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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58453 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HARPER'S ROUND TABLE]
+
+Copyright, 1896, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All Rights Reserved.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUBLISHED WEEKLY. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1896. FIVE CENTS A COPY.
+
+VOL. XVII.--NO. 871. TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+AN OUTLAW.
+
+A STORY OF JIM-NED CREEK.
+
+BY M. E. M. DAVIS.
+
+
+The porch of Bishop's store--the heart, so to speak, of the Jim-Ned
+Creek settlement--was deserted, for the November day was bleak and raw.
+Half a score or more men lounged over the counters within, or sat silent
+and ruminant around the smouldering fire. Gideon Bishop, half hidden by
+his tall desk, was busy with his ledgers, but he glanced furtively and
+frowningly now and again at his guests.
+
+The Outlaw came up the road at a leisurely pace. She was a small mare,
+blue-gray in color, with a flowing mane and tail of a fine glossy black,
+much matted with cockle-burs. She tossed her small head coquettishly in
+response to the neigh of welcome from the horses hitched to the saplings
+about the store, and picked her way daintily to the very edge of the
+porch, where she stood saucily expectant.
+
+"Hullo! There's that blue _mus_tang o' yourn!" exclaimed Sam Leggett,
+jumping down from the counter. "It's been nigh onto two year sence she
+_vamoosed_, ain't it, Uncle Gid? Where _hez_ she been a-hidin' herse'f?"
+
+Mr. Bishop picked up a wagon whip, took a lariat from its nail on the
+wall, and stepped out upon the porch.
+
+"So! You've come back, have you, Lady?" he said, with a grim smile. He
+reached forward as he spoke and attempted to slip the rope over the
+mare's neck. She shook her mane gently, and dipping her pretty head,
+nipped his forearm with her strong white teeth.
+
+At another time old Gid, stern and harsh as he was, might not have
+resented this playful salute, for the skin on his brown wrist was barely
+grazed, but he was in no mood for such fooling now. He started back with
+a quick step; his brow reddened angrily, and the fire leaped to his
+deep-set eyes. He lifted the whip; the long keen lash curled through the
+air, and descended with a stinging sound upon the runaway's shining
+flank. She reared violently, uttering a cry almost human in its
+indignant protest; then she wheeled about, and galloped away in the
+direction whence she had come.
+
+The men who had trooped out upon the porch at Mr. Bishop's heels gazed
+after her until she disappeared in the creek bottom; then they slouched
+back to their seats.
+
+"Jack broke that _mus_tang hisse'f," Joe Trimble presently remarked. "I
+mind the first time he ever backed her. _Jing!_ how she bucked!"
+
+"Speakin' o' Jack," Newt Pinson ventured, in an off-hand way, but not
+daring to look at Jack's father--"speakin' o' Jack, 'pears to me it's
+nigh about time we was huntin' that boy up."
+
+"Gentle_men_," said Mr. Bishop, in a loud, angry voice, "you 'tend to
+your own business, if--you--please. Jack Bishop is nineteen year old,
+and full able to take keer of hisse'f."
+
+These words penetrated through a half-open door into the family
+living-room back of the store. On hearing them, Jack's mother burst into
+a fresh fit of weeping, which the kindly neighbors hovering about her
+tried vainly to soothe.
+
+"He's just as oneasy about Jack as I am," she sobbed. "That onliest
+child of ourn is the apple of his father's eye. But it's Gid's pride as
+won't let him give up that a Bishop can get lost. And everybody's plumb
+afraid of him. Oh, my boy, my boy!"
+
+"Don't ye worrit yo'se'f into a spazzum, Susy Bishop," said Granny
+Carnes. "_I_ ain't afeard o' Gid Bishop, ner no other male creeter. An'
+I've give my orders to the boys a-settin' yander in the sto'. Ef Jack
+Bishop"--here she raised her voice to its highest and shrillest
+pitch--"ef Jack Bishop ain't inside this house befo' candle-lightin'
+to-night, them boys has got to tromp out an' find him, an' fetch him
+home, or not dassen to show their faces agin the len'th an' bre'th o'
+Jim-Ned."
+
+"Amen!" said Mrs. Leggett and Mrs. Trimble together.
+
+"Double an' thripple Amen!" added Mrs. Pinson, solemnly.
+
+There was indeed no small cause for anxiety. Early on a Tuesday morning
+young Bishop had started out afoot, with dog and gun, for a few hours'
+hunting in _The Rough_--a belt of savage woodland which stretched away
+westward, with wide solitary prairies on either side, to the chain of
+hills some fifteen miles distant. It was now Friday, past noon, and he
+had not returned. Newt Pinson had met him at the crossing of Jim-Ned
+Creek half an hour after he had left home; he had not been seen nor
+heard of since. He had gone on alone; for the dog, a half-grown puppy,
+had turned and trotted back, unnoticed, behind Mr. Pinson.
+
+"Oh, if Josh was only with him!" moaned Mrs. Bishop, already alarmed, at
+the close of the first day.
+
+And Josh, the intelligent old hound, rubbed his head against her knee
+and whined softly.
+
+The lad--everywhere a favorite--had never absented himself from home
+before; and when Wednesday, Thursday, Friday came and went without
+tidings of him, the neighbors from up and down the creek began to gather
+at the store.
+
+They looked at the heavy sky, sunless and misty these four days past,
+and shook their heads ominously, whispering among themselves. The poor
+mother was wellnigh frantic with alarm. Uncle Gid alone maintained an
+air of obstinate confidence, in the face of which no one dared venture a
+move.
+
+"Jack Bishop is full able to take keer of hisse'f," he repeated,
+proudly, in answer to Mr. Pinson's timid suggestions. "Jack Bishop knows
+every inch of ground betwixt Jim-Ned and Rattlesnake Gap."
+
+"All the same, notwithstandin'," whispered Granny Carnes in Mrs.
+Bishop's ear, "I've give my orders for candle-lightin', honey."
+
+But before candle-lighting Mr. Bishop's assumed stoicism gave way. About
+sunset he arose and took his rifle from the rack above the door. "Come
+on, boys," he said, with a catch in his throat. And a moment later they
+were hurrying down the rutty road.
+
+At the Jim-Ned crossing the old man paused. "You go back, Susy," he
+said, with rough kindness, to the frail little woman following a pace or
+two behind him. "Go back, and stay with the women folks. You ain't
+nowise fitten for this sort o' thing."
+
+Jack's mother pulled the red knitted shawl closer about her head, and
+moved steadily forward. "No, Gid," she said, quietly; "I'm not going
+back--not without my boy."
+
+He put an arm about her without another word, and husband and wife
+presently entered together the mysterious gloom of _The Rough_.
+
+
+II.
+
+An hour or two later Jack Bishop was lying on the open prairie, where he
+had thrown himself in a sort of dull despair. His loaded gun lay beside
+him; his empty wallet hung from his shoulder; his face looked pinched
+and wan in the vapory moonlight.
+
+"I crossed Jim-Ned," he was saying to himself, mechanically, for the
+thousandth time; "I crossed the creek and came into _The Rough_. I left
+home Tuesday at sun-up.... That puppy ain't worth shucks; I wish I had
+brought old Josh!... I killed three jack-rabbits in Buck-Snort Gully. By
+the big cottonwood--what did I do by the big cottonwood? Oh, I ate my
+corn pone. _Gee!_ how hungry I am!... Then I followed a deer and got
+into the prairie. Why, I know this prairie 'most as well as I know
+Jim-Ned! Yonder's Rattlesnake Gap, and yonder's _The Rough_.... And
+before I knew it, it was plumb dark.... I went back into _The Rough_,
+and tramped and tramped; and the first thing I knew I was out on the
+prairie again.... I've been doing the same thing ever since, over and
+over.... I haven't seen a soul.... If I could just glimpse the sun! But
+seems like the sun never will shine again.... I reckon I'm lost....
+Yonder's Rattlesnake Gap, and yonder's _The Rough_--"
+
+He got up and staggered a few steps, then sank down again. He was a
+manly lad, and he had borne with hopeful courage the hunger, cold, and
+loneliness of the long days and nights. But he was exhausted with
+fatigue, and weakened by want of food; and finally, overcome by a sense
+of terror and desolation, he covered his face with his hands and groaned
+aloud.
+
+The painful throbbing in his ears sounded suddenly like the rhythm of
+advancing footsteps. Something cold and moist touched his cheek; a warm
+breath mingled with his own.
+
+"Why, Lady!" he cried, springing to his feet. Weariness and hunger and
+cold had vanished in a trice. Laughing and crying by turns, he clasped
+his arms about the neck of the little mustang which he had fed and
+petted as a colt--the wilful Outlaw who had disappeared into _The Rough_
+two years before.
+
+Fearful lest the mare should desert him again, he held her long mane
+with one hand, while with the other he groped, stooping, for his rifle.
+But the Outlaw apparently did not dream of flight. She stood quite still
+until the gun was secured and he had climbed with some difficulty upon
+her back.
+
+"Now, Lady," he shouted, "take me to Jim-Ned! Carry me home!"
+
+Lady threw up her head, neighed, and moved obediently forward. She went
+at a swift walk, breaking at intervals into the long, swinging, restful
+mustang _lope_.
+
+"But--you are going in the wrong direction," remonstrated her rider, at
+the end of a few moments. He tugged at her mane, and endeavored to
+change her course. "You are carrying me _through_ the Gap. Jim-Ned is on
+_this_ side. Back, Lady--back!"
+
+The mare shook herself impatiently, and pushed on between the pyramidal
+hills which loomed up on either side of the Gap, emerging into the open
+prairie beyond just as the moon, scattering the clouds at last, filled
+earth and sky with a flood of golden light.
+
+"Well," said Jack, with a shiver of disappointment, "you'll take me
+somewhere, I reckon, Lady. I can't be any more lost than I've been for
+the last three days!"
+
+After a while, however, things began to assume a strangely familiar
+look. "I've never been west of the Gap before," he muttered,
+"but--yonder looks like Comanche Mound. And, sure as shootin', here's
+Matchett's Pond! Ah!" he added, after profound reflection, "I am east of
+the Gap now. I must have been all this time, somehow, on the other
+side."
+
+His conjecture was correct. Stumbling unwittingly through the narrow Gap
+in the darkness of the first night, and deceived by the prairie and
+woodland beyond, he had there continued the incessant and bewildered
+round into which he had fallen when he had first lost his bearings.
+
+"It's all clear as daylight now," he cried, joyously. "You've got a heap
+more sense than I have, Lady! Couldn't fool _you_ with roughs and
+prairies! And now I think I will stretch my legs a little, and rest you,
+my beauty."
+
+He slid to the ground and limped along beside his four-footed friend,
+leaning against her, and chattering boyishly as he went.
+
+"Tain't more'n ten miles to Bishop's store now. And mother'll be on the
+porch, late as it is, looking out for me. Poor mother, I know she's been
+fretting! And she'll have the coffee-pot on the coals. And father'll be
+pretending to scold. But, shucks! he won't mean a word of it. Seems
+like"--a lump arose in the boy's throat--"seems like I never understood
+father before, nor loved mother half enough!... Where have you been all
+this time, anyhow, Lady? Why, what a scratch you've got on your side!
+Run against a mesquit thorn, eh? It's all bloody. I'll doctor it the
+minute we get home. Hello!--"
+
+One of his legs seemed all at once to have grown shorter than the other,
+a loud report rang in his ears, a thrill of intense agony racked his
+whole body, and he dropped fainting to the ground. He came to himself a
+moment later to find the blood pouring from a wound in his left
+shoulder, and when he attempted to rise and draw his leg from the deep
+rabbit-hole into which he had stumbled a sharp pain warned him that both
+knee and ankle were sprained or broken. He ceased his efforts and fell
+back, staring helplessly up at the sky.
+
+The mustang, who had darted away at the discharge of the rifle, had
+returned, and was standing beside him.
+
+"Don't go, Lady," he implored, catching at her mane. "I've shot myself,
+I reckon. I can't move my leg. Don't, _don't_ leave me, Lady."
+
+The mare thrust her nose reassuringly against his face.
+
+The blood, which he tried vainly to stanch with his free hand, oozed
+from the gun-shot wound, and formed a red puddle about his head. He felt
+himself growing dizzy and nauseated.
+
+It was now about an hour past midnight, and the vast moonlighted prairie
+was hushed and still. Suddenly a curious sound troubled the silence--a
+trampling, tearing noise, accompanied by a hoarse confused roar. Jack
+lifted his head a little and looked.
+
+His heart stood still.
+
+A small herd of cattle roving about the prairie, moved by the curiosity
+inherent in animals, had drawn near, and excited by the smell of blood,
+were pawing the earth, bellowing with rage, and circling ever closer and
+closer about the helpless lad. He could see their wide horns glistening
+in the moonlight. "Mother! Father!" he breathed; and dropping his head
+back upon the cold turf, he closed his eyes in instant expectation of
+death.
+
+But he opened them again. For the Outlaw had whirled abruptly from her
+post beside him, and charged, with a snort, first into one section and
+then into another of the infuriated circle. Surprised and daunted, the
+cattle retreated a short distance, stopped, and stood still, uncertain
+and dumb.
+
+Hardly, however, had the boy drawn a breath of thankfulness and relief,
+when there was another mad rush upon him; and again the gallant little
+mustang, plunging and snorting, held his assailants at bay.
+
+Over and over this assault and repulse were repeated. The
+half-unconscious lad turned his terrified eyes from side to side,
+groaning with pain, and lifting his voice brokenly in encouragement of
+his protector.
+
+But she too was beginning to be spent and exhausted. He stroked her
+trembling foreleg with his hand as she hovered over him in a moment of
+respite. "Poor Lady!" he whispered, faintly: "it's mighty nigh over with
+both of us, I think. You'd better save yourself now, Lady. You can't do
+anything more for me. Don't cry, Lady. _Why, Lady, your eyes are just
+like mother's!_"
+
+And with a sob he lapsed into utter oblivion.
+
+
+III.
+
+The searching party came out of _The Rough_ in the early dawn, and stood
+huddled together, forlornly silent, on the prairie ridge that sloped
+gently away to Matchett's Pond. They were foot-sore and disheartened
+after their long night's fruitless quest.
+
+"Ain't that Matchett's bunch o' cattle rampagin' an' bellerin' aroun'
+down yander?" demanded Joe Trimble, breaking the silence, and peering
+forward curiously, "What are they up to? _Y-a-a-h!_"
+
+He burst into a loud yell and set off running at the top of his speed,
+discharging his pistol as he ran to scatter the herd.
+
+Swift-footed as he was, however, a woman outstripped him; and by the
+time the others came up, Jack's mother was kneeling in the grass, and
+her arms were about her boy.
+
+When Jack, after swallowing a mouthful of water, had revived a little,
+and the color had begun to come back into his poor pale face, his wound
+was dressed and his broken leg bandaged. Then he faltered out the story,
+with his head on his mother's bosom, and his hand held close in his
+father's strong grasp.
+
+"I could feel the fire in their blazing eyes," he concluded. "I thought
+I would never see you and mother again, father. And if it hadn't been
+for Lady-- Don't cry, mother, I'm all right now. _Why, mother, your eyes
+are just like Lady's!_"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Uncle Gid got up and walked over to where the Outlaw lay panting on the
+dry grass. He reeled like a fainting man as he went. At his approach the
+mare threw out her slender forelegs and tried to get up, but fell feebly
+back, quivering with terror. The old man dropped on his knees beside
+her, and laid his hand on the whelk that disfigured her flank. "Heaven
+forgive me for a sinful man!" he cried. "I struck you in anger, Lady; I
+struck you; and if it hadn't been for you, my son, my only son--" A sob
+choked his utterance, and he could not finish. But Lady turned her head
+toward him and whickered softly. She understood!
+
+There was a moment of awed silence.
+
+Then Mr. Pinson blew his nose, wiped his eyes, and stepped forward.
+"Gentlemen _an'_ Mis' Bishop," he said, with an oratorical flourish.
+"Lady is a honor to her sect! The female sect, gentlemen _an'_ Mis'
+Bishop, is ever faithful an' ever true. Lady, notwithstandin' she air a
+mare an' a Outlaw--"
+
+"Three cheers for Lady!" interrupted Jack, with the old sparkle in his
+eyes, though his voice was a bit unsteady. "Hurrah for Lady! Hip, hip,
+hurr-a-a-h!"
+
+And such cheers went ringing over the prairie and across _The Rough_
+that old Granny Carnes afterward declared she heard them at Bishop's
+store, ten miles away.
+
+
+
+
+THE NEW MOTHER GOOSE.
+
+
+  There was a man in our town
+    Who was so wondrous wise,
+  He didn't try the bramble-bush
+    And scratch out both his eyes,
+
+  But sat him in a big arm-chair,
+    Upon a schooner-yacht,
+  And said to those who jeered at him,
+    "I'd rather see than not."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Queer Pets of Sailor Jack.]
+
+BY LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER J. D. JERROLD KELLEY, U.S.N.
+
+(_In Two Installments._)
+
+
+In that happy hour or more after hammocks are piped down, and before
+tattoo is sounded on board ships of war, the sailor has his season of
+unvexed merriment. This leisure is a cherished one, and his pleasure
+runs the gamut of many physical bouts. He boxes, gives play with
+single-stick and quarter-staff, both vigorous, determined, and honestly
+punctuated with resounding whacks and grinning acceptances of pain. The
+bear is chased amid much license of noise, and Jack swims, dives, rows,
+wrestles, and dances. And how he dances! Save on board flag-ships, bands
+are extemporized affairs; for the sailor loves his music dearly, even
+when he has to pay his piper, and is a prentice hand with various
+instruments, though, I think, there is an unwritten law against the
+wheezy and soul-envenoming concertina and a respected prejudice
+concerning the piccolo.
+
+I do not know that he hornpipes it so much as he jigs it, but when he
+does go in for form and style his traditional performance is filled with
+grace and honest delight.
+
+It is at this hour, too, that the dumb pets of the crew have their
+rarest frolic; for, by the association--by the inspiration perhaps--of
+the same sentiment, this twilight season becomes to the sailor what the
+children's hour is to the luckier landsman in homes where love is
+sanctified by the tender witcheries of happy childhood. The isolation of
+the sailor, the craving during long years of exile for something that
+cares for him purely for himself, is a charm to conjure with, and lucky
+indeed is the dumb brute whose life falls in the pleasant places of the
+forecastle. Indeed, the fondness sailors show for their pets is
+proverbial, and so intimately are these associated with certain famous
+deeds of the sea that they have acquired a definite name and fame, and
+are as well known and as fondly remembered and lamented as are the races
+of bygone days by ancient jockeys and stable-boys.
+
+With sailors this feeling often borders on a sincere affection, and in
+the early twilight of a second dog-watch I have seen weather-beaten,
+battle-scarred bluejackets fondling some pet as tenderly as a mother
+would her first-born; and then, when darkness fell, stowing it in a
+secure bed and bidding it a most affectionate good-night. The catalogue
+of sea pets would read almost like the Homeric enumeration of the ships,
+for these are of every description, from field-mice to bears. Those most
+generally found are dogs, cats, monkeys, and parrots. The
+accomplishments of the parrots are especially weird, and sometimes
+uncanny, and there is a tradition that sailors teach them to talk by
+feeding them with bread balls in which grains of red pepper are
+secreted. When the parrots taste the pepper they begin to scream and
+squawk most fiercely, and this is the apt season for their teachers to
+repeat fast and furiously the words they seek to have learned. In their
+rage the parrots repeat the words thus spoken, and by dint of mild
+torture and bad temper acquire a vocabulary which sometimes becomes very
+varied. Monkeys are usually dressed in ludicrous copies of foreign
+soldiers' uniforms, are taught to drill, and especially to salute and
+salaam profoundly at the word of command.
+
+The west coast of Africa, Brazil, and the waters about the Asiatic
+station are famous for the queerness, variety, and cheapness of pets,
+and if the crews were not restrained the ship would soon become as
+riotous as a bear-garden and as clamorous as a menagerie. Among the
+animals that have been mustered among a ship's family are black pigs
+from Hong-kong; silvery gray squirrels from Shanghai; long-haired
+chrysanthemum-tailed dogs from Kobe; rabbits from Chin-kiang; bears, and
+quaint little black chickens with feathers that stick out like porcupine
+quills, from Nagasaki. From the mud shores of Yang-tse-kiang the sailors
+get "miners," birds of the crow family, which with patience and care
+soon learn to talk cleverly in the quaint dialect of the sea. At times
+more than one of these pets claims the allegiance of its owner. I recall
+an aged fore-mast-man of one of our sloops of war, the _Vandalia_, I
+think, who had collected a most interesting family, consisting of a dog,
+goat, cat, rabbit, hen, parrot, and monkey, all living in a harmony
+which put to shame the quarrelsome members of like households in stuffy
+museums. So well behaved and decorous were they that even the strictest
+of first lieutenants, watchful for holy-stone decks and shining
+paint-work, could not complain. Another of our war-ships mustered a pig,
+a bear, and a dog in its books.
+
+These had become thoroughly sailorized, going at drum-beat to quarters,
+mustering with their divisions, and observing with a fine precision the
+routine of the day. By an unexplained but accepted assumption of rank,
+the pig took his station on the quarter-deck, the bear mustered
+amid-ships, and the dog clung to the eyes of the ship, each in the wake
+of his adopted guns' crew. Nothing was allowed to disturb this
+ceremonial precedence, not even the riot and roar and the slaughter
+sometimes when the ship was in action. At times the bear, with misty
+recollections of pine woods and underbrush, would cut adrift from the
+restraints of education and run _amook_ in the gangways, more or less
+violently hugging members of the crew. He showed a fine discrimination
+between friend and foe, cherishing for days the remembrances of an
+affront, and never losing an opportunity of avenging it, as many a
+madcap youngster had occasion to remember.
+
+Of all pets, none is better suited for ship life than the wily goat, and
+the traditions of the navy are jocund with quaint stories of this
+animal. Once in the good old days of tarpauling hats and true-lover's
+knots, a famous ship's company owned one that fell into evil ways, such
+as chewing tobacco, drinking grog, and challenging the best men in the
+ship to butting-matches. Indeed, he became a very rakish, swashbuckling,
+timber-shivering goat, who lived long and not well, and died after a
+prolonged debauch in a fit akin to what Jackie calls the "horrors."
+
+Each day, by common consent, the men added a pint of water to the grog
+tub, and regularly in his turn Bill came for his tot. At seasons, when
+the master's mate of the spirit-room was disguised with over-much drink,
+the goat, like his two-legged messmates, doubled on the tub, securing a
+smuggled ration. He came to grief at last, for on an occasion when the
+grog was stiff to his liking he got well to windward of the tub, charged
+like a first boarder over a clear hammock rail at the mate and purser's
+clerk, took possession of the marine bar, and got so gloriously fuddled,
+so gloriously uncoo' fou, that he never recovered, but went overboard,
+in a middle watch, through sheer despair and misery.
+
+Another goat was the prized shipmate of one of our vessels wrecked on
+the coast of India, fortunately in weather moderate enough to launch the
+boats and rafts. Each man was detailed for his place, and allowed to
+carry his bag of clothes or his hammock--no greater provision being
+needed, as the shore was close aboard. As the men slowly lowered
+themselves over the ship's side, the nanny-goat stood amongst the
+waiting ones, watching her master, the ship's cook, who stood
+irresolutely at the mast until his turn came. The cook was an old
+sailor, and his kit was very valuable to him--it was probably all he
+had in the world--but when his name was called, he dropped the bag, and
+touched his hat, and said:
+
+[Illustration: "IF YOU PLEASE, SIR, I CAN'T BEAR TO LEAVE NANNY
+BEHIND."]
+
+"If you please, sir, I can't bear to leave Nanny behind. I'll take her
+instead of the bag, for there isn't room for both." And then,
+appealingly, "Can I, sir?"
+
+Nanny went over the side and landed with him, marched by him through the
+desert, and when relief came bleated her enjoyment in a way that repaid
+him for the sacrifice. For many years she browsed among the scrap-heaps
+and rare grass-plots of the Brooklyn Navy-Yard, where, surrounded by a
+numerous progeny, she doubtless told, with many butts, the yarn of the
+day when her cook and master saved her up Mozambique way.
+
+I remember some pets of my sea-going days, cherished in life and mourned
+in death. One was a scraggy hen, of no known breed, raised in Polynesia,
+and given to one of our officers by a native woman in Nukahiva. Her
+abnormal thinness saved her from the steward's knife in the early days
+at sea; but finally all hopes of fattening her failed, and she was
+doomed for a ward-room ragout. One of the men, a queer character in his
+way, who had made a study of chickens, begged permission to keep her,
+and as we had fresh grub enough, Nell, as he called her, was saved. In a
+little while it was more dangerous than a Grain Coast _fetich_ or a
+Hawaiian _taboo_ to harm her, and Nell thrived and flourished.
+
+She was carried through all the islands down to New Zealand and
+Australia, and back to Chili and Peru, improving daily, and displaying
+an intelligence that was marvellous. She was the queen-regnant of the
+coop, when she deigned to enter it, and was as jealous of her
+prerogatives as the King of Yvetot. Her cackle proclaimed the daylight,
+and then there was a row if Jemmy Ducks, guardian and feeder of sea
+poultry from time immemorial, didn't hobble aft to give her a morning
+ramble to leeward. The first of the corn and water was hers, and having
+the coigne of vantage beyond the coop bars, all the lesser chickens,
+save some favored chanticleer, suffered.
+
+She displayed a passion for bananas and yams, had strong marked personal
+likes and dislikes, and though coquettish, manifested an affection that
+was not hampered by official rank, but ran by a descending scale of
+years--a white-haired quartermaster possessing more than a tender spot
+in her capacious heart, while the ship's boys were held in a contempt
+beyond expression. The men vowed by all the pet warrantees of their
+profession that she whistled and talked, and I know she was as good a
+storm-glass as any standard instrument on shipboard. Her favorite roost
+was over the ward-room skylight, her chosen time the dinner hour, and
+there she would perch, eying with respectful familiarity the senior
+lieutenant. Her interest gradually increased as the dessert stage
+approached, the appearance of the fruit awaking a cooing, beseeching
+cackle that invariably brought her the ripest banana or the juiciest
+mango.
+
+She often kept the deck officers company in the middle watches, dozing
+to leeward of the mast until the bell struck, when she would straighten
+with an assertive air, as if she had never slept, and cooed a warning
+hail to the lookouts.
+
+Poor Nell died during the Darien survey, from indigestion and old age,
+and when she was carried ashore for burial, in the neat coffin Chips,
+the Scotch carpenter's mate, had fashioned for her, we all felt that she
+had made a place in our lives and memories that some day deserved a
+record.
+
+
+
+
+A VIRGINIA CAVALIER.[1]
+
+[1] Begun in HARPER'S ROUND TABLE No. 868.
+
+BY MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Before daybreak the next morning George came down stairs, Billy following
+with his portmanteau. Madam Washington, little Betty, and all the
+house-servants were up and dressed, but it was thought best not to waken
+the three little boys, who slept on comfortably in their trundle-beds.
+The candles were lighted, and for the last time for two months--which
+seems long to the young--George had family prayers. His mother then took
+the book from him and read the prayers for travellers about to start on
+a journey. She was quite composed, for no woman ever surpassed Madam
+Washington in self-control; but little Betty still wept, and would not
+leave George's side even while he ate his breakfast. There had been some
+talk of Betty's going to Mount Vernon also for Christmas; and George,
+remembering this, asked his mother, as a last favor, that she would let
+Betty meet him there, whence he could bring her home. Madam Washington
+agreed, and this quickly dried Betty's tears. Billy acted in a
+mysterious manner. Instead of being in vociferous distress, he was
+quiet, and even cheerful--so much so that a grin discovered itself on
+his countenance, which was promptly banished as soon as he saw Madam
+Washington's clear stern eyes travelling his way. George, feeling for
+poor Billy's loneliness, had determined to leave Rattler behind for
+company; but both Billy and Rattler were to cross the ferry with him,
+the one to bring the horse back, and the other for a last glimpse of his
+master.
+
+The parting was not so mournful, therefore, as it promised to be. George
+went into the chamber where his three little brothers slept, who were
+not wide awake enough to feel much regret at his departure. The servants
+all came out, and he shook the hand of each, especially Uncle Jasper's,
+while Aunt Sukey embraced him. His mother kissed him and solemnly
+blessed him, and the procession started. George mounted his own horse,
+while Betty, seated pillion-wise behind him, was to ride with him to the
+ferry. Uncle Jasper and Aunt Sukey walked as far as the gate; and Billy,
+with Rattler at his heels and the portmanteau on his head, started off
+on a brisk run down the road.
+
+"And it won't be long until Christmas," said George, turning in his
+saddle and pressing Betty's arm that was around him, as they galloped
+along briskly; "and if I have a chance of sending a letter, I will write
+you one. Think, Betty, you will have a letter all to yourself! You have
+never had one, I know."
+
+"I never had a letter all to myself," answered Betty. For that was
+before the days of cheap postage, or postage at all as it is now, and
+letters were precious treasures.
+
+"And it will be very fine at Mount Vernon--ladies, and even girls like
+you, wearing hoops, and dancing minuets every evening, while Black Tubal
+and Squirrel Tom play their fiddles."
+
+"I like minuets well enough, but I like jigs and rigadoons better; and
+mother will not let me wear a hoop. But I am to have her white sarcenet
+silk made over for me. That I know."
+
+"You must practise on the harpsichord very much, Betty; for at Mount
+Vernon there is one, and brother Laurence and his wife will want you to
+play before company."
+
+Mistress Betty was not averse to showing off her great accomplishment,
+and received this very complaisantly. Altogether, what with the letter
+and the white sarcenet, she began to take a hopeful rather than a
+despairing view of the coming two months.
+
+[Illustration: GEORGE BIDS BETTY GOOD-BY, AND STARTS FOR THE FERRY.]
+
+Arrived within sight of the ferry, George stopped, and lifted Betty off
+the horse. There was a foot-path across the fields to the house, which
+made it but a short walk back, which Betty could take alone. The brother
+and sister gave each other one long and silent embrace--for they loved
+each other very dearly--and then, without a word, Betty climbed over the
+fence and walked rapidly homeward, while George made for the ferry,
+where Billy and the portmanteau awaited him. One of the small boats and
+two ferrymen, Yellow Dick and Sambo, took him across the river. The
+horse was to be carried across for George to ride to the inn where Lord
+Fairfax awaited him, and Billy was to take the horse back again.
+
+The flush of the dawn was on the river when the boat pushed off, and
+George thought he had never seen it lovelier; but like most healthy
+young creatures on pleasure bent, he had no sentimental regrets. The
+thing he minded most was leaving Billy, because he was afraid the boy
+would be in constant trouble until his return. But Billy seemed to take
+it so debonairly that George concluded the boy had at last got over his
+strong disinclination to work for or think of anybody except "Marse
+George."
+
+The boat shot rapidly through the water, rowed by the stalwart ferrymen,
+and George was soon on the opposite shore. He bade good-by to Yellow
+Dick and Sambo, and mounting his horse, with Billy still trotting ahead
+with the portmanteau, rode off through the quaint old town to the
+tavern. It was a long low building at the corner of two straggling
+streets, and signs of the impending departure of a distinguished guest
+were not wanting. Captain Benson, a militia officer, kept the tavern,
+and, in honor of the Earl of Fairfax, had donned a rusty uniform, and
+was going back and forth between the stable and the kitchen, first
+looking after his lordship's breakfast, and then after his lordship's
+horses' breakfasts. He came bustling out when George rode up.
+
+"Good-morning, Mr. Washington. 'Light, sir, 'light. I understand you are
+going to Greenway Court with his lordship. He is now at his breakfast.
+Will you please to walk in?"
+
+"No, I thank you, sir," responded George. "If you will kindly mention to
+Lord Fairfax that I am here, you will oblige me."
+
+"Certainly, sir, certainly," cried Captain Benson, disappearing in the
+house.
+
+The travelling-chariot was out and the horses were being put to it under
+the coachman's superintendence, while old Lance was looking after the
+luggage. He came up to George, and giving him the military salute, asked
+for Mr. Washington's portmanteau. George could scarcely realize that he
+was going until he saw it safely stowed along with the Earl's under the
+box-seat. He then determined to send Billy off before the Earl made his
+appearance, for fear of a terrible commotion, after all, when Billy had
+to face the final parting.
+
+"Now, Billy," said George to him, very earnestly, "you will not give my
+mother so much trouble as you used to, but do as you are told, and it
+will be better for you."
+
+"Yes, suh," answered Billy, looking in George's eyes without winking.
+
+"And here is a crown for you," said George, slipping one into Billy's
+hand--poor George had only a few crowns in a purse little Betty had
+knitted for him. "Now mount the horse and go home. Good-by, Rattler
+boy--all of Lord Fairfax's dogs, of every kind, shall not make me forget
+you."
+
+Billy, without the smallest evidence of grief, but with rather a twinkle
+in his beady eyes, shook his young master's hand, jumped on the horse,
+and whistling to Rattler, all three of George's friends disappeared down
+the village street. George looked after them for some minutes, and
+sighed at what was before Billy, but comforted himself by recalling the
+boy's sensible behavior in the matter of the parting. In a few moments
+Lord Fairfax came out. George went up the steps to the porch, and making
+his best bow, tried to say how much he felt the Earl's kindness. True
+gratitude is not always glib, and was not with George, but the Earl saw
+from the boy's face the intense pleasure he experienced.
+
+"You will sit with me, Mr. Washington," said Lord Fairfax, "and when
+you are tired of the chariot I will have one of my outriders give you a
+horse, and have him ride the wheel-horse."
+
+"Anything that your lordship pleases," was George's polite reply.
+
+The Earl bade a dignified farewell to Captain Benson, who escorted him
+to the coach, and in a little while, with George by his side and the
+outriders ahead, they were jolting along towards the open country.
+
+The Earl talked a little for the first hour or two, pointing out objects
+in the landscape, and telling interesting facts concerning them, which
+George had never known before. After awhile, though, he took down two
+books from a kind of shelf in the front of the coach, and handing one to
+George, said:
+
+"Here is a volume of the _Spectator_. You will find both profit and
+pleasure in it. Thirty years ago the _Spectator_ was the talk of the
+day. It ruled London clubs and drawing-rooms, and its influence was not
+unfelt in politics."
+
+The other book, George saw, was an edition of Horace in the original. As
+soon as the Earl opened it he became absorbed in it.
+
+Not so with George and the _Spectator_. Although fond of reading, and
+shrewd enough to see that the Earl would have but a low opinion of a boy
+who could not find resources in books, what was passing before him was
+too novel and interesting, to a boy who had been so little away from
+home, to divide his attention with anything. The highway was fairly
+good, but the four roans took the road at such a rattling gait that the
+heavy chariot rolled and bumped and lurched like a ship at sea. So well
+made was it, though, and so perfect the harness, that not a bolt, a nut,
+or a strap gave way. The country for the first thirty miles was not
+unlike what George was accustomed to, but his keen eyes saw some
+difference as they proceeded towards the northwest. The day was bright
+and beautiful, a sharper air succeeding the soft Indian-summer of the
+few days preceding. The cavalcade made a vast dust, clatter, and
+commotion. Every homestead they passed was aroused, and people, white
+and black, came running out to see the procession. George enjoyed the
+coach very much at first, but he soon began to wish that he were on the
+back of one of the stout nags that rode ahead, and determined, as soon
+as they stopped for dinner, to take advantage of Lord Fairfax's offer
+and to ask to ride.
+
+They had started soon after sunrise, and twelve o'clock found them more
+than twenty-five miles from Fredericksburg. They stopped at a road-side
+tavern for dinner and some hours' rest. The tavern was large and
+comfortable, and boasted the luxury of a private room, where dinner was
+served to the Earl and his young guest. When the time came to start
+George made his request that he be allowed to ride a horse, and he was
+immediately given his choice of the four bays. "Do not feel obliged to
+regulate your pace by ours," said the Earl. "We are to sleep to-night at
+Farley's tavern, only twenty miles from here, and so you present
+yourself by sundown it is enough."
+
+George mounted and rode off. He found the bay well rested by his two
+hours' halt, and ready for his work. He felt so much freer and happier
+on horseback than in the chariot that he could not help wishing he could
+make the rest of the journey in that way. He reached Farley's tavern
+some time before sundown, and his arrival giving advance notice of the
+Earl, everything was ready for him, even to a fine wild turkey roasting
+on the kitchen spit for supper. Like most of the road-houses of that
+day, Farley's was spacious and comfortable, though not luxurious. There
+was a private room there, too, with a roaring fire of hickory logs on
+the hearth, for the night had grown colder. At supper, when there was
+time to spare, old Lance produced a box, out of which he took some
+handsome table furniture and a pair of tall silver candlesticks. The
+supper was brought in smoking hot, Lance bearing aloft the wild turkey
+on a vast platter. He also brought forth a bottle of wine of superior
+vintage to anything in the tavern cellar.
+
+The Earl narrowly watched George as they supped together, talking
+meanwhile. He rightly judged that table manners and deportment are a
+very fair test of one's training in the niceties of life, and was more
+than ever pleased the closer he observed the boy. First, George proved
+himself a skilful carver, and carved the turkey with the utmost
+dexterity. This was an accomplishment carefully taught him by his
+mother. Then, although he had the ravenous appetite of a
+fifteen-year-old boy after a long day's travel, he did not forget to be
+polite and attentive to the Earl, who trifled with his supper rather
+than ate it. The boy took one glass of wine, and declined having his
+glass refilled. His conversation was chiefly replies to questions, which
+were so apt that the Earl every moment liked his young guest better and
+better. George was quite unconscious of the deep attention with which
+Lord Fairfax observed him. He thought he had been asked to Greenway out
+of pure good-nature, and rather wished to keep in the background, so he
+should not make his host repent his hospitality. But a feeling far
+deeper than mere good-nature inspired the Earl. He felt a profound
+interest in the boy, and was enough of a judge of human nature to see
+that something remarkable might be expected of him.
+
+Soon after supper occurred the first inelegance on George's part. In the
+midst of a sentence of the Earl's the boy suddenly and involuntarily
+gave a wide yawn. He colored furiously; but Lord Fairfax burst into one
+of his rare laughs, and calling Lance, directed him to show Mr.
+Washington to his room. George was perfectly willing to go; but when
+Lance, taking one of the tall candlesticks, showed him his room, his
+eyes suddenly came wide open, and the idea that Lance could tell him all
+about the siege of Bouchain, and marching and starving and fighting with
+Marlborough, drove the sleep from his eyes like the beating of a drum.
+
+Reaching the room, Lance put the candle on the dressing-table, and
+standing at "attention," asked,
+
+"Anything else, sir?"
+
+"Yes," said George, seating himself on the edge of the bed. "How long
+will it be before my Lord Fairfax needs you?"
+
+"About two hours, sir. His lordship sits late."
+
+"Then--then--" continued George, with a little diffidence, "I wish you
+would tell me something about campaigning with the Duke of Marlborough
+and Prince Eugene, and all about the siege of Bouchain."
+
+Lance's strong, weather-beaten face was suddenly illuminated with a
+light that George had not seen on it before, and his soldierly figure
+unconsciously took a more military pose.
+
+"'Tis a long story, sir," he said, "and I was only a youngster and a
+private soldier; it is thirty-five years gone now."
+
+"That's why I want you to tell it," replied George. "All the books are
+written by the officers, but never a word have I heard from a man in the
+ranks. I have read the life of the great Duke of Marlborough, and also
+of Prince Eugene, but it is a different thing to hear a man tell of the
+wars who has burned powder in them."
+
+"True, sir. And the Duke of Marlborough was the greatest soldier of our
+time. We have the Duke of Cumberland now--a brave general, sir, and
+brother to the King--but, I warrant, had he been at the siege of
+Bouchain and in the Low Countries, he would have been licked worse than
+Marshal Villars."
+
+"And Marshal Villars was a very skilful general too," said George, now
+thoroughly wide awake.
+
+"Certainly, sir, he was. The French are but a mean-looking set of
+fellows, but how they can fight! And they have the best legs of any
+soldiers in Europe; and I am not so sure they have not the best heads. I
+fought 'em for twenty-five years--for I only quitted the service when I
+came with my Lord Fairfax to this new country--and I ought to know. My
+time of enlistment was up, the great Duke was dead, and there had been
+peace for so long that I thought soldiers in Europe had forgot to fight;
+so when his Lordship offered to bring me, I, who had neither wife nor
+child, nor father nor mother, nor brother nor sister, was glad to come
+with him. I had served in his Lordship's regiment, and he knew me,
+because I had once-- But never mind that, sir."
+
+"No," cried George. "Go on."
+
+"Well, sir," said Lance, looking sheepish, "I shouldn't have spoke of
+it, but the fact is that once when we were transporting powder from the
+magazine the wagon broke down and a case exploded. It was a miracle that
+all of us were not killed; three poor fellows were marked for life, and
+retired on two shillings a day for it. There were plenty of sparks lying
+around, and I put some of them out, and we saved the rest of the powder.
+That's all, sir."
+
+"I understand," answered George, smiling. "It was a gallant thing, and
+no doubt you saved some lives as well as some powder."
+
+"Maybe so, sir," said Lance, a dull red showing under the tan and
+sunburn of more than fifty years. "My Lord Fairfax made more of it than
+'twas worth. So, when he had left the army, and I thought he had forgot
+me, he wrote and asked if I would come to America with him, and I came.
+Often, in the winter-time, the Earl does not see a white face for
+months, except mine, and then he forgets that we are master and man, and
+only remembers that he is my old commander and I am an old soldier. The
+Earl was a young cornet in 1710-12, and was with the armies in the Low
+Countries, where we had given Marshal Villars a trouncing, and he gave
+Prince Eugene a trouncing back, in exchange. So, sometimes, of the long
+winter nights, the Earl sends for me, and reads to me out of books about
+that last campaign of the Duke of Marlborough's, and says to me, 'Lance,
+how was this?' and, 'Lance, do you recollect that?' Being only a
+soldier, I never did know what we were marching and counter-marching
+for, nor so much as what we were fighting for; but when the Earl asks me
+what we were doing when we marched from Lens to Aire, or from Arleux to
+Bachuel, I can tell him all about the march--whether 'twas in fine or
+rainy weather, and how we got across the rivers, and what rations we
+had; we often did not have any, and the mounseers were not much better
+off. But, Mr. Washington, a Frenchman's stomach is not like an
+Englishman's. He can sup on soupe maigre and lentils after a hard day's
+march, and then get up and shake a leg while another fellow fiddles. But
+an Englishman has to have his beef, sir, and bacon and greens, and a
+good thick porridge with beans in it. I think all the nourishment the
+Frenchmen get goes into their legs, for they will march day and night
+for their Grand Monarque, as they call him, and are always ready to
+fight."
+
+"I hope we shall not have to fight the French up in Pennsylvania to make
+them keep their boundaries," said George, after a while, in a tone which
+plainly meant that he hoped very much they would have to fight, and that
+he would be in the thick of the scrimmage. "And now tell me how the Duke
+of Marlborough looked in action, and all about Prince Eugene and the
+siege of Bouchain, until it is time to go to the Earl. But first sit
+down, for you have had a hard day's travel."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Lance, sitting down stiffly, and snuffing the
+candle with his fingers.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+RICK DALE.
+
+BY KIRK MUNROE,
+
+AUTHOR OF "SNOW-SHOES AND SLEDGES," "THE FUR-SEAL'S TOOTH," "THE 'MATE'
+SERIES," "FLAMINGO FEATHER," ETC.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+BONNY DISCOVERS HIS FRIEND THE TRAMP.
+
+
+It was late in the afternoon when the train reached Tacoma, and the
+logging boss discovered that the lads whom he had been especially
+instructed to bring with him had disappeared. As he could not imagine
+any reason why they should do such a thing, he was thoroughly
+bewildered, and waited about the station for some minutes, expecting
+them to turn up. He inquired of the train hands and other employees if
+they had seen anything of such boys as he described, but could gain no
+information concerning them.
+
+The revenue officer was merely an acquaintance whom he had met by chance
+on the train, and who now waited a few minutes to see how this affair
+would turn out. Finally he said:
+
+"Well, Linton, I'm sorry I can't help you, but I really must be getting
+along. I hope, though, you won't have any such trouble with your missing
+lads as we had in trying to catch two young rascals of smugglers, whom
+we lost right here in Tacoma last summer. We wanted them as witnesses,
+and thought we had our hands on them half a dozen times; but they
+finally gave us the slip, and the case in which they were expected to
+testify was dismissed for want of evidence. Good-by."
+
+Thus left to his own devices, the boss could think of nothing better
+than to call upon the police to aid him in recovering the missing boys,
+and so powerful was the name of the President of the Northwest Lumber
+Company, which he did not hesitate to use, that within an hour every
+policeman in Tacoma was provided with their description, and instructed
+to capture them if possible. In the hope that they would speedily
+succeed in so doing, Mr. Linton delayed meeting the President, and
+telegraphed that he could not reach the hotel to which he had been
+directed to bring the boys before eight o'clock that evening.
+
+In the mean time Alaric and Bonny, without an idea of the stir their
+disappearance had created throughout the city, were snugly ensconced in
+an empty freight car that stood within a hundred yards of the railway
+station. They had dropped from the rear end of their train when it began
+to slow down, and slipped into the freight car as a place of temporary
+concealment while they discussed plans.
+
+"We've got to get out of this town in a hurry, that's certain," said
+Alaric, "and I propose that we make a start for San Francisco. You know,
+I told you that was my home, and I still have some friends there, who, I
+believe, will help us. The only thing is that I don't see how we can
+travel so far without any money."
+
+"That's easy enough," replied Bonny, "and I would guarantee to land you
+there in good shape inside of a week. What worries me, though, is the
+idea of going off and leaving all the money that is due us here. Just
+think! there's thirty dollars owing to me as a hump-durgin driver,
+thirty more as interpreter, and fully as much as that for being a
+smuggler--nearly one hundred dollars in all. That's a terrible lot of
+money, Rick Dale, and you know it as well as I do."
+
+"Yes," replied Alaric; "if we had it now, we'd be all right. But I'll
+tell you, Bonny, what I'll do. If you will get me to San Francisco
+inside of a week, I promise that you shall have one hundred dollars the
+day we arrive."
+
+"I'll do it!" cried Bonny. "I know you are joking, of course, but I'll
+do it just to see how you'll manage to crawl out of your bargain when we
+get there. You mustn't expect to travel in a private car, though, with a
+French cook, and three square meals a day thrown in."
+
+"Yes, I do," laughed Alaric, "for I never travelled any other way."
+
+"No, I know you haven't, any more'n I have; but just for a change, I
+think we'd better try freight cars, riding on trucks, and perhaps once
+in a while in a caboose, for this trip, with meals whenever we can catch
+'em. We'll get there, though; I promise you that. Hello! I mustn't lose
+that ball. We may want to have a game on the road."
+
+This last remark was called forth by Alaric's baseball, which, becoming
+uncomfortably bulgy in Bonny's pocket as he sat on the car floor, he had
+taken out, and had been tossing from hand to hand as he talked. At
+length it slipped from him, rolled across the car, and out of the open
+door.
+
+Bonny sprang after it, tossed it in to Alaric, and was about to clamber
+back into the car, when, through the gathering gloom, he spied a
+familiar figure standing in the glare of one of the station lights.
+
+"Wait here a few minutes, Rick," he said, "while I go and find out when
+our train starts."
+
+With this he darted up the track, and a moment later advanced, with a
+smile of recognition and extended hand, toward the stranger whom he had
+so pitied in the logging camp the day before. The man still wore a
+shabby suit, and the hat Bonny had given to him. He started at sight of
+the lad, and exclaimed:
+
+"How came you here so soon? I thought you weren't due until eight
+o'clock?"
+
+"How did you know we were coming at all?" asked Bonny, in amazement.
+
+"Oh, that's a secret," laughed the other, instantly recovering his
+self-possession, and assuming his manner of the day before. "We tramps
+have a way of finding out things, you know."
+
+"Yes, I've always heard so," replied Bonny, "and that's one reason why
+I'm so glad to meet you again. I thought maybe you could help us."
+
+"Us?" repeated the stranger. "Who is with you?"
+
+"Only my chum, the other hump-durgin driver, you know."
+
+"You mean Richard Dale?"
+
+"Yes--only his name isn't Richard, but Alaric. I say, though, would you
+mind stepping over in the shadow, where we won't be interrupted?"
+
+"Certainly not," replied the other, with a quiet chuckle. "I expect it
+will be better, for I'm not anxious to be recognized myself just now."
+
+When they had reached what Bonny considered a safe place, he continued:
+
+"You see, it's this way. My chum and I did a little business in the
+smuggling line last summer, and got chased for it by the 'beaks.'"
+
+"Just like 'em," growled the other.
+
+"Yes," said Bonny, wrathfully. "We hadn't really done anything wrong,
+you know; but they made us skip 'round lively, and came mighty near
+catching us, too. We gave 'em the slip, though, and thought the whole
+thing had blown over, till to-day, when they got after us again."
+
+"Who did?"
+
+"The revenue fellows. You see, the boss up at camp is one of 'em, and we
+suspicioned something was wrong as soon as he told us we were wanted in
+Tacoma. We were certain of it when we saw another revenue man, one of
+the cutter's officers, join him on the train, and so we just gave them
+the slip again, and have been hiding ever since over in that freight
+car."
+
+"Indeed!" remarked the stranger, interestedly. "And what do you propose
+to do next?"
+
+"That's what I'm coming to, and what we want you to help us about. You
+see, my chum's folks live in San Francisco, and I rather think he ran
+away from 'em, though he hasn't ever said so. Anyhow, he wants to get
+back there, and as we haven't any money, we've got to beat our way, so I
+thought maybe you could put us up to the racket, or, at any rate, tell
+us when the first south-bound freight would pull out. Of course, you
+understand, we've got to start as quick as we can, for it isn't safe for
+us to be seen around here."
+
+"Of course not," agreed the stranger, with another chuckle; for the
+whole affair seemed to amuse him greatly. "But what are you going to do
+for food? You'll be apt to get hungry before long."
+
+"I am already," acknowledged Bonny; "and that was another thing I was
+going to ask you about. I thought maybe you wouldn't mind giving us some
+pointers from your own experience in picking up your three little square
+meals a day when you were on the road."
+
+At this point the stranger burst into what began like uncontrollable
+laughter, but which proved to be only a severe fit of coughing. When it
+was over he said, "Your name is Bonny Brooks, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes; but don't speak so loud."
+
+"All right, I won't. But, Bonny Brooks, you were mighty kind to me
+yesterday--kinder than any one else has been for a long time.
+By-the-way, did you bring my old hat with you?"
+
+"No, of course not."
+
+"No matter. I said I would redeem it, and I am going to do so by putting
+you on to a mighty soft snap. I'm bound to the southward myself, and, as
+it happens, there is a sort of a boarding-car going to pull out of here
+for somewhere down the line in about half an hour. It is in charge of
+the cook, and as he and I are on what you might call extra good terms,
+he is going to let me ride with him as far as he goes. There won't be a
+soul on board but him and me, unless I can persuade him to let you two
+boys come along with us. What do you say?"
+
+"I say you are a trump, and if you'll only work that racket for us, I'll
+share half the money with you that I'm to get from Rick as soon as we
+reach San Francisco."
+
+"Oh ho! He is to give you money, is he?"
+
+"Yes; that is, he has promised me one hundred dollars to make up for the
+wages I leave behind, if I'll only get him there."
+
+For the next half-hour that shabbily attired stranger was the busiest
+man in Tacoma, and he kept a great many other people busy at the same
+time. Finally, just as the boys were beginning to think he had forgotten
+them, he appeared at the door of the freight car, and said, in a loud
+whisper: "Come, quick. I think they are after you."
+
+As the boys scrambled out, he started on a run toward a single car that,
+with an engine attached, stood on a siding in the darkest corner of the
+railroad yard. Here he hurriedly whispered to them to crouch low on its
+rear platform until it started, when the cook would open the door. Then
+he disappeared.
+
+In another moment the car began to move, and directly afterward the door
+was opened. There seemed to be no light in the interior, and, without
+seeing any one, the boys heard a strange voice, evidently that of a
+negro, bidding them come in out of the cold.
+
+They entered the car, Alaric going first, and were led through a narrow
+passage into what was evidently a large compartment. They heard their
+guide retreating through the passage, and were beginning to feel rather
+uneasy, when suddenly they were surrounded and dazzled by a great flood
+of electric light.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A FLOOD OF LIGHT.
+
+[Illustration: ALARIC LOOKED, RUBBED HIS EYES, AND LOOKED AGAIN.]
+
+As the brilliant light flooded the place where the boys stood, they were
+for a minute blinded by its radiance. Bonny was bewildered and
+frightened, and even Alaric was greatly startled. Gradually, as their
+eyes grew accustomed to the brightness, they became aware of a single
+figure standing before them, and regarding them curiously. Alaric
+looked, rubbed his eyes, and looked again. Then he sprang forward with a
+great shout.
+
+"Dad! you dear old dad! I never was so glad to see any one in my life!"
+
+"Rick! you young rascal!" cried Amos Todd. "How could you play your old
+father such a trick? Never mind, though; you've won your game, and at
+the same time made me the very happiest and proudest man on the coast
+this night. Stand there, sir, and let me have a good look at you."
+
+With this the proud father held his stalwart son off at arm's-length and
+gazed at him with loving admiration.
+
+"The very neatest trick I ever heard of--the most impudent, and the most
+successful," he murmured. "But don't you ever be guilty of such a thing
+again, you young smuggler."
+
+"Indeed I won't, dad, for I know I shall never have any reason or desire
+to repeat it," replied Alaric, promptly, his voice trembling with joyful
+excitement. "But, dad, you mustn't forget Bonny; for whatever I have
+gained or learned this past summer, I owe to him."
+
+"God bless the lad! Indeed I will never forget what he has done both for
+you and for me," cried Amos Todd, stepping forward, and seizing Bonny's
+hand in a grasp that made him wince.
+
+Poor bewildered Bonny, standing amid the glitter of silver and
+plate-glass, surrounded by furnishings of such luxurious character as he
+had never imagined could exist in real life, vaguely wondered whether he
+were under the spell of some beautiful enchantment or merely dreaming.
+There must be some reality to it all, though, for the stranger in the
+shabby garments, whom he had befriended only the day before, and still
+wearing the hat he had given him, was surely holding his hand and saying
+very pleasant things. But who could he be? He certainly was not acting
+like a tramp, or one who was greatly in need of charity.
+
+Alaric came to the puzzled lad's relief. "He is my father, Mr. Amos
+Todd," he cried. "And, Bonny, you will forgive me, won't you, for not
+telling you before? You see, I was afraid to let even you know that I
+was the son of a rich man, because I wanted you to like me for myself
+alone."
+
+"You know I do, Rick Dale! You know I do!" exclaimed Bonny, impulsively,
+finding his voice at last. "But, Rick," he added, almost in a whisper,
+"are you sure there isn't any mistake about it all? Amos Todd, you know,
+is President of the Northwest Company, and the richest man on the coast.
+They do say he is a millionaire."
+
+"It's all right, Bonny. I expect he is a millionaire," answered Alaric,
+joyously. "But we won't lay it up against him, will we? And we'll try
+not to think any the less of him for it. I didn't know he was President
+of the Northwest Company, though. Are you, dad?"
+
+"I believe I am," laughed Amos Todd. "And I certainly have cause to be
+grateful that I hold the office, for it was while making my official
+inspection of the camps yesterday that I ran across you boys. I didn't
+know you, though, Rick--'pon my word, I didn't. You bore a faint
+resemblance to my little 'Allie' as you came riding those logs down the
+skid-road, but I knew you couldn't be he, for I was certain that he was
+on the other side of the world by this time. And so you shook the
+Sontaggs, and let them run away from you. It was wrong, Rick, very
+wrong, but I don't blame you--not one bit, I don't. I'd have done the
+same thing myself."
+
+"But, dad, how did you come to find me out? I don't understand it at
+all."
+
+"By your own letter to Esther, lad. She forwarded it to me in France;
+but I had gone when it reached there, and so it was sent to San
+Francisco. I left Margaret on the other side for the winter, and came
+back by way of Montreal and the Canadian Pacific, intending to stop here
+and inspect the lumber camps on my way home. I telegraphed John to send
+this car and all my mail up here, and they came last night. As soon as I
+read your letter I felt pretty certain that it was you whom I had seen
+doing the circus act on those logs. I wasn't quite sure, though, and
+didn't want to make any mistake, so I just sent word to Linton to fetch
+you in, that I might take a good look at you."
+
+"So it was you who sent for us?"
+
+"Certainly. And you thought it was the revenue officers, and so decided
+to give 'em the slip, and beat your way home to claim protection of your
+old dad--eh, you rascal? And Bonny here took me for a fellow-tramp who
+could put him on to the racket. Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! Oh my! I shall
+die of laughing yet at thinking of it. It was all the hat, though,
+wasn't it, Bonny? I hated to cut it up, for I only bought it in Paris
+the other day, and hadn't another with me; but I wanted to inspect the
+camp without being known, and it was the only disguise I could think of.
+But, boys, what do you say to supper? If you are as hungry as I am, you
+must be more than ready for it."
+
+Indeed they were ready for supper, and when they sat down to that
+daintily served meal in the exquisitely appointed dining-room of
+President Todd's own private car, Bonny at last realized why Alaric had
+ordered that strange lot of supplies for the sloop _Fancy_.
+
+After supper they returned to the saloon, where Amos Todd lighted a
+cigar, and listened to the wonderful story of trial and triumph,
+privation and strange vicissitude, that had transformed his pale-faced
+weakling into the strong, handsome, self-reliant youth upon whom he now
+gazed so proudly. When the long story was ended, he asked, quietly,
+
+"How much have you earned by your summer's work, son; and what have you
+to show for it?"
+
+"If you mean in money, dad, not one cent; and all I have to show,
+besides what you've already noticed, is this." Here Alaric held out a
+dilapidated baseball, at which his father gazed curiously. "With that
+ball," continued Alaric, "I took my first lesson in being a boy, and it
+has led me on from one thing to another ever since, until finally, this
+very evening, it brought me back to you. So, dad, I should say that it
+stood for my whole summer's work."
+
+"I am thankful, Rick, that you haven't earned any money, and that
+through bitter want of it you have learned its value," said Amos Todd.
+"I am thankful, too, that there is still one thing for which you have to
+come to your old dad. More than all am I thankful for what you have
+gained without his help, or, rather, in spite of him; and had I known
+last spring what that baseball was to do for you, I would gladly have
+paid a million of dollars for it."
+
+"You may have it now, dad, for one hundred, which is just the amount I
+owe Bonny."
+
+"Done!" cried Amos Todd; and thus he came into possession of the
+well-worn baseball that, set in a plate of silver and enclosed in a
+superb frame, hung above his private desk for many years afterwards.
+
+Here our story properly ends, but we cannot help telling of two or three
+things that happened soon after the disappearance of our hump-durgin
+boys from camp No. 10, and as a direct result of their having lived
+there. To begin with, Mr. Linton felt himself so insulted by the manner
+in which President Todd made his inspection that he resigned his
+position, and, on the recommendation of Alaric, Buck Raulet was given
+his place. On the strength of this promotion the big "faller" went East
+to marry the girl of his choice, and both Alaric and Bonny were present
+at the wedding.
+
+Through the liberality of Amos Todd, the ex-hump-durgin boys were
+enabled to present the camp with their shack, converted into a neat
+little library building and filled with carefully selected books, in
+which the occupants of the camp are greatly pleased to discover many of
+the tales already told to them by Rick Dale.
+
+A certain famous and badly used up hat, carefully removed from the camp,
+belongs to Bonny Brooks, and adorns a wall in one of a beautiful suite
+of rooms that he and Alaric occupy together at Harvard. Here Alaric is
+taking an academic course, while Bonny, whom Amos Todd regards almost as
+an own son, is sturdily working his way through the mathematical and
+chemical labyrinths of the Lawrence Scientific School. They entered the
+university just one year after completing their studies as hump-durgin
+boys; and while they were still Freshmen, the splendid baseball-player,
+who, though only a Sophomore, was captain of the 'varsity nine, happened
+to be badly in need of a catcher.
+
+"I can tell you of one who can't be beat this side of the Rocky
+Mountains," suggested his classmate and pitcher, Dave Carncross.
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Rick Todd, a Freshman."
+
+"Son of Amos Todd, your San Francisco millionaire?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then I don't want him. Millionaires' sons are no good."
+
+"This one is, though," insisted Carncross; "and I ought to know, for I
+taught him to catch his first ball. You just come over to Soldiers'
+Field this afternoon and size him up."
+
+The captain needed a first-class man behind the bat so badly that, in
+spite of his prejudices, he consented to do as his pitcher desired. He
+was amazed, delighted, and enthusiastic. Never had he seen such an
+exhibition of ball-catching as was given by that Freshman. Finally he
+could contain himself no longer, and rushing up to his classmate, he
+exclaimed:
+
+"Carncross, I tell you he's a wonder! Introduce me at once."
+
+"Rick Todd," said Dave Carncross, "permit me to present you to my friend
+Phil Ryder, captain of the 'varsity nine."
+
+As the two lads grasped each other's hands, there came a flash of
+recognition into each face, and both remembered where they had met each
+other last.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+IN THE TOWER OF MANY STORIES.
+
+THE EARL OF ESSEX AND HIS RING.
+
+BY MRS. LEW. WALLACE.
+
+
+The name of Queen Elizabeth is dear to loyal English hearts, and her
+reign is named to-day as second only to that of the gentle and gracious
+Victoria. She was strong and wise, ready to sacrifice small things for a
+great end, and all things for the good of her subjects. The many
+portraits of her I have seen are much like the pictures of George Eliot:
+red hair, a pale high forehead, keen dark eyes, a nose hooked like the
+beak of an eagle, sharp chin. Such is not the face to win admiration,
+much less to waken love; yet, when nearly seventy--an age which no art
+can conceal--she listened to the soft flatteries of her courtiers as
+tributes to her beauty which they could not repress. When one shaded his
+eyes at her approach, as though the lustre of her face dazzled his sight
+like the sun, and said "he could not behold it with a fixed eye," she
+was delighted with the foolish speech, as a young girl with the roses of
+her first ball. One can hardly keep from laughing at the idea of
+high-born youths of twenty-five or thirty hanging breathless on her
+withered smiles and pretending worship of her charms. Such was her daily
+portion from the shining train of courtiers surrounding her, and she
+never tired of it. One said of her red hair: "A poet, madam, might call
+it a golden web wrought by Minerva; but to my thinking it was paler than
+even the purest gold--more like the last parting sunbeam of the softest
+day of spring."
+
+The great ruler never learned to rule her own spirit. She swore at her
+maids of honor, and boxed the ears of the Lord-Lieutenant for appearing
+before her in muddy boots, and sent him in disgrace to the Tower. She
+vowed that England was her husband, whom she loved with a perfect love,
+and she would have none other; she had wedded herself to the kingdom at
+the coronation by the ring then placed upon her finger: in remembrance
+thereof she wished engraved on her tombstone these words: "Here lies
+Elizabeth, who lived and died a Maiden Queen."
+
+There was another ring, of which I shall presently tell, more precious
+than that which went with the crown, because life and death were in its
+keeping.
+
+It was her custom to select from her courtiers one on whom she lavished
+a fickle love and transient favor. When the court was beginning to tire
+of Raleigh, Leicester, a former favorite, introduced his step-son,
+Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, in hope of weakening the
+influence of Raleigh. Essex was a spirited boy of seventeen, fresh from
+Oxford, with handsome face and graceful mien. Clad in the pictorial
+dress of the period, wearing crest and plume, badges and ribbons of
+honor, he was a figure to claim the glance of a king as he greeted his
+sovereign, and it is not strange that the susceptible virgin felt the
+fascination of such a presence, although she was then fifty years old.
+
+Before he was twenty he fought gallantly with the English army in
+Holland, and was foremost in the battle of Zütphen, where Sir Philip
+Sidney fell. On his return to court the Queen's fancy deepened into
+dotage, and, fond and foolish, she would hardly let him quit her
+presence. This became so irksome that he ran off to the war in Spain,
+and refused to return when she sent an officer after him. When he was
+pleased to come back she forgave all, and redoubled her favors in hope
+of keeping the wanderer; but in a short time he again disappeared, and
+secretly married the widow of Sir Philip Sidney. The Queen could never
+endure the marriage of her courtiers, still less that of a favorite. She
+banished him; but he reappeared in a few months, and only regained the
+Queen's grace by neglecting his fair, sweet wife, who lived in seclusion
+in the country while he shone at court.
+
+When Essex was about twenty-nine years old he set out with the royal
+army for Cadiz, and at parting Elizabeth gave him a ring, telling him,
+"whatever crimes his enemies might accuse him of, or whatever offences
+he may have committed against her, if he sent it to her she would
+forgive him." The precious gift was probably a true-love-knot, set with
+a gem that means unchanging; for the time was rich with sentiment in
+trinkets, and we may be sure the compact was sealed with vows and kisses
+on the proffered hand. He returned from Spain unsuccessful, and although
+the Queen still petted him, from this time on they quarrelled. Essex was
+haughty and insolent; and she, violent and exacting with him, yet
+forgiving in the end.
+
+When she decided to appoint a Lord-Deputy for Ireland, then in a state
+of revolt, she called to her private room three of her court
+officers--Cecil, the Clerk of the Seal, and Essex. He expected the
+appointment, but failed to get it, spoke angrily to the Queen, and
+turned his back on her. She boxed his ears, and told him to "go and be
+hanged." So furious was he that his hand reached for his short sword,
+but Cecil stepped between them; and Essex said, with an oath, "that he
+would not have taken that blow from King Henry, her father, and it was
+an indignity he neither could nor would endure from any one." Then
+muttering something about "a king in petticoats," he rushed madly from
+her presence. In any one else such conduct would have been death.
+
+Again the Earl disappeared from court, and he and Elizabeth never were
+good friends afterwards, although a peace was patched up, and she made
+him Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. His enemies persuaded her that the
+Lord-Lieutenant wanted to make himself King of Ireland; spies were sent
+to watch him, but one of them was kind enough to warn Essex of his
+danger. With his usual rashness, on learning this he at once returned to
+London, without permission of the Queen--an act in itself treason--and
+finding court adjourned to "Nonesuch" in the country, he rode at speed
+through mud and mire to anticipate his enemy, Lord Gray, who had heard
+of his arrival, and started in haste to give his version of the affair
+before Essex could reach her. Gray had been closeted with the Queen's
+councillors a half-hour when he arrived. Hearing this, Essex lost all
+sense of propriety, hurried unannounced to the Queen's apartments, and
+not finding her in the outer reception-room, pushed on into her private
+bedroom. Her maid was combing her hair, which, gray and thin, was
+hanging about her bony shoulders--for she had not yet made choice of her
+eighty wigs of many colors for the day--nor were her paint and powder
+on, and patches pasted over the wrinkled cheek.
+
+He threw himself at her feet, covered her hand with kisses, poured out
+his story with oaths of fidelity, vowing that he had ever borne in his
+heart the picture of her beauty, completely winning the "most sweet
+Queen" to him. He retired to dress, and in an hour was recalled to an
+audience, and was again well received. But by night the fitful maiden
+had changed her mind, influenced by the Cecil faction, and perhaps by
+thinking how ugly she must have looked in the morning. She was then
+sixty-eight years old, and as vain as in youth. When he again offered
+respectful homage she received him with great sternness, and commanded
+him to confine himself in his apartments until sent for to appear before
+her council the following day. His ever-active enemy Cecil brought
+against him many charges--not least, "his over-bold going to her
+Majesty's presence in her bedchamber."
+
+[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH.]
+
+The Queen then ordered him to be held a prisoner at York House, where he
+remained many months. He pretended to be sick--a trick he had to gain
+forgiveness when his royal mistress was out of humor; but it did not
+move her this time, although it soon became reality. His wife was not
+permitted to visit him, nor even write to him. He had only one true
+friend at court, the gentle Lady Scroope, his cousin, and sister of the
+Countess of Nottingham. She wore mourning for him, and endured bad
+treatment from Elizabeth on his account, but stood faithful to the end.
+
+Yet the lovesick woman could not entirely banish thought of her proud
+favorite, although her mind was constantly filled with suspicions by
+Cecil and Raleigh. To forget him she had bear-baitings, jousts at the
+ring, and a splendid tourney in honor of her coronation day. These
+frivolities filled the weeks that poor Essex passed alone and wretched
+in one room at York House. Elizabeth would not listen to the prayers of
+his sisters and Lady Scroope for his release, but she accepted the
+costly presents they offered, among them a gown worth £500 (about
+$2500). Essex finally fell so ill that his life was despaired of. On
+hearing his pitiable state the Queen wept, and sent him her own
+physician, and had prayers read for him in all the churches of London,
+but something changed her mood again, and she was harsher than ever. Not
+until March 16, 1600, did she allow him to go to his own home, Essex
+House on the river and the Fleet, first sending away his family and all
+the servants but two. Essex was kept there prisoner for seventeen weeks,
+when the Queen removed his keeper and allowed him to become a prisoner
+on parole.
+
+During this time he was examined before a commission of his enemies,
+appointed for the purpose, and was treated most cruelly. They let him
+stand, occasionally leaning for rest against a cupboard, from nine in
+the morning till eight at night; and when accused of treason, he
+replied:
+
+"I should do God and mine own conscience wrong if I do not justify
+myself as an honest man. This hand shall pull out this heart when any
+disloyal thought shall enter it."
+
+The following August his tyrant again summoned him to York House, where
+he was told that her Majesty was pleased to give him his liberty, but he
+must not enter her presence nor come to court. Though free, he was
+constantly spied upon. Through the remainder of the summer his friends
+appealed to the Queen to restore him to favor. Essex wrote her imploring
+letters, that brought no answer. He brooded over his fall and loss of
+power, until he grew desperate, and gathered about him at Essex House
+all the disaffected people of London, among them a host of Puritans.
+They formed many wild schemes--at one time a plan to capture the Tower
+and palace; at another, to march to the court and compel Essex's enemies
+to give him a hearing. The Queen remained cold and silent. He talked of
+her and of his own wrongs, and said "she was an old woman crooked both
+in body and in mind." Sir Walter Raleigh insisted that this speech
+sealed his doom; for spies reported everything he said and did.
+
+His last piece of folly was to raise a riot one morning in the streets
+of London with three hundred followers, declaring that "the kingdom was
+sold to Spain by Cecil and Raleigh." The mob was quickly dispersed, and
+Essex slipped back to his house alone in a small boat. He had shut up as
+prisoners there some officers of the court who had been sent to talk
+with him and bring him to reason. He had hoped to secure his own safety
+by giving these as hostages, but Sir Ferdinando Georges, one of his own
+men, had liberated them, and as he had already been proclaimed traitor,
+there was nothing to be done but to barricade the house. It was
+surrounded by the Queen's troops, and he held out till 10 o'clock at
+night, and only surrendered then because "he was sore vexed with the
+tears and incessant screams of the ladies." He was confined that night
+in Lambeth Palace, and on Monday, February 9, 1601, together with his
+followers, was taken to the Tower. When the boat glided through the
+Traitors' Gate beneath St. Thomas's Tower, he must have realized the
+hopelessness of his case, for those who went in by that low dark tunnel
+rarely came out again.
+
+The apartment to which he was committed was only nineteen feet in
+diameter, the walls eleven feet thick, and, in memory of the chivalric
+Earl, it is to this day called Devereux Tower. When he passed the
+ponderous door his brightness of soul was yet undimmed, but a short
+while in that chill lone chamber would subdue it to silence if not to
+resignation. Love of life cannot long endure in such a prison, and rapid
+changes in the career of soldier, statesman, courtier, had taught him
+the uncertainty of fortune which hangs on the caprice of king or queen.
+
+On the 19th of the same month he and Southampton were brought to trial,
+and, as usual, he was unfairly treated. Even Lord Bacon, to whom he had
+given an estate, and who was not of the Queen's counsels, appeared
+against him. One lawyer compared him to a crocodile; another called him
+an atheist and papist, when it was well known he was a Puritan. The
+trial lasted from nine o'clock in the morning to six o'clock in the
+evening. He was sentenced to death, and on hearing it, said: "I am not a
+whit dismayed to receive this doom. Death is welcome to me as life. Let
+my poor quarters, which have done her Majesty true service in divers
+parts of the world, be sacrificed and disposed of at her pleasure."
+
+As he marched through the streets to the Tower, with the edge of the
+headsman's axe carried toward him--the custom when prisoners were
+condemned to die--he walked swiftly, with his head hanging down, and
+made no answers to persons who frequently spoke to him from the crowds.
+He was allowed six more days to prepare for death. It is said that
+Elizabeth signed his death-warrant firmly, and with even more than the
+customary flourishes, but she wept and hesitated about appointing the
+execution.
+
+[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.]
+
+Meanwhile where was the gay gold ring given to him in the bloom of his
+youth, as he marched to Spain with the beauty of banners and roll of
+drums, under no shadow deeper than the folds of the royal standard? Many
+times Essex must have looked at the amulet, and in the long, slow
+waiting sickened for gracious message or friendly sign, but none came.
+And Elizabeth, too, must have wondered what had become of the token; and
+why did not he, so wildly loved and deeply mourned, send the pledge and
+claim the pardon?
+
+Early one morning while this time was passing, not knowing whom to
+trust, he chanced to see from his window, which overlooked the street, a
+lad with an honest, open face, which so pleased him it won his
+confidence. He managed to throw down a small bribe and the ring, and
+told him to take it to his good cousin Lady Scroope, and she would send
+it to the Queen. The boy took the keepsake, but gave it into the hand of
+the wife of one of Essex's worst enemies, the Countess of Nottingham,
+who passed it to her husband.
+
+[Illustration: ESSEX AT THE TIME OF HIS EXECUTION.]
+
+How terrible must have been the suspense of Essex, for, in spite of
+everything, he trusted the word of his sovereign. The day broke that was
+to see his execution. Still no sign of pardon or reprieve. Calmly he
+prepared for death, and dressed with his usual care and elegance. He
+wore a long black cloak of wrought velvet over a satin suit, which
+consisted of a doublet of brocade with ruffles of lace in the sleeves, a
+silken scarf confining it at the waist, short breeches of satin, silken
+hose, and leather buskins. Usually with this costume a jewelled sword
+was worn, and an immense ruff of lace around the neck. On this occasion
+both were omitted. His picture shows a well-turned head, with dark
+curling hair, straight nose, brown eyes, a mustache, and the pointed
+beard affected at that period.
+
+Essex had begged as a last privilege that he might have a private
+execution. The poor petition was granted, and he was permitted to suffer
+death on Tower Hill. The Earl was then in his summer prime--only
+thirty-three years of age. Valor, beauty, fortune had been his from
+birth, but failed to avert his fate. The place of execution was hallowed
+by the best blood of England, and there two fair queens had laid their
+young heads on the block to satisfy the brutal rage of Elizabeth's
+father.
+
+Ash-Wednesday, February 25, 1601, at 8 o'clock in the morning, he was
+led to the fatal block. As he knelt to place his head in position he
+showed no fear, and three strokes of the axe, the first one mortal,
+severed his head from his body. They were buried in the Tower Chapel,
+though some believed the Queen kept the skull in her own private room.
+Notwithstanding it was a cold gloomy day, one hundred gentlemen sat near
+the scaffold, and Sir Walter Raleigh secretly watched the execution from
+a window of the armory, little thinking that thirteen years later he
+would meet the same fate in the same place. During this tragedy Queen
+Elizabeth amused herself playing on the spinet. But there came an hour
+of repentance bitter as death.
+
+About two years afterward the Countess of Nottingham was taken with an
+illness, which proved her last. She begged to see the Queen; she could
+not die in peace without it. Elizabeth came, and when the Countess
+confessed having kept the ring of Essex, the Queen wept, and then flew
+into a fury, and shook the dying woman in her bed, crying, "God may
+forgive you, but I never can!"
+
+This disclosure affected her so she could neither sleep nor eat. The
+dreadful secret pressed on her soul, and the old love and longing came
+back with remorse for tenderness turned to hate.
+
+Dreams of Devereux in his morning beauty kneeling at her feet must have
+risen to her sight. The hand whose touch had made her pulses quicken,
+that never drew sword except for England's glory, was laid low; the
+brilliant nobleman--a headless corpse--was buried among criminals in
+Tower Chapel, when a word from her would have saved him.
+
+Who may tell her anguish when she lay on the palace floor ten days and
+nights, refusing to be comforted, haunted by memories of crime
+unpardonable, till death came to close the scene?
+
+
+
+
+FLOWER BORDERS.
+
+BY EMMA J. GRAY.
+
+
+"I tell you, Cousin Bess, there is everything in the way garden-beds are
+arranged. There is that old couple who live next door, so old they have
+to just hobble out to their flowers, and what do you suppose they've
+done?"
+
+"I have no idea, but if I may judge from your tone, something very
+queer," and Cousin Bess laughed lightly, while she laid the book she had
+been reading on the table, and then looked up at Charlie.
+
+"Well, around each bed they've put white stones, just about the size of
+this," and the boy picked up an ostrich egg, "and so close that one
+stone touches the other."
+
+"Have you never seen that before?"
+
+"Never, Cousin Bess; but it makes their yard look fine; and as for
+ours--well, the contrast is simply awful. I've come to you for points.
+Our ramshackle fence and half-rotten flower-bed boards are too much. I
+am ashamed, and simply will not let those two old people outstrip me.
+I'm bound to go right ahead and even up with them if I can."
+
+And Cousin Bess looked into the boy's eager face before she replied:
+"That's a good resolution. I am glad to hear you say so." And then
+followed the words:
+
+  "'Go make thy garden fair as thou canst;
+    Thou workest never alone;
+  Perchance he whose plot is next to thine
+    Will see it, and mend his own.'
+
+"But pardon my moralizing. I know, Charlie, you are impatient to get to
+work. Let's begin with the fence. Cover that with wild-cucumber vine."
+
+"Plant it all around?"
+
+"Oh no. Sow the seed, and almost before you will know it the fence will
+be a mass of green foliage. And a few days later buds and blossoms will
+appear, and the yard will be perfumed with sweet-scented flowers.
+
+"Dig up your rotten bed-boards and burn them. Sow a narrow line of
+sweet-alyssum along the edge. It is of easy culture, and will produce a
+similar effect to your neighbor's white stones. Should you prefer a
+complete change, however, edge your beds with low-growing coleus plants.
+They come in many colors. I would advise bronze.
+
+"You should also group your plants, putting the lilies all together, the
+pansies, the pinks, and so on. The old-time method of having a patch
+here, a patch there, divided by other flowers, is not nearly as
+effective as to mass them.
+
+"The most unique, and also the most beautiful, small garden I ever saw
+was at Cape Vincent. The owners were French people, and it was
+altogether of blossoms. There was not a blade of grass nor a foot-path
+visible anywhere. Nevertheless, there were spaces through which a single
+individual might walk; but these were wellnigh hidden by the nodding
+flowers. It was a perfect wilderness of bloom, and the air was laden
+with sweetness.
+
+"You may have just such a garden, and it will be a beautiful
+enchantment. But you must be careful about blending complementary
+colors, and also to place your tall and short plants effectively."
+
+
+
+
+WILLIE'S LITTLE CELEBRATION.
+
+(_As told in Letters from different Members of Willie's Family._)
+
+BY HAYDEN CARRUTH.
+
+
+I.
+
+FROM WILLIE'S SISTER TO WILLIE'S MOTHER.
+
+  WASHINGTONVILLE, _July 4_.
+
+     MY DEAREST MAMMA,--Something _awful_ has happened. Willie has been
+     burned pretty nearly _all over_, I guess. You know, this is the
+     Fourth of July, and we have had _such_ a time! You can't know how
+     nervous I am, and I hope you will _never_ go away again and leave
+     me to look after Willie when there is going to be a Fourth of July.
+     He simply would _not_ mind one thing I said to him, just because he
+     is a year and a half older than I am--the idea!--when he _knows_ I
+     have better judgment than he has. Boys never have any judgment,
+     anyhow, on Fourth of July--that's been my experience. Why, Willie's
+     judgment was worse than Carlo's--_he_ knew enough to be scared, and
+     Willie didn't. The poor dog just sat in the wood-shed all day and
+     barked, and to-night he is so hoarse that I am going to put a
+     flannel around his neck. And poor darling Miss Mouser, I don't know
+     _where_ she is. I would be _very_ much alarmed about her if I
+     hadn't seen two big yellow lights under the barn, which I _hope_
+     and _trust_ were her eyes.
+
+     Of course Aunt Lou helped me to look after Willie a good deal, but
+     I'm very sorry to tell you that he didn't _always_ mind her. As for
+     papa, I think he was 'most as bad as Willie. Not that he let off
+     fire-crackers in his hat, or had any horrid fireworks go off in his
+     pocket, but he would just let Willie go on awfully, and never say a
+     word to him. But he _was_ frightened when Willie got burned. Oh, I
+     almost forgot to tell you about _that_. I don't know how it
+     _happened_ hardly, but there was a lot of boys and a _bushel_ of
+     fire-crackers and torpedoes and fireworks and _everything_, and it
+     all went off together, and Willie was right down in it. I was
+     dreadfully frightened, and Aunt Lou screamed, and Carlo barked, and
+     papa just took Willie by the collar and lifted him right out. We
+     had _two_ doctors. Harry Austin got burned too, half an hour later,
+     but I believe they had only one doctor. I must stop and go and look
+     after Miss Mouser.
+
+  Ever your loving little MOLLIE.
+
+
+II.
+
+FROM WILLIE'S AUNT LOU TO WILLIE'S MOTHER.
+
+  WASHINGTONVILLE, _July 4_.
+
+     MY DEAR SISTER,--I fear I cannot hold a pen to write, I am so
+     nervous after all we have gone through with to-day. Willie began to
+     celebrate at three o'clock this morning, and did not pause till
+     five this afternoon, when there came near being a terrible
+     accident. I do not know how it came about, but he was considerably,
+     though not seriously, burned. I had been scolding him all day for
+     his noise, but when he was brought in you may be sure I forgave him
+     all. Poor little darling, I fear it hurt him a good deal. He is in
+     the large bed, with three pillows, and I have been with him until
+     just now. I must close, as he is asking for matches, and I must see
+     that he does _not_ get them. Do not be alarmed, as we shall take
+     the best care of him. Both Dr. Barlow and Dr. Strowbridge say that
+     in a day or two he will be well. There! he must have got the
+     matches, as a fire-cracker has gone off under the bed. I _must_
+     stop. The boy will drive me mad.
+
+  Your sister, LOUISE.
+
+
+III.
+
+FROM WILLIE'S FATHER TO WILLIE'S MOTHER.
+
+     MY DEAR WIFE,--Let us be thankful to-night that we still have our
+     darling Willie. Louise and Mollie have written you of the accident.
+     Both doctors say he will soon be well. There was a large box full
+     of explosives, and just as they went off Willie sat down in the
+     box. Poor little fellow, it was a somewhat dismal ending for his
+     day's sport--though I suspect that it has not yet wholly ended, as
+     I hear explosions in the bedroom. I gave him some matches--he
+     seemed so lonesome--but I did not know that he had any crackers. He
+     must have induced Bridget to give him some. I must hurry down, or I
+     shall have to send for the fire company instead of the doctor. As
+     ever,
+
+  YOUR LOVING HUSBAND.
+
+[Illustration: WILLIE'S CONDITION BY NIGHTFALL.]
+
+
+IV.
+
+FROM WILLIE HIMSELF TO HIS MOTHER.
+
+  WASHINGTONVILLE, _July 4_.
+
+     DEAR MA,--I s'pose Sis and Aunt Lou and Pa have been writing you a
+     lot of stuff about it all, but they get scared so easy. It wasn't
+     anything. A lot of crackers and things went off in a box, but
+     nobody wouldn't have paid any attention to it if I hadn't happened
+     to be down in the box on my back. I got out all right. Pa helped a
+     little. I thought he wasn't going to mind, but just because my
+     clothes was smouldering, and maybe blazing a little in spots, he
+     got excited, and called in 'bout a dozen doctors, and now they've
+     got me bundled up with more'n twenty pillows. Aunt Lou encouraged
+     him, and of course Sis cried, or I don't think he'd have had quite
+     so many doctors.
+
+     Anyhow, Ma, it was a rip-snorting day, and I wish Washington and
+     those fellows had made it a week instead of a day. I tied a string
+     to my toe and hung it out of the window for the milkman to pull,
+     but I guess the cat or something got at it, and woke me up 'bout
+     two or three o'clock; so I staid up, just to make sure. While I was
+     dressing I let off a cracker or two, or maybe three, on the
+     wood-shed roof, and I guess Aunt Lou knew it some way, as I could
+     hear her in her room talking in her sleep. You ought to have been
+     here, Ma, and had some fun.
+
+     I gave the milkman one or two while he was looking for the string,
+     and his horse got nervous, and I guess he had to chase him a little
+     'fore he caught the cart, and I heard the cans rattle a good deal;
+     but folks oughtn't to complain at a little rattling on the Fourth
+     of July. Pa called out of his room that I was a nuisance, so I went
+     down stairs and sat on the back stoop. In a little while I heard
+     Bridget walking about the kitchen on torpedoes. She said might the
+     Saints preserve her, and I guess they did, 'cause after a while we
+     had breakfast. After breakfast Sis's cat went under the barn. I
+     guess business must be good under there, 'cause she hasn't been out
+     since.
+
+     No use of my trying to tell you of everything that happened to-day.
+     If Tommy Snyder hadn't pushed me I wouldn't have been down in the
+     box when those things went off. A fire-cracker or two got into his
+     jacket pocket somehow, and exploded there, and then he pushed me.
+     He needn't have done so, either, 'cause it didn't make much noise
+     in his pocket. Did you ever try putting a cracker in a fellow's
+     pocket, Ma? The noise sounds kind of smothery. Pa didn't need to
+     pull me out of that box, 'cause I was going to get out, anyhow.
+
+     A policeman went by our house three times to-day, and every time he
+     stopped and looked at me, I wasn't doing anything either time. Oh,
+     I 'most forgot to tell you! You know what a nigger-chaser is, Ma?
+     Well, Harry Austin said they wouldn't. I said they would. He said
+     it was just a _name_ they had. I said, how did they get the name?
+     We had just one left. You know Uncle Eben, who takes away our
+     ashes? Well, he came along, going to a picnic. Ma, _it did_! I saw
+     Uncle Eben talking to a policeman on the corner, and then the
+     policeman came down and looked at us awhile. We wasn't doing
+     anything. Did you know my waist burns better than my trousers? I
+     think there must be better stuff in it. Pa put me out with a rug.
+
+     I can't write much more to-night, 'cause they've just boosted me
+     into bed. I could have got in myself, but Pa seemed to want to
+     lift. Don't pay any attention to what he writes, nor Aunt Lou, or
+     Sis. They are all scart. I think Carlo will have to gargle his
+     throat with something, he has barked so much. I never saw a cat
+     stick under a barn like Sis's has. I think if I was a big striped
+     cat I could do better than stay under a dark barn on such a day as
+     this. Aunt Lou said she wished to goodness she was small enough to
+     get under the barn too, so I pried out another stone, and told her
+     she could get under now, but I guess she didn't--at least I didn't
+     miss her. I guess she was glad she didn't, too, 'cause if she had
+     she wouldn't have seen me burn. My straw hat staid in the box, and
+     it mostly went. Good-night. I hear the milkman and Uncle Eben
+     talking very serious with Pa out at the gate. Guess they must be
+     discussing politics. I must close. Don't worry about me, 'cause I'm
+     all out and getting 'most cool.
+
+  Your dutiful son, WILLIE.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORT]
+
+
+The delegates to the National I.S.A.A.A.A. held a meeting in the evening
+after the championship games, and transacted much important business.
+One of the most prominent subjects of discussion was as to whether next
+year's games should be held in New York or in some other city. The New
+England delegation was strongly in favor of having the 1897 meeting in
+Boston or Worcester, but finally accepted the arguments of the better
+advised; and although they voted against New York on the first ballot,
+the New England delegates subsequently proposed that the decision to
+hold the games in this city be made unanimous.
+
+Their principal argument in favor of having next year's meeting in some
+other city was that the sports would take on too local a color if always
+held in New York, and more of a national importance if held at the
+headquarters of the different interscholastic leagues in turn. The
+A.A.U. has tried this travelling championship business, and has found it
+unsuccessful. I believe that in the future the A.A.U. championships will
+be held in New York city, which will eventually become (even if in the
+minds of outside residents it is not already) the metropolis of sport as
+well as of commerce.
+
+There is little doubt in the minds of impartial observers that New York
+is in every respect the best city for any large meeting, such as that of
+the National I.S.A.A.A.A. New York is easier of access to most of the
+leagues than is Boston or Trenton or Hartford or Worcester or
+Philadelphia. It would be out of the question, of course, to hold a
+National meet in Iowa; but if the championships were made a movable
+event there would be no just reason why Iowa should not have a chance to
+welcome the teams as well as Maine or New Jersey. But how many Eastern
+athletes would go to Cedar Rapids or Sioux City? Very few, I believe.
+
+The reason for this is that Eastern athletes are not compelled to travel
+to Iowa in order to get up a representative championship meeting,
+because the majority of strong school teams are in the East. With the
+Iowans, on the other hand, or with any of the school sportsmen of the
+West, it is different. If they are the strongest team in their section
+of the country, and believe themselves stronger than any other
+scholastic team, they cannot prove this by challenging or inviting those
+who have shown themselves to be record-makers to come to them; they must
+seek out the Eastern athletes, and meet them on their own grounds.
+
+Yale and Cornell have to go to Henley to row with English crews. They
+may feel that they are stronger than the Englishmen, but the Britishers
+are very well satisfied with their own rivers, and are content to race
+their own crews. They welcome the Americans, and are glad to contend
+against them; but they never would think of coming over here to race on
+the Hudson. We are as young in college sports, when compared with
+England, as the Iowa schools are young in interscholastic sport when
+compared with Eastern institutions. To win at Henley means much both for
+Englishmen and Americans. For an English crew to win at Poughkeepsie
+would mean little to the English public. There would scarcely be a
+paragraph about such a victory in the London dailies. In the same way
+there would scarcely be a paragraph in the New York papers if the
+National games were held in Cedar Rapids or Sioux City, because neither
+of these cities is of national fame or importance.
+
+Therefore it is the wisest plan to hold the National games in the
+largest city of the land--in the city to which the dwellers of other
+cities are always glad to come; in the city which affords the best
+accommodations; in the city which can contribute the largest crowd (even
+if it does not do so at first); in the city which can offer the greatest
+entertainment; in the city where live the largest number of well-known
+sportsmen. No other city of the United States can boast of so great a
+number of amateur athletes as New York--men who have been famous when in
+college, and who now take a lively interest as officials in the welfare
+of sport. As one of these gentlemen said, on the day of the National
+games, when one of the Boston delegation asked his opinion about the
+location for next year's meet, "Crum is reported to have run the 100
+yards, in 9-4/5 sec. in Iowa, but nobody believed it until he came to
+New York and won the event at the Inter-collegiate games."
+
+There is a great deal of truth in the suggestion implied in this remark.
+If the National games were held out West somewhere, and all the
+interscholastic records were broken, few people would take much stock in
+the figures, because they would have but little confidence in the local
+officials. Not that these local officials might not be just as good as
+those of New York (although they probably could not be, for they are not
+able to have as much experience), but the general public interested in
+sport would not place full confidence in them, simply because those
+officials would be unknown to them.
+
+In this discussion I have purposely made the comparison between New York
+and another city a comparison between New York and a Western city,
+because I think it makes the argument clearer and more forcible. Many of
+the objections to having the meet outside of New York would not hold for
+Boston or Philadelphia--because both of these are large centres, and to
+each of these cities New York officials of national importance and
+reputation could easily be induced to go. But, as I said at the start,
+it would not be fair to the other leagues in the National Association to
+hold the meetings alternately at the homes of two or three of its
+favored members. It would not be fair to Iowa and to Maine to hold the
+meet alternately at Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Unless the event
+is held _always_ in the same place there is no reason why each league
+should not have a chance to see the games on their own grounds, but, as
+I have said before, very few Eastern athletes could be persuaded to
+travel as far as the Iowans did to come here. Another reason, although a
+minor one, why it is well to hold the meetings each year not only in the
+same city but on the same grounds, is that the comparison between
+records made is then an absolute one, the only error in the equation
+being one of weather or temperature.
+
+The question of grounds is an important one, and one that should be
+discussed very carefully before any decision is arrived at concerning
+next year's meeting. There are two important factors to be considered.
+The first is that the grounds, considered merely as a track and a field,
+should be of the best available--that is, the cinder path should be well
+laid, should be firm and springy, and the turf of the infield should be
+"old" and well rolled. The second point to be considered is the
+convenience of access, the accommodations for spectators, the relation
+of the grand stand to the track, the general picturesqueness of the
+surroundings, and other minor conveniences. I am not at all certain that
+the Columbia Oval comes up to all these requirements--it certainly does
+not come up to some of the latter. There may be some points, however, in
+which the Columbia Oval excels other available ground for
+interscholastic meetings, and although I should not care to declare
+myself of that opinion at present, I think it would be well to discuss
+the question at greater length before coming to an absolute or final
+decision.
+
+There are a number of other subjects concerning the National Association
+which need to be talked over--the choice of officials, for instance, the
+inclination of certain delegates to introduce politics into the affairs
+of the association, and the problem as to whether it is better to have
+the games in the future managed by a club, or by the schoolboys
+themselves. But, unfortunately, there is not space in the Department
+this week to go as thoroughly into the questions as the importance
+deserves. We must therefore leave them to another time.
+
+An excellent step taken by the committee was the fixing of a date for
+all future meetings to be on the first Saturday in June. Next year,
+therefore, the meeting of the I.S.A.A.A.A. will be held on June 6. This
+will be much better than having it as late as was necessary this year,
+and because of the early date the attendance both of contestants and
+spectators will doubtless be very much larger.
+
+The officers elected for the ensuing year were C. B. Cotting, of the New
+England League, president; Hugh Jackson, of the Iowa League,
+vice-president; J. D. Tilford, of the New York Association, secretary;
+George Smith, of the New Jersey Association, treasurer. The executive
+committee will consist of President Cotting, _ex officio_, C. F. Luce,
+of the Connecticut Association, F. Hewins, of the Maine Association,
+L. F. Herrick, of the Long Island Association, H. N. Dunbar, of the New
+England Association, and J. D. Tilford, the secretary.
+
+Another important step taken by the delegates at this meeting was the
+formation of an alliance with the Amateur Athletic Union. The advantages
+to be derived by both associations may be gathered from the following
+clauses taken from the body of the Articles of Alliance:
+
+     At all meetings of the Amateur Athletic Union the National
+     Interscholastic A.A.A.A. shall be entitled to representation by not
+     more than four delegates, or duly elected alternates of such
+     delegates, having collectively one vote.
+
+     From among these delegates one shall be chosen to become a member
+     of the Board of Governors of the A.A.U., who shall have voice,
+     vote, and privilege equal to the other members of said Board upon
+     all matters coming before it.
+
+     All games open only to members of the N.I.S.A.A.A.A. shall be held
+     under N.I.S.A.A.A.A. Rules; but games open to all amateurs shall be
+     held under rules of the A.A.U.
+
+     Each party to this Alliance shall respect and enforce all penalties
+     of suspension and disqualification inflicted by the other party.
+
+     These Articles of Alliance shall be terminated by either party upon
+     thirty days' notice to the other.
+
+On account of Hartford's having taken a greater number of points at the
+games than any other individual school, the Connecticut delegates wished
+to have H.P.H.-S. pronounced the "Champion School" of the United States
+or of the Association. While at first thought this claim may seem to
+have some justification, I am of the opinion that a little sober
+reflection will show the injustice of allowing any school to assume any
+such title. Hartford deserves the greatest credit for scoring the
+highest number of points at the National games, and this Department has
+given such credit by printing a list of points scored by schools.
+
+But because Hartford scored 18 points to Barnard's 14, to English High's
+12, or to Andover's 11, is no proof--barely an indication--that Hartford
+could defeat any one of these schools in a dual contest. Therefore
+Hartford cannot justly claim any school championship. That she scored
+more points than any other single team was due to the fact that in
+events where Hartford was weak the weakest schools were stronger than
+those ranking next on the score to Hartford. (I hope that sentence is
+not too complicated to make my meaning clear.)
+
+The fact of the matter is that the contest at Columbia Oval was among
+teams from leagues, not among teams from schools, and therefore the
+question of school supremacy cannot enter into the discussion. Hartford
+deserves praise for being able so strongly to represent her league, but
+she has no just or valid claim to the title of "champion school." The
+only way such a title can be secured is to have dual meets with all
+other schools in her (athletic) class--and there are but ten or a
+dozen--and if she can defeat them all, then she may rightfully call
+herself champion.
+
+[Illustration: Taylor. Stillman. Farr. Collins. Khime. Hirsch.
+Doerflinger. Rogers.
+
+Wieland. Atkins. Fox (Capt.). Schwendener. Steinel.
+
+MILWAUKEE EAST SIDE HIGH-SCHOOL ATHLETIC TEAM.
+
+Champions of the Wisconsin I.S.A.A.]
+
+The baseball season in almost all of the Eastern interscholastic leagues
+has been more or less overshadowed, as was the case last year, by the
+almost universal interest in track athletics. Nevertheless, there has
+been some good ball-playing on the many diamonds, and a glance over the
+averages shows that some excellent work has been done. Owing to our
+limited space in this Department, it is impossible to give a full review
+of the work performed by all the baseball associations, or even by the
+more prominent ones, but the results of the contests are important, and
+should go down to make the record complete.
+
+The scores of games played, with the standing of the teams at the close
+of the season, follow:
+
+GAMES PLAYED.
+
+  Brookline, 9, Somerville, 6.
+  Brookline, 15, Hopkinson, 9.
+  Cambridge, 13, Somerville, 12.
+  Cambridge, 13, Roxbury, 6.
+  Hopkinson, 17, Boston Latin, 10.
+  Brookline, 14, Roxbury, 1.
+  Brookline, 8, Boston Latin, 7.
+  English High, 19, Roxbury, 18.
+  Somerville, 3, Hopkinson, 2.
+  Brookline, 8, Cambridge, 6.
+  Somerville, 10, Boston Latin, 6.
+  Roxbury, 12, Boston Latin, 7.
+  Brookline, 6, English High, 0.
+  Hopkinson, 7, Roxbury Latin, 6.
+  Cambridge, 17, Boston Latin, 12.
+  Cambridge, 10, Hopkinson, 9.
+  Somerville, 6, English High, 5.
+  English High, 6, Boston Latin, 1.
+
+STANDING.
+
+                             Won.  Lost.
+  Brookline High              6      0
+  Cambridge High and Latin    4      1
+  Somerville High             3      2
+  English High                2      2
+  Hopkinson                   2      3
+  Roxbury Latin               1      4
+  Boston Latin                0      6
+
+There were seven nines in the league, representing the largest schools
+of Boston and the immediate neighborhood. The championship was taken by
+the Brookline High-School team, which won every game played. Brookline
+was a new-comer in the association this year, and was a favorite from
+the start, it being conceded, even before B.H.-S. was admitted, that her
+team would take the championship. The nine played a strong game from
+start to finish, the best individual work being done by Seaver, in left
+field, Lewis, at first base, Hutchins, behind the bat (who played
+through the season without an error), and Kernon and Aechtler, who
+played right field and second base, respectively. The total errors for
+the season made by B.H.-S. were 30.
+
+Brookline High showed so early in the season that her team was certain
+of first honors that several of the other nines seemed to lose interest
+in the contest, and, as a result, a number of games were left unplayed.
+Hopkinson's, for instance, held an excellent chance to take second
+place, but the players seemed to lose their nerve. Almost all will be
+back next year, however, and the team should make a better showing.
+Better work had been expected of C. H. and L., Somerville, and E.H.-S.
+than they developed. None of these teams played all the games they were
+scheduled for. Somerville, however, can boast the only player who made a
+home run in the whole season--McRae. Roxbury Latin's nine was unusually
+weak.
+
+[Illustration: Flavel. Schwartz.
+
+Pearson. Schoenhut. White. McCarty (Capt.). Underwood.
+
+Horst. Cartwright. Sharp. Hamilton. Newhall.
+
+THE GERMANTOWN ACADEMY BASEBALL NINE.
+
+Champions of the Philadelphia Inter-Academic B.B. League.]
+
+The Championship of the Inter-Academic League of Philadelphia went to
+Germantown Academy. This school has finished first eight times in the
+nine seasons of the league's existence, losing in 1891 only, when the
+pennant went to the Cheltenham Military Academy.
+
+In the Interscholastic League of Philadelphia the Championship went to
+the Central High-School, with Roman Catholic H.-S., Central
+Manual-Training School, and Northeast Manual-Training School following
+in the order named.
+
+The Maine Interscholastic Tennis Tournament resulted in a victory for
+Dana of Portland, who defeated his schoolmate, Pendleton, in the final
+round. These two men then formed a partnership in the doubles, and came
+out the victors. It is uncertain if Dana will go to Newport in August.
+
+  THE GRADUATE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+YOUNG MOTHERS
+
+should early learn the necessity of keeping on hand a supply of Gail
+Borden Eagle Brand Condensed Milk for nursing babies as well as for
+general cooking. It has stood the test for 30 years, and its value is
+recognized.--[_Adv._]
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENTS.
+
+
+
+
+Postage Stamps, &c.
+
+
+
+
+$117.50 WORTH OF STAMPS FREE
+
+to agents selling stamps from my 50% approval sheets. Send at once for
+circular and price-list giving full information.
+
+C. W. Grevning, Morristown, N.J.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: STAMPS]
+
+100 all dif. Venezuela, Bolivia, etc, only 10c., 200 all dif. Hayti,
+Hawaii, etc., only 50c. Ag'ts w't'd at 50% com. List FREE! C. A.
+STEGMANN, 5941 Cote Brilliante Ave., St. Louis, Mo
+
+
+
+
+1000 Mixed Foreign Stamps, San Marino, etc., 25c.; 101 all dif., China,
+etc., 10c.; 10 U.S. Revenues, 10c.; 20 U.S. Revenues, 25c. Ag'ts w'td at
+50% com. _Monthly Bulletin_ free. Shaw Stamp & Coin Co., Jackson, Mich.
+
+
+
+
+=STAMPS!= 100 all dif. Bermuda, etc. Only 10c. Ag'ts w'td at 50% com. List
+free. L. DOVER & CO., 1469 Hodiamont, St. Louis, Mo.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THOMPSON'S EYE WATER]
+
+
+
+
+A LESSON FROM AFRICA.
+
+
+Sometimes valuable information about ourselves comes from unexpected
+sources. Here is something interesting about American baking powders all
+the way from Africa.
+
+Rev. Bishop William Taylor, for several years Methodist Bishop of
+Africa, says that the red label of the Royal Baking Powder, so familiar
+to every housekeeper in America, is quite as well known and the powder
+as highly prized in every part of that continent to which civilization
+has extended. The Royal Baking Powder was taken to South Africa a great
+many years ago by Mrs. Robinson, a missionary. But its use soon spread
+beyond the Missions, and it came to be regarded as a necessity by all
+classes. It was found particularly valuable in the mines and upon the
+ranches, and frequently sold at interior stations for a dollar a pound.
+Especially has it conduced to the comfort and health of the
+missionaries, who would find bread-making a sorry business without it.
+
+Another interesting fact is that no other baking powder will stand
+service in that country. Rev. Ross Taylor, the agent for African
+Missions, says: "During the past ten years we have shipped Royal Baking
+Powder regularly to our African Missions, and for the last four years to
+the exclusion of all other brands, because of the testimony of our
+missionaries that it maintains its strength, freshness, and purity in
+the tropical climate, which others do not. For instance, the
+superintendent of our mission in Angola, a work that is financially
+maintained on commercial lines, reported that he could not hold his
+trade with anything else but the Royal. We are using it in forty mission
+stations in Africa."
+
+Here is a suggestive fact of value to American housekeepers. Though the
+presence of this keeping quality in the Royal and the lack of it in
+other powders is developed more conspicuously in the hot, moist climate
+of Africa, it exists in the Royal and is deficient in the others as they
+are sold in this country in exactly the same ratio. This natural test
+demonstrates more forcibly than a chemical analysis could the wide
+difference that exists between the different baking powders in their
+combination and actual practical value. The maintenance of its strength
+and freshness under all climatic conditions is evidence that the Royal
+Powder is more accurately made and composed of purer and better
+ingredients. Such a powder only will give uniform results in perfect
+foods and prove of the greatest economy in the saving of flour, butter,
+and other articles used in their production.--_N. Y. Christian
+Advocate._
+
+
+
+
+HARPER'S
+
+BAZAR
+
+The great fashion magazine of the world. None excels it in its
+field.--_Chicago Inter-Ocean_, Feb. 22, 1896.
+
+10 CENTS A COPY - $4.00 A YEAR
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PUDDING STICK]
+
+     This Department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young
+     Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the
+     subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor.
+
+
+In one of our most intimate and confidential talks a dear girl asked me
+to tell her what I think the most desirable gift for a woman. She spoke
+of several friends--one of them as having grace of movement; another, as
+rarely beautiful, with brilliant eyes and lovely complexion; a third, as
+accomplished, playing and singing, and speaking two or three languages
+besides her own; and a fourth, as very clever. We may multiply the list,
+and as we look over our circle of friends we easily see that nearly
+every one has something bright and individual which commends her to us;
+but the sum of the matter is that the gift of all gifts for a girl is
+expressed in one little word of five letters--charm.
+
+If you insist on my defining charm, I am afraid I will disappoint you,
+for it is as difficult of analysis as a perfume. The better way, if I
+could manage it, would be to show you somebody who has it, as I would
+show you a painting on the wall, or a flower in the garden. Very plain
+girls and women are sometimes endowed with this grace. I remember one
+who was not pretty at all--a little dumpy brown thing, who had not the
+art of dressing very well, and who slipped in and out of a room as
+softly and shyly as a mouse, bless her heart! But this sweet Elizabeth
+was popular beyond all the girls of her class; she was constantly in
+demand, and nothing could be done without her. It was, "Where is
+Elizabeth?" "What does Elizabeth say?" "Will Elizabeth be of the party?
+if so, everything will go delightfully." Once Elizabeth was ill, and a
+hush seemed to fall on the little town, while people, old and young,
+were anxious to know how she was, and her house was a perfect bower with
+the flowers that were left for her daily. When she went away for a visit
+everybody was interested, and when she returned the town had a gala-day.
+There were any number of prettier girls, any number of cleverer girls,
+in her set, but none who compared with our little brown Elizabeth. She
+had charm.
+
+In her case charm had several elements. Her voice was low yet clear. She
+never made an effect of insisting, as girls with shrill voices do; her
+tones were soft and distinct. She was gentle, but she was not overlooked
+in consequence. She always knew where to find things. At home her father
+and brothers appealed to her for the boots and papers which were out of
+sight, but which it was important to have on the instant. Elizabeth
+could explain away little vexations. She remembered people's names and
+faces--a very great talent, and one worth everybody's cultivating.
+Elizabeth was considerate and full of tact. I never saw her do a rude
+thing, or heard her say anything unkind.
+
+Then, too, Elizabeth knew what was going on. She read the papers, and
+could talk intelligently about current events--another admirable plan
+for all girls to follow.
+
+I know another girl, Melissa, who has all Elizabeth's charm, and
+superadded has great beauty. She carries herself gracefully, this tall,
+elegant young woman; her hair, her eyes, her face, her figure, express
+distinction. But when I asked a friend, the other day, what constituted
+Melissa's greatest claim to admiration, he said: "Well, it isn't that
+she's so pretty; it isn't that she's so dainty. I hardly know what it
+is. She has style; she has loveliness; I think, most of all, she has
+what you women call charm."
+
+A few years ago, in London, an elderly lady--several years past eighty
+she was--passed away. A man who had known her for many years said, "The
+most charming woman of our time has gone." Once this gentleman was a
+guest at a country-house where the old lady was expected. Everybody was
+anticipating her coming; everybody wanted to meet her. When she arrived,
+she came into the drawing-room in black velvet and a lace cap, with a
+fan in her hand and a flower in her dress, and at once she held a little
+court. In her girlhood this woman had delighted Washington Irving. In
+her old age she had poets, artists, scholars, and statesmen in her
+drawing-room. She had charm.
+
+In a little New England village a lady was living all by herself, and
+every morning I saw a pilgrimage of young people going up through her
+small garden to her door. "What is the secret of Miss Emily's having so
+much company," I inquired. "So many of the boys and girls and the young
+people here have errands to see her, and _she_ isn't young, or in public
+life, or--anything, that I can see." The principal of the high-school
+answered my question. "Emily Lawrence, madam, is the most charming woman
+in Connecticut."
+
+  MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: BICYCLING]
+
+     This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the
+     Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our
+     maps and tours contain many valuable data kindly supplied from the
+     official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen.
+     Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L.A.W., the
+     Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership
+     blanks and information so far as possible.
+
+
+The Department this week, owing to the number of questions on bicycling
+matters, will be entirely devoted to answers. Many of the questions
+received each week cannot be answered satisfactorily, since they are
+inquiries as to the roads from one place which the writer mentions to
+another city or town. Readers of this Department can readily understand
+that this would entail a large number of special maps or descriptions
+not likely to interest any one but the writer. Our idea in publishing
+maps is to give general routes which any one may use from beginning to
+end, or in parts, to serve his purpose, and often it is wiser to go a
+roundabout way from one point to another, thereby getting on to some
+good route, than to try the short route and perhaps walk half the way.
+Bicycling routes having the least number of miles are not always the
+shortest. Many a fifty-mile road is really shorter than one of thirty
+miles, since a bad mile, a sandy half-mile, a two-mile stretch of
+cobblestones are any and all worse than four miles of good road.
+
+     J. T. H. asks if we can tell him the best bicycle to buy and how to
+     buy one. Possibly we may have an exhaustive article on this subject
+     some day in the future, though it will be impossible to tell which
+     is the best wheel. Most of the well-known makes are good bicycles,
+     and one is pretty safe with any of them. Unquestionably, in a year
+     or two, bicycles--new ones at that--will be sold at much less than
+     $100, for as they cost but a small portion of that amount to
+     manufacture, it will soon become impossible to keep up any
+     agreement among bicycle firms to hold the price so high. Indeed,
+     to-day almost any one can buy a '96 wheel of good make for less
+     than $100, though this is still the retail price. Many a
+     second-hand bicycle, especially a woman's wheel, is quite as good
+     as a new one, and can be bought for half-price or less. A woman's
+     wheel is especially adapted to this kind of purchase, since many
+     women of means buy a new bicycle every year, and not being
+     particularly athletic, do not ride any one wheel more than two or
+     three hundred miles, perhaps, and take the best of care of it all
+     the time. Such a bicycle of the '95 make, for example, is quite as
+     good as one of the new '96 machines for practical purposes, and can
+     be bought for $50. In the case of a second-hand man's wheel more
+     care should be taken in examining bearings, chain, sprocket wheels,
+     and so on. Some suggestions on these points have already appeared
+     in this column.
+
+     BICYCLE CRANK asks what a military company of bicyclists does, what
+     its movements are, and how such a company can be formed. Also if a
+     bicycle military company is a good thing. As to the last, General
+     N. A. Miles said in a speech in 1892, delivered before the guests
+     at a banquet in Chicago given by the president of the L.A.W.: "The
+     president has told us that your league numbers thirty thousand men.
+     Suppose that out of that number you organize a corps of fifteen or
+     twenty thousand young, intelligent men and mount them upon wheels
+     and equip them as they should be. It would be one of the most
+     effective corps ever organized. It is estimated that there are in
+     this country a quarter of a million men who are accustomed to ride
+     the bicycle. If out of that number fifty thousand men were
+     organized it would make one of the most effective army corps that
+     was ever marshalled in any country or any time." As to the
+     movements, commands, etc., we can best answer by referring readers
+     to the _Cycle-Infantry Drill Regulations_, prepared by
+     Brigadier-General Albert Ordway. A company of cyclists consist of
+     infantry mounted on bicycles. The regulations therefore are
+     practically the same as infantry regulations, changed only to suit
+     bicycling necessities. When the men stop, they dismount, of course,
+     and become infantry. When they are mounted some of the drills are
+     like cavalry drill.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CAMERA CLUB]
+
+     Any questions in regard to photograph matters will be willingly
+     answered by the Editor of this column, and we should be glad to
+     hear from any of our club who can make helpful suggestions.
+
+
+SILVER SALTS.
+
+There are four chemical elements either of which combined with a metal
+forms a compound resembling sea-salt. These four elements are Fluorine
+(F), Chlorine (Cl), Bromine (Br), and Iodine (I). They are termed in
+chemistry "halogens" (salt-producers), and the compounds which they form
+are called "haloids." When they are combined with silver they make
+silver haloids, or salts of silver. Three of these salts, silver
+chloride, silver bromide, and silver iodide, are the substances most
+quickly affected by light, and are most important agents in making a
+photographic image.
+
+Silver chloride is often found native in silver mines, and is called by
+the miners "horn-silver." As early as the sixteenth century it was
+observed that this "horn-silver" turned dark when it was brought up from
+the mines into the sunlight, but it was not until the year 1777 that it
+was found this darkening of the silver chloride was due to the chemical
+effect of light. This discovery was made by a Swedish chemist, Charles
+William Scheele. Silver chloride was the first salts of silver used in
+photography, and the first picture made on a sensitive surface by means
+of a lens was made by that famous chemist Sir Humphry Davy. His lenses
+were taken from his solar microscope. By coating paper with silver
+chloride and exposing it for a long time in the camera he obtained
+pictures of small objects. These pictures were positives, not negatives.
+An English chemist by the name of Wedgwood worked with him; but though
+they succeeded in making pictures, they could not "fix" the image, so
+that all their pictures were kept in portfolios away from the light, and
+only examined by candle-light.
+
+Silver chloride is used in making photographic printing-paper, not by
+coating the paper with the silver chloride, but by producing it upon the
+paper itself by means of two solutions with which the paper is coated.
+The chemical formula for silver chloride is AgCl, meaning that a
+molecule of silver chloride contains one atom of silver and one atom of
+chlorine. (The chemical name for silver is argentum, and the symbol is
+Ag.) This chloride was used by Davy for coating the paper on which he
+made his pictures, but the paper was not very sensitive to light, it
+taking from a half-hour to two hours to make a picture. By repeated
+experiments, Fox Talbot, an Englishman, succeeded in making a paper
+which was very sensitive to light. He first coated the paper with a
+solution of common salt, sodium chloride (NaCl), and dried it. This
+salted paper was then brushed over with a solution of nitrate of silver,
+which combined with the sodium chloride (salt), and formed silver
+chloride.
+
+In preparing the paper the nitrate of silver solution was made strong
+enough so that there might be a little left on the paper in addition to
+that which combined with the sodium chloride to form the silver
+chloride. (Sodium nitrate is also produced, but it has no effect on the
+paper.) Silver nitrate is very largely used in photography in all
+sensitive preparations. In surgery it is known as "lunar caustic," and
+is used to cauterize or burn the flesh to prevent the spreading of
+disease. It is produced in the separation of gold from silver in the
+refining process. It is produced chemically by dissolving pure silver in
+an equal part of nitric acid. The chemical formula for it is
+AgNO_{3}. (Nitrate of silver is very poisonous.)
+
+The chemical formula for producing the silver chloride on the paper may
+be thus stated: NaCl+AgNO_{3}, AgCl+NaNO_{3}. That is, sodium
+chloride and silver nitrate make silver chloride and sodium nitrate.
+
+Those of our Camera Club who have prepared the plain paper after the
+formula given in this column will now understand the chemistry of the
+operation. The next paper will explain why the chloride is produced _on_
+the paper instead of simply coating the paper with the silver chloride.
+
+The new chemical elements mentioned and their symbols and atomic
+weights:
+
+                                Atomic.
+                       Symbol.  Weight.
+  Silver (argentum)      Ag.      107
+  Nitrogen                N.       14
+
+     WM. MERRITT, Rhinebeck, N. Y., ROY PIKE, Lake City, Minn., JOSEPH
+     K. FORNANCE, Norristown, Pa., D. M. MARTIN, Loveland, Ia., and
+     HULBURT MARSH, Groton, N. Y., wish to become members of the Camera
+     Club. Their names are enrolled on the list, and we welcome them to
+     our club. We hope to have the pleasure of seeing some of their work
+     very soon.
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENTS.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Columbia Bicycles]
+
+Unequalled
+
+in Strength
+
+The high-carbon steel and nickel steel used in the tubing of Columbia
+bicycles have no equal in their power to resist the strains to which a
+bicycle frame is put. This tubing is all made in the Columbia mills
+especially for Columbias.
+
+Standard of the World
+
+Columbias in quality and construction are in a class by themselves.
+
+$100 to all alike
+
+The Columbia Catalogue, handsomest art work of the year, is free from
+the Columbia agent, or is mailed for two 2-cent stamps.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+POPE MFG. CO., Hartford, Conn.
+
+Columbia Branch Houses and Agencies are almost everywhere.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THOMPSON'S EYE WATER]
+
+
+
+
+WALTER BAKER & CO., LIMITED.
+
+Established Dorchester, Mass., 1780.
+
+Breakfast Cocoa
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Always ask for Walter Baker & Co.'s
+
+Breakfast Cocoa
+
+Made at
+
+DORCHESTER, MASS.
+
+It bears their Trade Mark
+
+"La Belle Chocolatiere" on every can.
+
+Beware of Imitations.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+HARTFORD Single-Tubes are the easiest and quickest to repair. That saves
+time and patience. But this point would be of little worth apart from
+their strength, elasticity, safety and hill climbing power. The secret
+of making is ours. The tires are yours for any bicycle.
+
+IF IT'S A HARTFORD TIRE IT'S RIGHT.
+
+OF ANY DEALER.
+
+THE HARTFORD RUBBER WORKS CO.
+
+HARTFORD, CONN.
+
+New York. Philadelphia. Chicago.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+EARN A TRICYCLE.
+
+We wish to introduce our Teas. Sell 30 lbs. and we will give you a Fairy
+Tricycle; sell 25 lbs. for a Solid Silver Watch and Chain; 50 lbs. for a
+Gold Watch and Chain; 75 lbs. for a Bicycle; 10 lbs. for a Gold Ring.
+Write for catalog and order sheet Dept. I
+
+W. G. BAKER,
+
+Springfield, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+San Jacinto.
+
+     La Porte is a new town, situated on a point of land nearly
+     surrounded by Galveston Bay, Morgan's Ship Canal, and San Jacinto
+     Bay. It is about twenty miles from Houston, and thirty miles from
+     Galveston. The scenery in this part of the coast country is
+     beautiful, and the place is not without historic interest. On this
+     point of land was formerly the town of New Washington, which was
+     burned by Santa Anna before he left for San Jacinto battle-ground,
+     which is only six or seven miles from here. It was there that the
+     Texans under General Houston routed the Mexicans under Santa Anna
+     on that memorable day, the 21st of April, 1836.
+
+     The battle-ground is located on Buffalo Bayou. It comprises
+     twenty-three acres, ten of which are owned by the State. The
+     "Daughters of the Republic" are raising funds to beautify it and
+     erect a suitable monument. There is only one monument there now. It
+     is a plain marble shaft about fifteen feet high, with inscriptions
+     on the four sides of the base.
+
+     San Jacinto Day is a legal holiday in Texas, and large numbers of
+     people celebrate it by picnicking at the battle-ground. Exercises
+     are held in the public schools. This year I recited Lillie E.
+     Barr's poem, "San Jacinto Corn," published in the ROUND TABLE for
+     January 21, 1896. The battle of San Jacinto lasted only eighteen or
+     twenty minutes. There were more than fifteen hundred Mexican troops
+     opposed to seven hundred and eighty-three Texans. The loss of the
+     Texans was two killed, and twenty-three wounded, six of them
+     mortally. The loss of the Mexicans was six hundred and thirty
+     killed, two hundred and eight wounded, and seven hundred and thirty
+     prisoners. Santa Anna was taken prisoner on the 22d, and General
+     Cos on the 24th.
+
+  MERCY COMPTON MARSH, R.T.L.
+  LA PORTE, TEXAS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My Escape.
+
+  The sun had set on yonder hill,
+  The little brook was very still,
+  And I went to bed with a cheerful heart,
+  Knowing that all was well.
+
+  But as the midnight rolled on still,
+    There came the dreadful cry
+  Of fire! fire! on the hill,
+    And I prepared to fly.
+
+  I rolled an egg up in a shawl,
+    And saddled my horse near by;
+  I sprang to the saddle and plied the paddle,
+    And then commenced to fly.
+
+  My horse flew up to the skies
+    And landed on a cloud.
+  And then I heard for the first time
+    A thunder wild and loud.
+
+  And there on the cloud beside me stood
+    A giant large and tall,
+  Who, in a voice of thunder, cried,
+    "What right have you here at all?"
+
+  I shivered and shook from head to foot,
+    And the giant he roared with rage,
+  "I'll take you home with me," he cried,
+    "And shut you up in a cage."
+
+  But I ran to the edge of the cloud
+    And gave a fearful leap,
+  And the shock awoke me, and I found
+    That I had been asleep.
+
+Composed jointly by Helen, Virginia, and Gladys Mackay-Smith, aged 9,
+11, and 13 years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A Delightful Morsel about Japan.
+
+A Lady of the Order, aged twelve, living at 118 B. Bluff, Yokohama,
+Japan, writes to the Table: "Here is a brief description of Nikko, which
+we visited two summers ago, and I hope it is good enough to print." It
+is quite "good enough." The Table would be glad and thankful for other
+morsels equally delightful.
+
+CHARMING NIKKO.
+
+     Many hundreds of years ago one of the Tycoons, as the Emperors of
+     Japan were once called, sent one of his retainers to look for a
+     burial-place in Japan for his father, who had just died. The
+     retainer, after having looked for a long time found a barren place
+     which was, however, very beautiful, and seemed suitable to him for
+     an Emperor's burial-place. He planted there an avenue of trees now
+     called the "Tokaido," and after many years Nikko was founded.
+
+     This is one of the most beautiful country-places, about seven hours
+     in the railway from Yokohama. It is a lovely place in the
+     mountains, about 3500 feet above the level of the sea, famous for
+     its scenery and lovely temples. Many people go only to see these
+     magnificent buildings. There is something so lonely, so mysterious,
+     around these temples situated in damp low ground! Around these holy
+     places grow huge cryptomerias, a kind of fir-tree, the stems
+     covered with moss and climbing plants; altogether they are very
+     beautiful to look at.
+
+     The interior of the temples is even more lovely and grand than the
+     outside. The walls are decorated with valuable old carvings and
+     glistening lacquer. Even the floors are sometimes lacquer, and here
+     and there in some temples are images of gods entirely of gold.
+     There is said to be one temple in Nikko wholly covered with gold.
+     One other thing so lovely in Nikko is the abundance of running
+     water and cascades. One cannot go out of hearing of the constant
+     rushing and rippling of water. If you see this water, you will
+     notice that it is as clear as crystal.
+
+     There are no hot springs in Nikko as there are in other Japanese
+     country-places. Instead, all are icy cold. People are often tempted
+     to drink this water, as it is so clear, but it is not so clean as
+     it looks, because the Japanese wash all their pots and pans in it.
+     There are also many pretty water-falls in Nikko. The "Kirifuri,"
+     which means "the beautiful mist," is the biggest and grandest. This
+     water-fall falls about forty feet over stones into a rocky basin
+     which leads into the little and wild river "Diagawa," which flows
+     through the whole of Nikko. The way down to the water-fall is very
+     steep and rocky, but on the damp rocky walls on both sides grows a
+     kind of maiden-hair fern.
+
+     The "Urami" water-fall is the next in size and beauty. Before you
+     get to this one you come to some tea-houses, where you are supposed
+     to rest and take refreshments. Here the wild river comes rushing
+     past. To get to the water-fall you must go through a kind of ravine
+     which is very beautiful and rocky. One side of this is a damp wall
+     overgrown with all sorts of climbing plants and beautiful moss.
+     Moss, by-the-way, is another thing for which Nikko is famous. The
+     Urami fall rushes down in three cascades, one on each side of the
+     big one. You are able to go behind the big one so you can see it
+     rushing in front of you.
+
+     The "Red Lacquered or Sacred Bridge" is another wonder of Nikko,
+     and is known all over Japan. It is made entirely of red lacquer,
+     and anybody who walks on it, except the Mikado, is shot! It is only
+     unlocked when he is in the place. As lovely as Nikko is in
+     summer-time, when all the various flowers are in blossom, it is
+     even more lovely in autumn. Then the foliage takes the prettiest
+     colors; the Japanese maple is wonderfully beautiful with its dark
+     and light red or green shades. Nikko is a place which I should
+     advise any one who comes to Japan to visit. I am sure he would be
+     well paid for the tiresome journey there.
+
+  CECILE ROGERS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Handy to have in Mind.
+
+The next time you are asked to tell a riddle, tell this one:
+
+  Lo, the poor Indian, imprisoned stands,
+    Betwixt a bird and a feather.
+  From aloft all three a warning send
+    To ships in stormy weather.
+
+The answer is Hen-lo-pen (the Cape).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Shadows Come Even Our Way.
+
+We are sure there is no member who fails to recall the delightful
+morsels contributed to the Table by Lady Florence E. Cowan. They were
+dated Kingman, Arizona, and told us about the Indians, the plants, the
+folk-lore, etc., of that Territory. Her articles were exceedingly
+interesting, and always well written. Besides, her personal notes
+accompanying them were models of frankness and yet brevity. A brief note
+signed "S. Z. B." informs us she is dead. The Table and its readers are
+pained by the news.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Kinks.
+
+No. 6.--NATURAL-HISTORY ENIGMAS.
+
+  I am loud and turbulent, yet incapable of noise;
+  I'm the forefront of battle, and the simplest of toys;
+  I live in the water, but must be always kept dry;
+  I am perfectly deaf, yet hear every cry;
+  I swim all the time, keep step when I travel;
+  I am fixed in one place, now this riddle unravel.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Of ten animals allowed in heaven,
+    According to Moslem creed,
+  My first is one. My second's another
+    Of the same identical breed.
+  My third each is when once he gets there,
+    After they let him in.
+  My whole the Moslem law keeps out,
+    Since he is a man of sin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  I nourish my young, and so am a beast;
+  My four feet are tied, so I walk but the least;
+  I am hard as a rock, am soft as pure silk;
+  I'm a dark, ugly brown, am whiter than milk;
+  I am made from a tree, am dug from the ground;
+  I grow from a seed; in the rocks I abound;
+  With never a feather, like a bird I can fly;
+  I am entirely dumb, but still have a cry.
+  A bird that can fly, with never a feather;
+  A beast with four feet bound closely together;
+  A rock and a vegetable, an earth and a tree;
+  I am all of these things; now what can I be?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  I am so lowly I cling to the ground,
+    Yet soar to a heavenly height;
+  I represent the only thing of my kind.
+    Yet am owned by each human wight;
+  Each person can have only one of me, true,
+  Still, strange as it seems, he always has two:
+  I can swim on the water, but am sure to sink through it,
+  I am purely a spirit, going where man can't pursue it;
+  I'm the oldest of matter, have form, weight, and feeling,
+  I am simply a sound, loneliness revealing.
+  Though owned by the English, I belong to no nation,
+  Yet furnish support to all human creation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Anybody May Enter this Journalism.
+
+Frank Homer King contemplates starting an amateur paper, and asks whom
+he must apply to for a permit. Frank need apply to no one. He is free to
+name his paper anything he pleases, and to publish it as long and as
+often as he can pay the printer's bill. If he wishes to enter his
+publication in the mails, that it may be sent at newspaper rates, he
+applies to the postmaster of his city, who will give him a blank to fill
+out.
+
+E. C. Hoff, Carroll, Iowa, and James M. Hughes, Richmond, Mo.,
+contemplate starting amateur papers, and want contributions of stories,
+poems, etc. Joe Gibson. Jun., Ingersoll, Ont., and Cassius Morford,
+Banfield, Mich., want to receive samples of amateur papers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A Glimpse of West Point.
+
+     In the summer the parade-ground at West Point is a perfect green
+     sea of grass, so well is it kept. The many white duck tents make a
+     picturesque sight, looking like so many sail-boats in green water.
+     The view from Fort Putnam, above the Post, I cannot describe, so
+     beautiful is it. The narrow Hudson, with its many turns, is indeed
+     similar to a brand-new silver ribbon, while a sail-boat seen from
+     this height can hardly be distinguished. It would look like a
+     sea-gull seeking for food, and going at a speed which could only be
+     determined by taking sight from some fixed object.
+
+  HANS W. GERHARD.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: STAMPS]
+
+     This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp and coin
+     collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question
+     on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondents should address
+     Editor Stamp Department.
+
+
+The London Philatelic Society and the stamp-dealers of London have
+appointed a joint committee to arrange for a postage-stamp exhibit in
+1897. It is proposed to hold it at the Crystal Palace, and if proper
+conditions can be arranged to insure the stamps and take care of them
+during the exhibition, probably stamps to the value of nearly $2,000,000
+will be shown.
+
+The Swiss collectors will hold an exhibition this summer in Geneva,
+which will doubtless be very attractive. One of the largest collections
+of Swiss stamps is now for sale in New York city. It contains everything
+in used and unused condition--locals, general issues, singly and in
+blocks and sheets, post-cards, envelopes, money-order blanks, etc. The
+price asked is $6000, which is probably less than could be obtained if
+the collection were broken up and the stamps, etc., sold separately.
+
+Holland holds a stamp exhibit at The Hague from July 17 to July 22,
+inclusive.
+
+An elderly lady in British Guiana gave her rector an envelope addressed
+to "Miss Rose, Blankenberg," as an Easter offering. On the envelope was
+an unsevered pair of the extremely rare 1851 2c. rose British Guiana
+stamp. The envelope is probably worth $3000. A copy of this stamp,
+trimmed round, was sold in New York by auction, from the De Coppet
+collection, for $1050 several years ago.
+
+The A.P.A. (American Philatelic Association) holds its annual meeting
+this year in the middle of August at Lake Minnetonka, a beautiful summer
+resort. The successor to President Tiffany will be elected, and
+preliminary canvassing for votes is now in active operation. Boston
+wants the 1897 convention.
+
+Venezuela is out with another series of unnecessary stamps to
+commemorate "The Apotheosis of General Francisco de Miranda." Five
+varieties--5, 10, 25, 50, 100. It is a very good set to let alone.
+
+     J. C. LUNT, 109 Liberty Street, San Francisco, wishes to exchange
+     stamps with Mexican collectors.
+
+     C. L. PATTISON.--Columbian stamps, 1-30, inclusive, are worth 50c.
+     per set, used. The Hawaiian Provisionals are worth $2.50 for the
+     2c. vermilion, 35c. for the 2c. brown, 8c. for the 2c. rose or
+     violet.
+
+     ROSS BAKER.--Common coins have no selling value beyond their face
+     if U.S. coins, or at bullion value if foreign.
+
+     E. L.--U.S. cents for 1806 worth 35c., 1826 and 1842 worth 5c.,
+     1834 worth 10c. Half-cent 1806 worth 15c. These are the prices
+     dealers ask. What they pay I do not know.
+
+     A. HOBBS.--In making a rubbing of a coin use thin transparent paper
+     of a firm texture, and a hard lead-pencil. A soft pencil gives poor
+     results.
+
+     J. SMYTHE.--Your Afghanistan stamp is all right. Practically all
+     Afghanistan _used_ stamps are badly damaged, for the reason that
+     they cancel stamps by tearing off at least one corner. Sometimes
+     more than half of the stamp is gone, and a part of the letter also.
+
+  PHILATUS.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: IVORY SOAP]
+
+  A fine complexion is too rare
+    To run the risk of losing;
+  But everyone who takes good care
+    (All other kinds refusing)
+  To get pure Ivory, grows more fair
+    With every day of using.
+
+Copyright, 1896, by The Procter & Gamble Co., Cin'ti.
+
+
+
+
+Secure
+
+Reliable
+
+Strong
+
+_easy to hook; easy to unhook; if you do the hooking and unhooking.
+Can't let go itself. The DeLong Hook and Eye._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+See that
+
+hump?
+
+Richardson & DeLong Bros., Philadelphia.
+
+Also makers of the
+
+CUPID Hairpin.
+
+
+
+
+_Don't take substitutes to save a few pennies. It won't pay you. Always
+insist on HIRES Rootbeer._
+
+Made only by The Charles E. Hires Co., Philadelphia.
+
+A 25c. package makes 5 gallons. Sold everywhere.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Reader: Have you seen the
+
+[Illustration: Franklin]
+
+It is a Collection which no one who loves music should fail to own; it
+should find a place in every home. Never before, it may truthfully be
+said, has a song book been published at once so cheap, so good, and so
+complete.--_Colorado Springs Gazette._
+
+[Illustration: Square]
+
+This Song Collection is one of the most notable enterprises of the kind
+attempted by any publisher. The brief sketches and histories of the
+leading productions in the work add greatly to the value of the
+series.--_Troy Times._
+
+[Illustration: Collection?]
+
+Sold Everywhere. Price, 50 cents; Cloth, $1.00. Full contents, with
+Specimen Pages mailed, without cost, on application to
+
+Harper & Brothers, New York.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THOMPSON'S EYE WATER]
+
+
+
+
+By CAPTAIN KING
+
+=CADET DAYS.= Illustrated. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.25.
+
+=CAMPAIGNING WITH CROOK, AND STORIES OF ARMY LIFE.= Illustrated. Post 8vo,
+Cloth, $1.25.
+
+=A WAR-TIME WOOING.= Illustrated by R. F. ZOGBAUM. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1.00.
+
+=BETWEEN THE LINES.= A Story of the War. Illustrated by GILBERT GAUL. Post
+8vo, Cloth, $1.25.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers, New York.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HOW FROGGY LOST THE RACE BY A FOWL.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PAPA. "So, Bobby, you're the president of your bicycle club. That's very
+nice. How did they happen to choose you?"
+
+BOBBY. "Well, you see, papa, I'm the only boy that's got a bicycle."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A COSTLY THRONE.
+
+At the time of the coronation of the Czar of Russia much was printed in
+the newspapers about the costly crown jewels and the magnificent
+imperial throne, but for all its magnificence and richness this
+nineteenth-century throne was nothing when compared to that of the Mogul
+Emperors of Delhi. This Indian throne was built in the reign of the Shah
+Jehan by a Frenchman who had been forced to seek an asylum in the Mogul
+empire. It was called the Peacock Throne, to distinguish it from other
+royal chairs, and because it was decorated with the figures of two huge
+peacocks. The throne was six feet long by four feet wide, and stood on
+six massive legs, which were of solid gold inlaid with rubies, emeralds,
+diamonds, and all kinds of precious stones. The tails of the peacocks
+were expanded fanlike behind the throne, and they too were inlaid with
+pearls, emeralds, and other gems of suitable coloring. The whole was
+surmounted by a canopy of gold supported by twelve pillars likewise
+studded with diamonds and precious gems, the border of the canopy being
+made of a fringe of beautiful pearls. Between the two peacocks perched a
+life-size parrot, which was carved out of a single emerald. The royal
+umbrellas, which are appendages to most Oriental thrones, were made of
+the finest silks, and were fringed with pearls, the handles being of
+solid gold studded with diamonds. It has been said by many writers that
+the famous Koh-i-noor diamond was originally set in this Peacock Throne.
+This story is very possibly true, inasmuch as the Koh-i-noor was at one
+time owned by the Shah Jehan. This throne has been valued at
+$30,000,000, and this figure is doubtless not exaggerated, for the Mogul
+Emperors were wonderfully rich monarchs. When the Persians sacked Delhi
+in 1739, they destroyed the Peacock Throne, and carried off its jewels.
+A simple block of white marble now stands in the private audience hall
+in the palace of the Mogul Emperors at Delhi to show where this gorgeous
+chair once stood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TALKING TO THEM.
+
+There is a fish-dealer in New York who has a large number of rich
+customers. Once or twice a week his store can be found full of ladies
+who are doing their own marketing. The dealer is all smiles to his
+customers on such days, and very anxious to keep their good-will and
+trade. For some time an Irishman had been coming in the place, and after
+going from stand to stand, and peering long and closely at the fish, he
+usually wound up by purchasing some cheap specimen of the finny tribe,
+and departing. This was annoying to the dealer when his place was full
+of customers, and so one morning when the Irishman entered and began
+going from one stand to another as usual, he called out:
+
+"Look here, my good man, what are you always smelling my fish for?"
+
+The question was heard by every one, and they all listened for the
+answer.
+
+"Faith, oim not smellin' thim; it's talkin' to thim oi am."
+
+"Talking, did you say?"
+
+"Yis; sure oim askin' thim the news from the sea."
+
+"Well," said the dealer, impatiently, "what did they say?"
+
+"Sure, they didn't know, yer honor; they telt me they hadn't been there
+fer over a month."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well," said mamma, as she bathed Johnnie's blackened eye with Pond's
+Extract, "what were you and Tommy fighting about?"
+
+"We weren't fighting," exclaimed Johnnie, indignantly; "we were only
+arguing."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following sentence is a kind of literary curiosity: "Sator arepo
+tenet opera rotas." It is curious, because it spells the same words
+backwards as forwards; the first letter of each word, placed
+consecutively, spells the first word; the second letter of each word
+spells the second word, and so on to the end; the last letters read
+backwards spell the last word; the next to the last letters, the next to
+the last word, and so on throughout; and there are just as many letters
+in each word as there are words in the sentence.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Round Table, July 7, 1896, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58453 ***