to show it when he becomes heated by rapid traveling or hard
+work. The great danger from locoed cattle is, that they will begin to
+tumble around in the midst of a herd and frighten their fellows into a
+stampede.
+
+As it can work such ruin, in order to avoid the danger of having their
+animals locoed, the ranchmen, in those regions where the weed is
+plentiful, hire men to search for it, cut it down, and destroy it. Of
+these men who make their living in searching for the dreaded loco-weed
+and destroying it wherever found were Big Billy, Little Billy, and
+One-eyed Saylo.
+
+One summer night John told Martha to get her guitar, while he saddled
+Texas and his own pony for a ride. In a few moments they were galloping
+over the prairie on their way to a cow-boy camp about three miles away.
+When they reached it, they found all the five men, but one, rolled up
+from top to toe in their tarpaulins, and asleep on the prairie. The one
+who was awake welcomed them in effusive cow-boy style, and then with a
+"Wake up, you-uns! Yar's John Fredding an' 'is little woman!" kicked
+each of his sleeping companions into consciousness with his foot. They
+were all glad to see John and Martha, for they knew them of old.
+
+In the twinkling of an eye the smoldering fire was livened into a cheery
+blaze, the visitors' ponies were picketed, and the men were grouped
+around Martha and the fire. For a little while John talked business
+with them; but, before long, one of the men arose and, deferentially
+taking off his broad hat to Martha, asked her if she wouldn't give them
+a "chune." The music of her guitar was indescribably sweet, there in the
+little oasis of light in the prairie's desert of darkness, and for a
+time the men sat silently, with their hands clasped about their knees,
+enjoying it. Then she struck into a rollicking cow-boy song, and they
+joined in shouting it out. It is a favorite among the cow-boys of
+southern Texas, and begins thus:
+
+  I'd rather hear a rattler rattle,
+  I'd rather do a Greaser battle,
+  I'd rather buck stampeding cattle,
+  Than
+  Than to
+  Than to fight
+  Than to fight the bloody In-ji-ans.
+
+  I'd rather eat a pan of dope,
+  I'd rather ride without a rope,
+  I'd rather from this country lope,
+  Than
+  Than to
+  Than to fight
+  Than to fight the bloody In-ji-ans.
+
+After that came "I'm Gwine Back to Dixie," and "'Way Down Upon the
+Suwanee River," and then John said it was time to start home again. Loud
+were the protests of the cow-boys, and when John and Martha went, the
+whole party went with them except one man, who was left to watch the
+cattle. They were "full of sing," as one of them put it, and it was a
+jolly ride back to the ranch. When it was finally reached, the cow-boys
+gave them a "send-off" that could have been heard a mile away. They
+shouted and yelled like the wild "In-ji-ans" they had sung about, and as
+they wheeled around to gallop back to camp, they fired all the charges
+in their revolvers into the air as a parting courtesy. Then there was a
+mad scamper of horses' hoofs, the yells grew fainter, and the cow-boys
+were gone.
+
+When John went into the house he found two letters which had been
+brought up by some passing friend from Amarilla. One of them was from an
+old schoolmate of his, who had become a professor in a Northern college,
+asking for some loco-weed, to be added to the college botanical
+collection. The other was from Scylla's father, saying that if it would
+be convenient he would bring his little daughter out to the ranch in a
+few days for a long-promised visit to Martha. This second letter sent
+Martha to bed a very happy little girl.
+
+Several days passed before Scylla arrived at the ranch; but when she did
+come there was great rejoicing. After she was comfortably ensconced in
+her wheeled chair on the porch, she held a mimic reception. John and
+Martha did the honors, and every human being within call was introduced
+to the little invalid. In the store there were a dozen leather-decked
+cow-boys, and Scylla felt quite like a queen as each one scrambled up to
+her, and with his broad sombrero in one hand took her tiny fingers in
+the other as he turned red and tried to say something polite. Nor did
+her impromptu court end with that. After the introductions were over,
+all the visitors sat down on the porch or the grass before it, while
+Martha exhibited her pets to her friend. Gitter, the calf, was put
+through all his tricks, the cat was placed in Scylla's poor little arms,
+where he purred contentedly, and the dog chased sticks thrown by whoever
+could find any to throw. After Gitter had been led away, Martha came up
+from the stables with her two horses--Texas and Dan. Big black Dan was
+inclined to frisk a bit and jump about at the unusual scene; but
+little Texas worked his way right into Scylla's heart by marching
+steadily and straight up to her, despite Martha's laughing pulls on the
+lariat looped about his neck. With ears pricked forward, he made
+friendly overtures to the new-comer on the spot. He poked his nose into
+her lap and rubbed it against her hands and ate sugar from her fingers.
+
+[Illustration: MARTHA RIDES DAN OVER THE HURDLE.]
+
+"Oh, I wish I could ride him!" said Scylla.
+
+"He never was so cordial before, not even with me," said Martha.
+
+Then she suddenly thought of something, and after intrusting her horses
+to one of the cow-boys, went and talked it over in whispers with her
+brother, Scylla's father, and the doctor, who had been discussing
+politics together on one end of the porch. After this mysterious
+conversation had lasted a little while, Martha danced back to Scylla, so
+happy that she "just _had_ to hop."
+
+"Oh, Scylla!" she exclaimed, "you _can_ ride him. Your papa says so and
+the doctor says so and Brother says so. John is going to fix up one of
+my saddles for you with an extra strap to keep you from falling, and
+Texas likes you so much he will be gentle and careful as he can be, I
+know. And the doctor says he thinks it will do you good, if John and I
+keep close by you all the time, so there won't be any danger."
+
+The following days at the ranch were very pleasant ones for Martha and
+her visitor. In the morning after the work was done--Martha always did
+some of the light house duties--they would watch with never-flagging
+interest the great herds of cattle as they were driven on their way for
+shipment from Amarilla, and gossip as girls do. Sometimes the cattle
+passed quite near to the house, but oftener they were half a mile or
+more away on the prairie--sometimes so far that the great herds seemed
+to be mere black blots moving over the dun brown of the Texas grass.
+
+Every afternoon the two girls went riding, escorted either by John or
+one of the men employed about the ranch. John had fixed one of Martha's
+saddles so that poor little Scylla could not fall, and Texas seemed to
+bear his tiny burden with more than ordinary care. At first they rode
+very slowly, and for only a few moments at a time; but Scylla gained
+strength daily, and by the end of the second week had improved so much
+that she could ride for an hour without great fatigue, and Texas was
+occasionally allowed to start his gentle gallop.
+
+It was as they were returning from one of these rides that Scylla's
+sharp eyes spied the figure of a horseman rushing out to them from the
+ranch. He waved his hat and yelled, firing his revolver between whoops
+and generally conducted himself like a madman. Martha recognized him at
+once.
+
+"It's One-eyed Saylo," she said. "He always acts like that--he thinks it
+wouldn't be showing proper respect to a lady unless he wasted half a
+dozen cartridges and showed off his horsemanship."
+
+Saylo acknowledged his introduction to Scylla with great ceremony, and
+then told John that he had come to bring the loco-weed for the college
+professor. By dint of much searching and hard riding he had gathered a
+gunny-sack full of it.
+
+Then, as they rode slowly toward the ranch, he told John how the cattle
+in the whole region seemed to be getting "panicky." All the cow-boys he
+had met had had the same story to tell. It was only by the most careful
+handling that they were able to keep their herds from stampeding.
+
+By this time the little cavalcade had reached the ranch. After Scylla
+had been lifted from the saddle and carried to her seat on the porch,
+Martha, full of the irrepressible good spirits of a healthy girl, had a
+long frolic with her big black horse. She took his saddle off, and let
+him enjoy the luxury of a long roll on the grass, and then she made him
+do all his tricks. First he shook hands with great dignity--"just to
+show that this was friendly fun," Martha said. Then she replaced the
+saddle, clambered to its easy seat, and put him through his paces. He
+walked, slow and stately, with much self-consciousness, as a real
+Spanish horse should; he trotted, he loped, he paced, and went
+single-foot, greatly to the admiration of the three spectators. Martha
+kept her seat with perfect ease and grace.
+
+Two posts near the house Martha had turned into the uprights of a
+jumping-hurdle with bars which could be placed at various heights. Over
+these bars that afternoon, Dan, with Martha sticking to his back like a
+burr, jumped many times, surpassing, to the delight of both girls, his
+previous best record.
+
+John, in the meantime, was busy in the shop, where One-eyed Saylo had
+followed him to gossip with the workmen about the all-absorbing topic of
+saddles and bridles. Martha had finished her fun, led Dan away and
+picketed him, and was sitting by Scylla's side talking about that happy
+day when health and strength should have come back to the preacher's
+little daughter, when the men came out again. The gunny-sack of
+loco-weed was lying at the side of the porch, and both girls watched
+John and Saylo with interest as they shook out and examined its
+contents.
+
+"So they all want some of this stuff to look at an' study, up No'th, do
+they?" said Saylo, and added: "I reckon we-all wouldn't be so
+over-flowin' with grief ef they'd take all th' loco thar is in th' State
+o' Texas."
+
+Just then the Welsh servant blew loud and long on a great tin horn, and
+they all went in to supper. Saylo and John had picketed their ponies,
+Saylo intending to ride in to Amarilla that night, and John having in
+view a visit to the camp of cow-boys four or five miles away. Martha had
+tethered Texas near the other ponies, because he was "such a sociable
+little beast."
+
+It was nearing sundown when supper was over. One-eyed Saylo vaulted into
+his saddle after elaborate good-bys and went off toward Amarilla in a
+wild canter, and John prepared to start off on his saddle mission to the
+cow-boys. His pony and Texas stood with heads hanging dejectedly down,
+close together, as far away from the house as their long lariats would
+let them go, when John, carrying on his arm a new saddle that he wanted
+to try, went toward them. As he walked away from the house he called
+cheerily: "Come, Mattie,--want to go along?"
+
+"Oh, no; I'll stay here with Scylla to-night," she answered.
+
+"Why can't she go too?--it's too nice an evening to stay at home. I'll
+ride as slow as you like, and it isn't far."
+
+Both girls were delighted at this.
+
+"Isn't he good to poor little me!" Scylla exclaimed to Martha as John
+fixed her on Texas's back.
+
+Martha ran around, brought Dan, and in a very few moments they were
+riding leisurely toward the setting sun.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The evening was perfect. As the great, clean-cut disk of the sun dropped
+slowly below the far-off edge of the prairie, the breeze that had been
+busy all day rustling the prairie-grass died away, and the silence was
+so complete that they all stopped involuntarily "to listen to it." They
+had ridden until they were three or four miles from the ranch, when
+they paused again, this time to hear the crooning of far-away cow-boys.
+They were between two great herds of cattle. One, on the left, was half
+a mile away; and the moon, which now shed a great white light over the
+prairie showed it only as a black mass. Those cattle had been "bedded"
+for the night--that is, two cow-boys had ridden around and around them
+driving them closer together so that they would be easy to watch, and
+much less likely to be restless. The other herd was a little nearer, and
+the cow-boys were bedding it as the trio from the ranch approached. The
+camp-fire flickered between the riders and the herd, and its flaring
+light seemed to make the cow-boys and cattle nearest it lurch back and
+forward in and out of the gloom while their changing shadows danced
+fantastically over the prairie. Here the three riders paused again to
+listen. Closer by, the cow-boys' crooning would have sounded harsh and
+unmusical, but at this distance it shaped itself into a plaintive, minor
+melody that was very pleasing. For many moments they waited and enjoyed
+it in silence. Then suddenly a quick gust of wind and a low, muttering
+rumble of thunder made them turn quickly and look at the sky behind
+them.
+
+A bank of dead black clouds was rising on the eastern horizon.
+
+John stopped, gazed at it ruefully for a moment, and said:
+
+"There's a big thunder-storm coming; but we can get home all right
+before it strikes us. You girls ride slowly back. I'll rush to the camp
+and tell the boys to stop in in the morning. I'll overtake you before
+you've gone far."
+
+With that he was off at a brisk canter toward the herd.
+
+Martha and Scylla did as he told them. The rising but still distant
+clouds, lighted on their edges by the moon, added greatly to the beauty
+of the night, and both the girls appreciated the sight. They walked
+their horses and talked girlish nonsense. John had promised to take
+Martha to the North the next winter, and she told Scylla some of the
+wonderful things she had heard about the great cities and the curious
+things to be seen up there.
+
+Suddenly Scylla interrupted her with:
+
+"Martha, I believe there's something the matter with Texas--he's
+trembling all over."
+
+"Oh, I guess not," said Martha; "he's just tired. Texas has had a
+pretty hard day of it. But yet, he doesn't often get tired."
+
+She rode up close to Scylla and put her hand on Texas's neck. It was wet
+with sweat, although he had hardly gone faster than a walk since he had
+left the ranch.
+
+And, sure enough, he _was_ trembling slightly.
+
+"There is something the matter with him, I know," said Scylla.
+
+"Stop a minute and take my reins; I'll get off and see what it is," said
+Martha. "You're right. Texas is trembling like a leaf. Perhaps we'd
+better wait here for John."
+
+There was an anxious little quaver in her voice as she dismounted and,
+going in front of Texas, took his head between her hands. There was no
+longer any doubt that the horse was sick, and very sick. His eyes closed
+sleepily, and his head dropped low. Then he suddenly began to sway and
+totter on his feet.
+
+"Oh, Martha, I'm afraid!" cried Scylla.
+
+Martha was badly frightened, too, but she acted instead of saying
+anything. She rushed to Scylla's side and hastily unbuckled the straps
+that held the weak little body in the saddle.
+
+"Quick, jump into my arms!" she commanded as the last buckle fell
+jinglingly downward and Texas gave another alarming sidewise lurch. With
+more strength than she supposed she had, she half lifted, half pulled
+Scylla out of the saddle and eased her, almost fainting, to the ground.
+It was none too soon, for in an instant more Texas had fallen with a
+groan and lay quiet on the prairie.
+
+This lasted only for a few seconds; then with an unsteady stagger the
+little horse scrambled to his feet. For another instant he stood quiet;
+then he began to tremble again and looked around toward the girls. But
+the pony's eyes had changed; they were wild and blood-shot. With a mad
+snort he started off on a wild run into the gloom.
+
+For a moment the girls were too surprised to speak. Scylla was
+sobbing on the ground, and Martha stood by her. She had the reins
+of Dan's bridle in her hand, and gazed dumfounded after the
+rapidly-disappearing Texas. Finally she turned to her companion:
+
+"Oh, Scylla," she said, "I'm so glad I got you off his back!"
+
+"What do you think is the matter with him?" Scylla asked.
+
+"I can't imagine, unless--yes, that's it--he's locoed! Oh, my poor
+little Texas! My dear, gentle little pony! You ate that loco-weed Saylo
+brought for the college professor!"
+
+Now Martha was crying, too, for she knew that her pony was lost to her.
+
+"They--they left it lying by the porch," she went on, "and--you ate it
+while we were at supper. Oh, my little Texas!"
+
+Martha had forgotten everything but her grief, but soon she remembered
+that there was a storm coming and that Scylla must be taken home in some
+way. At first she tried to lift her to Dan's high back, but she was not
+strong enough. Then she thought of his education, and commanded him to
+lie down. He was nervous and excited and did not, at first, obey her,
+but finally she coaxed him into getting down on his knees. Then, with
+great pains and trouble, she pulled and lifted Scylla into the saddle.
+As Dan struggled to his feet again, it was hard work to keep the little
+invalid from falling, but it was done. Then Martha led him slowly toward
+the ranch. The exciting events that had just passed had made her
+nervous, and for the first time in a long while she felt afraid.
+
+"Oh, I wish John would hurry and catch up with us!" she exclaimed.
+"Please don't fall, Scylla--hang on to the pommel tight."
+
+Scylla, who had stopped crying, told Martha not to worry, that she would
+not fall; and the slow journey over the prairie continued silently for a
+minute or two. Every once in a while Martha turned back and looked
+toward the flickering camp-fire of the cow-boys. An exclamation of
+surprise was drawn from her when she failed to see it shining in the
+distance, and she stopped. Then, faintly, she heard shouts and the
+thumping of racing hoofs on the prairie.
+
+"John is coming at last," she said.
+
+But then she realized that more than one animal's hoofs were drumming
+desperately on the turf. While she stood wondering if some of the
+cow-boys were coming home with John, she heard the hoof-beats merge into
+a steady roar. Even the shouts of the men which she had just heard were
+drowned in this dull, threatening rumble. For just an instant she
+thought it was thunder, and then her quick reasoning told her the truth.
+
+The herd had stampeded!
+
+That she and Scylla were directly in its path she was certain, for the
+camp-fire had, a moment before, been between them and the herd and
+was now invisible. It had either been trampled out or was hidden by the
+advancing mass of cattle.
+
+[Illustration: "JUST THEN ANOTHER FLASH CAME AND SHOWED A COW-BOY
+LEANING FAR OVER THE NECK OF HIS PONY, RIDING FOR HIS LIFE."]
+
+Martha well knew what it meant to be in the path of a stampede; but,
+strangely enough, all her fear left her. She was puzzled, that was all.
+Had she been alone, she could easily have escaped by jumping on Dan's
+back and riding hard. Dan could have distanced the cattle, even when
+they were stampeding. But now she had helpless Scylla to take care of.
+
+The advancing thunder-clouds had wholly hidden the moon and put the
+prairie in inky darkness. At first Martha thought of starting Dan away
+with Scylla and trusting to Providence to keep the little invalid on his
+back, while she remained to face the danger alone; then she thought of
+trying to ride with her. But she knew Scylla could not possibly keep her
+place in the saddle of the horse while he ran, even if she herself
+should mount him too and try to hold Scylla on.
+
+She stepped back to Scylla's side. There was a deathly doubt in her
+heart as to whether she was doing the right thing; but she had made a
+desperate resolve. Scylla had heard the thunder of the approaching herd
+too, and was too frightened to speak. Martha held her arms up toward
+her just as the first flash of lightning came.
+
+"Come, Scylla," she said, "slide off into my arms. The herd has
+stampeded and is coming toward us, but I will try to save us both."
+
+Without a word Scylla did as she was told, and in a few seconds was half
+kneeling, half lying on the ground.
+
+Then Martha struck Dan as hard as she could with her flat hand.
+
+"Hey up, Dan!" said she, "run! run! _You_ needn't stay here, too!"
+
+The horse galloped off into the darkness.
+
+Just then another lighting-flash came and showed a cow-boy leaning far
+over the neck of his pony, riding for his life. He passed only a dozen
+yards from them, but did not see them. Behind him Martha could dimly see
+two or three other riders coming toward them at desperate speed, while
+still beyond she caught a glimpse of the tossing horns and lurching
+heads of the cattle.
+
+Without a moment for thought, and as coolly as if she had nothing in the
+world to fear, she bent over trembling Scylla, unfastened the waistband
+of her dress-skirt and pulled it deftly from under her. Then she quickly
+removed her own and took one of the bright-colored garments in each
+hand.
+
+Just then the storm broke furiously. The night was suddenly lighted by
+lightning-flashes that followed one another so closely they seemed to
+make one long, lasting flare. The cow-boys had all passed, and Martha
+saw that the herd was scarcely two hundred yards away.
+
+She stepped directly in front of Scylla's prostrate form and raised the
+skirts.
+
+"Scream, Scylla, scream!" she cried.
+
+Then, while the driving rain fell in torrents, and the lightning made
+the prairie as light as day, she stood straight up and waved those
+skirts wildly about her head, and shouted at the top of her voice.
+
+She was dimly conscious that her shouts shaped themselves into a prayer
+that her brother was safe, and that the herd might divide and pass them.
+Her face was as pale as paper. Her long hair was tossed about by the
+wind, and by her own violent motions.
+
+The foremost of the cattle was only a hundred yards away now. She could
+see the lightning shining on his horns and in his red, rolling eyes. He
+was coming straight toward her. Louder she shouted and more wildly she
+swung the skirts. Would he crush her, or would he turn aside? She felt
+an almost overpowering impulse to turn and run away, but that would mean
+certain death. Her only hope was to keep her position firmly, and to
+swing her skirts and scream. If the first steer swerved and passed her,
+his followers might do so too.
+
+He seemed of mammoth proportions as he lurched toward her. His head was
+lowered, and his great hoofs pounded the ground like trip-hammers.
+Closer! Closer! He was not twenty feet away. His big, crazy eyes seemed
+to look straight into hers. Closer! Closer!--Then he changed his course
+a trifle. In an instant he had passed her like a great fury. Others were
+only a few feet behind him, and back of them was the compact mass of the
+herd. She screamed louder and redoubled her waving. The thunder in the
+heavens, and the thunder of the hoofs, drowned her voice so that she
+could not even hear it herself. A dozen cattle passed her. Fifty cattle
+passed her. She was in the midst of the herd which seemed to make a
+solid, living wall on each side of her. The earth trembled beneath the
+hammering of the hoofs. Her throat seemed ready to burst, and she was
+certain that no sound came from her lips. It seemed a long time since
+that first one had plunged toward her, but still the maddened beasts
+advanced with lowered heads and lunging bodies. They did not seem to
+turn aside, and each instant she expected to be struck down and trampled
+under their feet. She could not even try to scream any longer, but still
+she waved the skirts.
+
+At last, slowly, she saw that the herd was thinning. Short gaps began to
+appear between the animals. She knew that the herd had nearly passed.
+Then the living walls on each side melted away behind her, and only
+stragglers were left. Then these, too, were gone. The stampeding herd
+had passed her, and she was still alive.
+
+She turned dizzily toward Scylla.
+
+The little invalid--the cripple--was standing straight up, close behind
+her. For a second Martha doubted her eyes. The storm still raged, and
+she thought it was a vagary of the lightning. She held her hands out,
+though, and convinced herself that it was true. Scylla was standing on
+her feet, for the first time in many years. The two girls threw their
+arms around each other, and sank to their knees on the prairie. As they
+said a prayer of thanks together, the uneven glare of the lightning,
+which had kept up almost uninterruptedly ever since a few seconds before
+the cattle reached them, died away. One or two feeble flashes followed,
+and then the storm had passed.
+
+Martha took Scylla's face between her hands and kissed her. Then she
+said:
+
+"Wasn't it awful?"
+
+"Oh, Martha," Scylla answered, "I thought every second that we'd be
+killed, but there you stood as brave as a lion, and waved those dresses
+right in the faces of the cattle. You saved both our lives. I lay here
+on the ground for a minute after you took my skirt, and then I got up."
+
+"You _got up_, Scylla! How could you, all alone?"
+
+"I don't know, Martha, but I felt as if I _must_. I tried to rise once,
+and fell back. Then the cattle came and I tried again, and all the
+weakness seemed to be gone, and I stood right up behind you and stayed
+there while the herd went by. I don't feel as I used to--I feel as if
+the paralysis had all gone. See, I can get up again,--don't help
+me,--all alone."
+
+And, sure enough, Scylla scrambled to her feet. She stood a little
+unsteadily on them, but she stood. They were so glad it was true that
+they did not try to understand it.
+
+After Scylla's new-found strength had been rejoiced over for a moment,
+they began to wonder how they could get home. They knew that they could
+not walk--Martha was terribly tired, and Scylla, even if she could stand
+up, was not equal to the long tramp back to the ranch, of course. They
+were dripping wet. The elation that followed their escape, and the
+discovery of Scylla's great good fortune, was followed by a nervous
+breakdown on the part of both girls, and they cuddled in each other's
+arms on the wet grass, sobbing and frightened, to wait for morning to
+come.
+
+Hardly half an hour had passed before they heard horses. Martha stood up
+and saw the shadowy form of a rider away off to the right. She tried to
+scream, but her overstrained voice was hoarse and husky. Scylla called
+out as well as she could, but the horseman rode on. By and by they
+changed their course, however, and came near enough for the girls to
+make their presence known.
+
+As the horses approached, Martha recognized in the foremost one the big
+black form of Dan. Her brother John was on his back, and with him were
+men from the ranch.
+
+There were tears in the eyes of the big men as they lifted the girls in
+their arms, and started home. They had not expected to find them alive.
+
+Before they went to sleep, the thrilling story of Martha's bravery had
+been fully told, and to it had been added the news of Scylla's strange
+recovery.
+
+The next day the doctor was called in to see about it. He gravely shook
+his head, and said it was strange, but that such things had happened
+before. The great mental excitement of the stampede had wrought what
+seemed a miracle.
+
+Her recovery after that was rapid. When John and Martha went North the
+next winter, Scylla went with them, and was able to walk about almost as
+easily as Martha herself.
+
+A few days after the stampede, the bruised body of poor Texas was found
+where he had been trampled to death by the herd. What was left of the
+loco-weed that had wrought his ruin was burned, and the Northern college
+professor is still without his specimens.
+
+
+
+
+A DIVIDED DUTY
+
+BY M. A. CASSIDY
+
+
+The Magill residence was situated near the highways connecting Knoxville
+and Chattanooga. Encamping armies had burned every splinter of fencing,
+and so the cleared space was thrown into one great field, encircled by a
+gigantic hedge of oak and pine. Near the center of the cleared land, on
+a little eminence, was a farm-house. It was a long, one-story building,
+running back some distance, its several additions having been
+constructed as the family required more room. A little to the right, and
+extending the full length of the house, was a row of negro cabins--there
+being a passway between the two as wide as an ordinary road. The yard
+sloped gently to the roadway and railroad; near the latter, another rise
+began, which extended back to the woodland and commanded an extensive
+view of the surrounding country.
+
+One afternoon, early in the autumn of 1864, Mrs. Magill and her son
+Harry, a comely lad of thirteen, sat on the front veranda, and talked of
+what a happy reunion there would be when their loved ones should return
+from the war. And on this glorious autumnal afternoon the hearts of the
+widow and her son were happy in anticipation.
+
+Mrs. Magill had two sons in the war. One wore the Blue, the other the
+Gray. John, the eldest of three boys, had enlisted in Wheeler's
+Confederate cavalry, in the second year of the war; and, a year later,
+Thomas had joined the Federals under General Burnside at Knoxville. Both
+were known as brave and dashing soldiers, and both had been promoted,
+for gallantry, to captaincies. This family division was a source of
+great grief to Mrs. Magill. Dearer to her than Union or Confederacy were
+her children; and from their youth she had trained them in the ways of
+peace. And now, in their manhood, two of them, under different flags,
+were arrayed against each other in a deadly and unnatural strife. She
+often heard from both her soldier boys, and their inquiries after the
+welfare of each other were full of tenderness. Harry, as is usual with
+younger brothers, fairly worshiped both of them. He was no less troubled
+than his mother when they went away to fight on opposite sides. Their
+contrary action left him in doubt as to which side he should take. Every
+boy of his acquaintance was ardent in espousing one side or the other.
+But what could he do, since he had a brother in each army? Should he
+become a rebel, Thomas might be displeased; and he loved Tom too well to
+willfully incur his displeasure. Should he decide to remain loyal to the
+Union, John might resent it; and he could not think of offending one
+whom he held in such high esteem. "What shall I do?" he asked himself a
+great many times a day. The war spirit in him was becoming rampant, and
+must have scope. He at length took the perplexing question to his
+mother. She promptly advised him to remain neutral. But somehow Harry
+got it into his head that neutrality was something very different from
+manliness. So he made up his mind to be one thing or the other,
+or--happy thought!--why not be both? And, after puzzling over the
+question a long time, he settled on the novel idea of making himself
+half "Rebel" and half "Yankee." In pursuance of this plan, he persuaded
+his mother to make him a uniform, half of which should be blue, and the
+other half gray. She made it of a Federal and a Confederate overcoat;
+and Harry was a queer-looking little fellow as he went about the
+country, clad in his blue-gray uniform, the U. S. A. buttons on one
+side, and the C. S. A. on the other. The boys called him a "mongrel";
+and neither the Federal nor Confederate commands of boy soldiery would
+allow him in their ranks. This was a source of great mortification to
+Harry; but he was seriously in earnest, and fully resolved to carry out
+his campaign of impartial affection. His being cut by the other boys,
+who could afford to take a decided stand because they did not have a
+brother on each side, reduced him to the necessity of playing "war"
+(about the only game indulged in by Southern boys at this time) alone.
+When he put up his lines of corn-stalk soldiers, to play battle, it was
+observed, by his mother, that both sides always won an equal number of
+victories. Harry was not sure that the war could ever end at this rate
+of even fighting; but arrayed as he was, in the colors of both armies,
+his inclination was to be true to both. There were generally tears in
+his mother's eyes, when she saw that two of the corn-stalk soldiers, the
+tallest and straightest of them all, representing John and Thomas, were
+always left standing, even after the most furious of contests, in which
+all the others had fallen.
+
+Harry had left off playing quite early, on the afternoon of which I
+write, and had joined his mother on the veranda. They had not been long
+together when something unusual attracted their attention.
+
+A short distance down the railroad a body of cavalrymen had dismounted,
+and soon they were as busy as ants, tearing up the track. One squad
+preceded the others and loosened the rails by drawing the spikes; then
+came another squad that placed the ties in great heaps; after this came
+a third that kindled fires beneath them. The ties were rotten and dry,
+and, in a very few moments, there were scores of bright, hot fires. Soon
+the rails were at a red heat near the center, the ends being
+comparatively cool. While in this state a number of men would take the
+rails and bend them around telegraph poles or any solid objects that
+were near. The soldiers twisted the rails into fantastic shapes; and
+when they were through with their work of destruction, they seemed
+perfectly satisfied that none of the old material could be used in
+reconstructing the road. Harry and his mother had observed the
+operations of these men with much interest for some time, when suddenly
+they saw one of them mount his horse, and ride toward the house.
+
+"He is a rebel!" exclaimed Harry, who stood watching the approaching
+horseman.
+
+"Surely you are mistaken, Harry. There can be no Confederates here,"
+said Mrs. Magill, "the Federals are too near."
+
+While yet the soldier was some distance from the house, the boy's face
+lighted up with joy, as he exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, mother, I do believe it's John!"
+
+"John? Where is he?" asked his mother, running to where the boy stood.
+
+"Why, there, on the horse! He's coming home! He's coming home!" And thus
+exclaiming, Harry danced around the veranda like an Indian lad in a
+first war-dance. Then he ran to meet his brother in gray. Mrs. Magill
+was thrilled with sensations of joy and fear: joy, because she was
+about to see again her eldest son, after a painful separation of two
+years; fear, because of the nearness of the Federals. When within a
+short distance of his brother, Harry stopped and waited there, prepared
+to give the military salute due one of his brother's rank. But that
+salute was never given; for almost at the same instant that Harry
+stopped, Captain John Magill reined up his horse quite suddenly, drew a
+pistol from its holster, and looked suspiciously toward a clump of trees
+on the hill-top. Harry turned his eyes to learn what had startled his
+brother. He beheld a score or more of men in blue uniforms, partly
+concealed by the clump of trees; and it was evident that these were the
+vanguard of a larger body of Federals. Captain John Magill wheeled as
+suddenly as he had halted, and galloped back to the Confederates engaged
+in demolishing the railroad. As fast as he could run, Harry followed.
+Mrs. Magill comprehended the situation; and, spell-bound, she stood on
+the veranda, with arms outstretched, a statue of anguish and expectancy.
+
+When Captain John Magill reached his comrades, he gave the alarm, and
+"there was mounting in hot haste." The two hundred raiders had time
+only to form an irregular line of battle, when twice as many Federals
+appeared on the hill-top. It was evident that there was going to be a
+lively skirmish. Harry singled out John, who rode up and down the line
+giving commands, and running to him, he clasped him around a leg with
+both arms, enthusiastically exclaiming:
+
+"Howdy, John! Don't you know me?"
+
+The young captain looked down at the joy-beaming face of his little
+brother, but, as he had never seen the little fellow in his fantastic
+uniform, for a moment failed to recognize him.
+
+A shade of disappointment flitted over Harry's face as he said:
+
+"I am your little brother Harry; and I'm just as much Rebel as Yankee."
+
+Captain John Magill laughed as he leaned over and grasped Harry's hand.
+
+"Why, Harry! What on earth are you doing here? Get up behind me, and I
+will gallop home with you before the firing begins," said John,
+evidently alarmed for the boy's safety. Placing his foot on that of his
+brother, Harry clambered up behind. By this time the lines were in range
+of each other, and a lively fusillade at once began. Harry behaved
+manfully under fire, and entreated his brother to allow him to stay
+until the fight was over. But the elder brother was intent on taking him
+to a place of safety, so putting spurs to his horse he rode swiftly
+toward the house. His plan was to return the boy to his mother, and then
+rejoin his comrades. But the Confederates did not know his intentions;
+and seeing their Captain making his way rapidly to the rear, with this
+strangely-clad boy behind him, they of course thought him retreating,
+and they followed pell-mell.
+
+Captain John Magill saw the effect of his movement, and, halting, made
+an effort to rally his men. But the Confederates were thoroughly
+stampeded, and they dashed madly away. The shouting Federals were now at
+close range, and the bee-like song of the bullets could be heard on
+every side. Hastily placing Harry in front of him, to shield him as much
+as possible from the enemy's fire, he followed his men, now some
+distance in advance. When they reached the house, Mrs. Magill stood pale
+and motionless, expecting every moment to see her children fall.
+Glancing back, Captain John Magill saw that a moment's delay would make
+him a prisoner; so as he dashed past his mother he cried out, "Don't be
+uneasy. I'll take care of Harry"; and then he was gone like the wind,
+his pursuers not a hundred yards behind him. Then a complete change came
+over Mrs. Magill. Impelled by the great love of a mother, she ran into
+the yard, and stood calmly in the way of the advancing Federals, whose
+course lay between the cabins and the house--as if to stop, with her
+frail form, the impetuous charge.
+
+On they came like a hurricane. The mother did not move. Her eyes were
+closed and her lips compressed. Very near her sounded the hoof-beats. A
+moment more and she expected to be trampled to death beneath those
+hurrying feet; but she hoped--yea, and prayed--that her death might
+somehow delay the Federals until her sons should escape.
+
+"Halt! Halt!" The command was in thunder tones, and was echoed and
+re-echoed along the charging line. The soldiers pulled with all their
+might on the bits, and many a horse was thrown back on his haunches.
+Opening her eyes Mrs. Magill saw that the Federal captain, bending over
+her from his saddle, was her son Thomas.
+
+"Oh, Thomas!--would you kill John and Harry!" she exclaimed, and then
+fell fainting in his arms. Laying her tenderly on the veranda, he
+directed a surgeon to attend her, and mounting his horse, rode rapidly
+in the direction taken by his brothers. Soon he saw them a quarter of a
+mile ahead. Taking a white handkerchief he held it aloft, and digging
+the spurs deep into his horse's flanks, he rode with increased speed,
+all the time hallooing at the top of his strong voice. John heard; but,
+thinking it a summons to surrender, he urged his horse forward, hoping
+to gain the sheltering wood. But the horse, in attempting to jump across
+a washout, stumbled and fell; and John found himself rolling on the
+ground with Harry in his arms. Rising, he placed Harry behind him, and
+drew his sword, determined to sell their lives dearly. Imagine his
+surprise when he beheld but one pursuer, and that one holding on high an
+emblem of peace. In a moment more, he recognized his brother. Their
+meeting was affectionate. Harry was beside himself with joy. He had
+really been under fire, with "sure-enough bullets" singing about his
+ears! This was something of which none of the boys who had scorned his
+blue-gray uniform could boast!
+
+"Our brother is a brave little fellow. He did not once flinch when your
+bullets were singing around us," he heard John say to Thomas, and this
+praise elated the boy very much.
+
+"Let us return to mother. She is very anxious," said Thomas.
+
+John gazed inquiringly at his brother in blue.
+
+"You need have no fear," said Thomas. "I will be responsible for your
+safety."
+
+So the two soldier brothers, leading their horses, and each holding one
+of Harry's hands, walked up to the house.
+
+"I see you wear the gray, Harry; that's right," said John, with a
+malicious glance at Thomas.
+
+"He is true blue on this side," said Thomas, laughing heartily, as the
+ludicrousness of Harry's uniform dawned upon him.
+
+An affecting meeting was that between mother and sons; and something on
+the cheeks of the brave men who were present "washed off the stains of
+powder."
+
+When parting time came, the sun rested, like a great ruby, above the
+circling wood of crimson and gold; and when the brother in blue stood
+hand in hand with the brother in gray, all nature seemed to smile in
+anticipation of the time when a fraternal grasp should reunite the North
+and South.
+
+This day was the turning-point in Harry's life. Thenceforth all his
+inclinations were to become a soldier. After the war, he was educated by
+John and Thomas; and, passing his examination triumphantly over three of
+the boys who had derided him, he was appointed to West Point. He is now
+Lieutenant Henry Magill, U. S. A.
+
+His brothers still treasure the little blue-gray uniform as the memento
+of a "divided duty."
+
+
+
+
+THE "WALKING-BEAM BOY."
+
+BY L. E. STOFIEL
+
+
+In 1836 the steam-whistle had not yet been introduced on the boats of
+the western rivers. Upon approaching towns and cities in those days,
+vessels resorted to all manner of schemes and contrivances to attract
+attention. They were compelled to do so in order to secure their share
+of freight and passengers, so spirited was the competition between
+steamboats from 1836 to 1840. There were no railroads in the West
+(indeed there were but one or two in the East), and all traffic was by
+water. Consequently steamboat-men had all they could do to handle the
+crowds of passengers and the tons of merchandise offered them.
+
+Shippers and passengers had their favorite packets. The former had
+their huge piles of freight stacked upon the wharves, and needed the
+earliest possible intelligence of the approach of the packet so that
+they might promptly summon clerks and carriers to the shore. The
+passengers, loitering in neighboring hotels, demanded some system of
+warning of a favorite steamer's coming, that they might avoid the
+disagreeable alternative of pacing the muddy levees for hours at a time,
+or running the risk of being left behind.
+
+Without a whistle, how was a boat to let the people know it was coming,
+especially if some of those sharp bends for which the Ohio River is
+famous intervened to deaden the splashing stroke of its huge
+paddle-wheels, or the regular puff, puff, puff, puff, of its steam
+exhaust-pipes?
+
+The necessity originated several crude signs, chief among which was the
+noise created by a sudden escapement of steam either from the rarely
+used boiler waste-pipes close to the surface of the river, or through
+the safety-valve above. By letting the steam thus rush out at different
+pressures, each boat acquired a sound peculiarly its own, which could be
+heard a considerable distance, though it was as the tone of a
+mouth-organ against a brass-band, when compared with the ear-splitting
+roar of our modern steamboat-whistle. Townspeople of Cincinnati and
+elsewhere became so proficient in distinguishing these sounds of steam
+escapement that they could foretell the name of any craft on the river
+at night or before it appeared in sight.
+
+It was reserved for the steamboat _Champion_ to carry this idea a little
+further. It purposed to catch the eye of the patron as well as his ear.
+The _Champion_ was one of the best known vessels plying on the
+Mississippi in 1836. It was propelled by a walking-beam engine. This
+style of steam-engine is still common on tide-water boats of the East,
+but has long since disappeared from the inland navigation of the West.
+To successfully steam a vessel up those streams against the remarkably
+swift currents, high-pressure engines had to be adopted generally. In
+that year, however, there were still a number of boats on the
+Mississippi and Ohio which, like the _Champion_, had low-pressure
+engines and the grotesque walking-beams.
+
+One day it was discovered that the _Champion's_ escapement-tubes were
+broken, and no signal could be given to a landing-place not far ahead.
+A rival steamboat was just a little in advance, and bade fair to capture
+the large amount of freight known to be at the landing.
+
+"I'll make them see us, sir!" cried a bright boy, who seemed to be about
+fourteen years old. He stood on the deck close to where the captain was
+bewailing his misfortune.
+
+Without another word, the lad climbed up over the roof of the
+forecastle, and, fearlessly catching hold of the end of the walking-beam
+when it inclined toward him with the next oscillation of the engine,
+swung himself lithely on top of the machinery. It was with some
+difficulty that he maintained his balance, but he succeeded in sticking
+there for fifteen minutes. He had taken off his coat, and he was
+swinging it to and fro.
+
+The plan succeeded. Although the other boat beat the _Champion_ into
+port, the crowd there had seen the odd spectacle of a person mounted on
+the walking-beam of the second vessel, and, wondering over the cause,
+paid no attention to the landing of the first boat, but awaited the
+arrival of the other.
+
+The incident gave the master of the _Champion_ an idea. He took the boy
+as a permanent member of the crew, and assigned him to the post of
+"walking-beam boy," buying for him a large and beautiful flag. Ever
+afterward, when within a mile of any town, the daring lad was to be seen
+climbing up to his difficult perch, pausing on the roof of the
+forecastle to get his flag from a box that had been built there for it.
+By and by he made his lofty position easier and more picturesque by
+straddling the walking-beam, well down toward the end, just as he would
+have sat upon a horse.
+
+This made a pretty spectacle for those upon shore who awaited the boat's
+arrival. They saw a boy bounding up and down with the great seesawing
+beam. For a second he would sink from view, but up he bobbed suddenly,
+and, like a clear-cut silhouette, he waved the Stars and Stripes high in
+the air with only the vast expanse of sky for a background. The vision
+was only for an instant, for both flag and boy would disappear, and--up
+again they came, before the spectator's eye could change to another
+direction! This sight was novel--it was thrilling!
+
+"I used to think if I could ever be in that young fellow's place, I
+would be the biggest man on earth," remarked a veteran river-man. Like
+thousands of others along the Mississippi and Ohio, he remembered that
+when a child he could recognize the _Champion_ a mile distant by this
+unique signal.
+
+[Illustration: "HE WAVED THE STARS AND STRIPES HIGH IN THE AIR."]
+
+After a while, though, other steamboats operating low-pressure engines
+copied the idea, and there were several "walking-beam boys" employed on
+the rivers, and their flags were remodeled to have some distinctive
+feature each. It was a perilous situation to be employed in, but I am
+unable to find the record of any "walking-beam boy" being killed or
+injured in the machinery. On the other hand, the very hazard of their
+duty, and the conspicuous position it gave them, made them popular with
+passengers and shippers, and so they pocketed many fees from
+Kentuckians, confections from Cincinnati folks, bonbons from New Orleans
+Creoles, and tips from Pittsburgers.
+
+But at length, in 1844, the steam-whistle was introduced, and the
+"walking-beam boys" were left without occupation.
+
+
+
+
+THE CREATURE WITH NO CLAWS
+
+BY JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
+
+
+"W'en you git a leetle bit older dan w'at you is, honey," said Uncle
+Remus to the little boy, "you'll know lots mo' dan you does now."
+
+The old man had a pile of white oak splits by his side and these he was
+weaving into a chair-bottom. He was an expert in the art of "bottoming
+chairs," and he earned many a silver quarter in this way. The little boy
+seemed to be much interested in the process.
+
+"Hit 's des like I tell you," the old man went on; "I done had de
+speunce un it. I done got so now dat I don't b'lieve w'at I see, much
+less w'at I year. It got ter be whar I kin put my han' on it en fumble
+wid it. Folks kin fool deyse'f lots wuss dan yuther folks kin fool um,
+en ef you don't b'lieve w'at I 'm a-tellin' un you, you kin des ax Brer
+Wolf de nex' time you meet 'im in de big road."
+
+"What about Brother Wolf, Uncle Remus?" the little boy asked, as the
+old man paused to refill his pipe.
+
+"Well, honey, 't ain't no great long rigamarole; hit's des one er deze
+yer tales w'at goes in a gallop twel it gits ter de jumpin'-off place.
+
+"One time Brer Wolf wuz gwine 'long de big road feelin' mighty proud en
+high-strung. He wuz a mighty high-up man in dem days, Brer Wolf wuz, en
+'mos' all de yuther creeturs wuz feared un 'im. Well, he wuz gwine 'long
+lickin' his chops en walkin' sorter stiff-kneed, w'en he happen ter look
+down 'pon de groun' en dar he seed a track in de san'. Brer Wolf stop,
+he did, en look at it, en den he 'low:
+
+"'Heyo! w'at kind er creetur dish yer? Brer Dog ain't make dat track, en
+needer is Brer Fox. Hit's one er deze yer kind er creeturs w'at ain't
+got no claws. I'll des 'bout foller 'im up, en ef I ketch 'im he'll
+sholy be my meat.'
+
+"Dat de way Brer Wolf talk. He followed 'long atter de track, he did, en
+he look at it close, but he ain't see no print er no claw. Bimeby de
+track tuck 'n tu'n out de road en go up a dreen whar de rain done wash
+out. De track wuz plain dar in de wet san', but Brer Wolf ain't see no
+sign er no claws.
+
+[Illustration: "BRER WOLF MAKE LIKE HE GWINE TER HIT DE CREETUR, EN
+DEN----."]
+
+"He foller en foller, Brer Wolf did, en de track git fresher en fresher,
+but still he ain't see no print er no claw. Bimeby he come in sight er
+de creetur, en Brer Wolf stop, he did, en look at 'im. He stop
+stock-still and look. De creetur wuz mighty quare-lookin,' en he wuz
+cuttin' up some mighty quare capers. He had big head, sharp nose, en bob
+tail; en he wuz walkin' roun' en roun' a big dog-wood tree, rubbin' his
+sides ag'in it. Brer Wolf watch 'im a right smart while, he act so
+quare, en den he 'low:
+
+"'Shoo! dat creetur done bin in a fight en los' de bes' part er he tail;
+en w'at make he scratch hisse'f dat away? I lay I'll let 'im know who
+he foolin' 'long wid.'
+
+"Atter 'while, Brer Wolf went up a leetle nigher de creetur, en holler
+out:
+
+"'Heyo, dar! w'at you doin' scratchin' yo' scaly hide on my tree, en
+tryin' fer ter break hit down?'
+
+"De creetur ain't make no answer. He des walk 'roun' en 'roun' de tree
+scratchin' he sides en back. Brer Wolf holler out:
+
+"'I lay I'll make you year me ef I hatter come dar whar you is!'
+
+"De creetur des walk roun' en roun' de tree, en ain't make no answer.
+Den Brer Wolf hail 'im ag'in, en talk like he mighty mad:
+
+"'Ain't you gwine ter min' me, you imperdent scoundul? Ain't you gwine
+ter mozey outer my woods en let my tree 'lone?'
+
+"Wid dat, Brer Wolf march todes de creetur des like he gwine ter squ'sh
+'im in de groun'. De creetur rub hisse'f ag'in de tree en look like he
+feel mighty good. Brer Wolf keep on gwine todes 'im, en bimeby w'en he
+git sorter close de creetur tuck 'n sot up on his behime legs des like
+you see squir'ls do. Den Brer Wolf, he 'low, he did:
+
+"'Ah-yi! you beggin', is you? But 't ain't gwine ter do you no good. I
+mout er let you off ef you 'd a-minded me w'en I fus holler atter you,
+but I ain't gwine ter let you off now. I'm a-gwine ter l'arn you a
+lesson dat 'll stick by you.'
+
+"Den de creetur sorter wrinkle up he face en mouf, en Brer Wolf 'low:
+
+"'Oh, you nee'n'ter swell up en cry, you 'ceitful vilyun. I'm a-gwine
+ter gi' you a frailin' dat I boun' you won't forgit.'
+
+[Illustration: "WELL, SUH, DAT CREETUR DES FOTCH ONE SWIPE DIS AWAY, EN
+'N'ER SWIPE DAT AWAY."]
+
+"Brer Wolf make like he gwine ter hit de creetur, en den----"
+
+Here Uncle Remus paused and looked all around the room and up at the
+rafters. When he began again his voice was very solemn.
+
+--"Well, suh, dat creetur des fotch one swipe dis away, en 'n'er swipe
+dat away, en mos' 'fo' you can wink yo' eyeballs, Brer Wolf hide wuz
+mighty nigh teetotally tor'd off 'n 'im. Atter dat de creetur sa'ntered
+off in de woods, en 'gun ter rub hisse'f on 'n'er tree."
+
+"What kind of a creature was it, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy.
+
+"Well, honey," replied the old man in a confidential whisper, "hit want
+nobody on de topside er de yeth but ole Brer Wildcat."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GEOGRAPHICAL STORIES RETOLD FROM ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE
+
+IN SIX VOLUMES
+
+A Series of Books of Adventure, Travel and Description, chiefly in the
+Great Sections of the United States
+
+  WESTERN FRONTIER STORIES
+  Stories of the early West, full of adventure.
+
+  STORIES OF THE GREAT LAKES
+  Niagara and our great chain of Inland Seas.
+
+  ISLAND STORIES
+  Stories of our island dependencies and
+  of many other islands.
+
+  STORIES OF STRANGE SIGHTS
+  Descriptions of natural wonders, curious
+  places and unusual sights.
+
+  SEA STORIES
+  Tales of shipwreck and adventures at sea.
+
+  SOUTHERN STORIES
+  Pictures, scenes and stories of our Sunny
+  South.
+
+Each about 200 pages. 50 illustrations. Full cloth, 12mo.
+
+THE CENTURY CO.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Southern Stories, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOUTHERN STORIES ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23751-8.txt or 23751-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/5/23751/
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Janet Blenkinship, Linda McKeown
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.