The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-01-12

/ neck, anu NOUS III OUT III his HdHu-- uSt
so-and says:
"Well, gentlemen, you say I'm the
coolest man in the regiment, but perhaps
everybody wouldn't agree with you.
Now, just to show that | want nothing
but fair play, if ever meet my match
in that way, I'll give him this cross of
minep
Now, among the officers who stood
around him was young fellow who had
lately joined-a quiet, modest lad, quite
boy to look at, with light curly hair,
and face as smooth as any lady's.
But when he heard what the colonel
said, he looked up suddenly, and there
came flash from his clear blue eyes
like the sun striking bayonet. And
then | thought to myself:
"'It won't be an easy thing to match
Pavel pctrovitch; but if it can be done,
here's the man to do itp
think that campaign was the hard
est ever served. Before | was enlisted,
had often heard it said that the Turks
had no winter; but / had always thought
that this was only yarn though, in
deed, it would be only just judgment
upon the unbeievers to lose the finest
part of the whole year. But when /
went down there | found it true, sure
enough. Instead of a good, honest,
cracking frost to freshen everything up,
as our proverb says,
"'Na zimni kholod
Vsiaki molod-
lin winters cold every one is young, it
was all chill, sneaking rain, wetting us
through and through, and making the
hill-sides so slippery that we could hardly
climb them, and turning all the lower
grounds into a regular lake of mud,
through which it was terrible job to
drag our cannon. Many tina in after
days, when I've heard spruce young
cadets at home, who had never smelt
powder in their lives, talking big about
glorious war and all that, I've said to
myself, AHA, my fine fellows if you had
been where 1 have, marching for days
and days over ankles in mud, with
nothing to eat but stale black bread, SO
hard that you had to soak it before you
could get it down; and if you'd had to
drink water through which hundreds of
horses had just been trampling; and to
scramble up and down steep hills under
a roasting sun, with your feet so swollen
and sore that every step was like knife
going into you; and to lie all night in
the rain, longing for the sun to rise that
you might dry yourself bit,-perhaps
then you wouldn't talk quite so loud
about GLORIOUS wa" Pr
However, we drove the Turks across
the Balkans at last, and got down to
Yamboli, little town at the foot of the
mountains, which commands the high
road to Adrianople. And there the I'M
believers made stand, and fought right
well. | 1cU say that Tor 'em; for they
knew that if Adrianople were lost, all
was over. But God fought for us, and
we beat them; though, indeed, with
half our men sick, and our clothes ell
in rags, and our arms rusted, and our
powder mixed with sand by those rogues
of army-contractors, it was wonder that
we could fight at all.
Toward afternoon, just as the enemy
were beginning to give away, | saw Pa
vel Petrovitch) who was a general by
this time) looking very hard at mortar
battery about hundred yards to our
right; and all at once he struck his knee
fiercely with his hand, and shouted
"'What do the fellows mean by firing
like that? They might as we'll pelt the
Turks with potatoesl I'll soon settle
| them! Here, Vanya 0van)p
Away he went, / after him; and he
burst into the battery like storm, and
roared out:
"Where's the blockhead who COM
mands this battery?'
"a young officer stepped forward and
saluted and who should this be but the
light-haired lad with the blue eyes,
whom | had noticed that night at Varna.
Well, you won't command it to-
morrow, my fine fellow, fer I'll have you
turned out this very day. Do you know
that not single shell that you've thrown
since I've been watching you has ex-
ploded at alle'
"'With your excellency's leave said
the young fellow, respectfully, but pretty
firmly too, the fault is none of mine
These fuses are ill-mado, and will not
burn down to the powder
Fusesp roared the general. Don't
talk to me of fuses; I'm too old for that
rubbish Isn't it enough for you to
bungle your work, but you must tell me
lie into the bargainT
cat the word lie,' the young officer S
face seemed to turn red-hot all in a
moment, and / saw his hand clench as if
he would drive his fingers through the
flesh. He made one stride to the heap
of bomb-shells, and, taking one up in his
arms, struck match on it.
." Now, said he, quietly, your excel
lency can judge for yourself. I'm going
to light this fuse; if your excellency
will please stand by and watch it burn,
you will see whether | have "lied" or
not
1.-The general started, as we'll he might.
Not that he was afraid-you may be
pretty sure of that; but to hear this
quiet, bashful lad, who looked as if he
had nothing in him, coolly propose to
hold lighted she'll in his arms to see
if it would go off, and ask him to stand
by and watch iC, was enough to startle
anybody. However, he wasn't one to
think twice about accepting challenge
so he folded his arms and stood there like
a statue. The young officer lighted the
| fuse, and it began to burn.
Gas for me and the other men, you
may fancy what ace felt like. OF course,
we couldn't run while our officers were
standing their ground; but we knew
that if the shell did go off, it would blow
every man of us to bits, and it wasn't
pleasant to have to stand still and wait
for it. | saw the men set their teeth
hard as the fame caught the fuse; and,
as for me, / wished with all my heart
hot =