New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-09-08
mothers i'll and father dead, and
my young brother and want to pet
out into the field and try to find some

mo- her's i'll and father's dead, and
my young brother and I want to get
out into the field and try to find some
potatoes. i
He was actually crying. stenne,
ashamed Of himself hung his head.
The sentinel looked at them mo-
ment, then down the solitary, white
road.
pass, then, quickly he said,
standing aside, and they found them
selves on the road to Aubervilliers
How the big fellow laughed!
Indistinctlv, as in a dream, young
Stenne noticed the factories that now
were used as barracks and garnished
with wet rags, and the high chimneys
that pierced the fog and threw up
their empty, broken walls towards
the clouds. Here and there sentinel;
hooded officers scanning the ho-
rizon through their glass; little
tents soaked with thawing snow
before which the camp fires were dying.
The big fellow knew the roads well,
and where to cut across the fields to
avoid the pickets; still, notwithstand-
ing these precautions, they fell upon
an outpost OF sharpshooters. wrapped
in their short cloaks and huddled up
in a ditch half full OF water, that runs
along the railroad track OF scissors.
Here the big fellow repeated his tale
in vain; they would not allow him to
pass. While he stood there complain
ing, an old sergeant stepped out Of
the crossing keepers house; his hair
was white, and with his wrinkles look
ed somewhat like Father Stenne.
"Come, come, boys, don't stand
there crying" he said to the children;
"they'll let you pass through after
your potatoes; but just come in here
and get warm. That youngster looks
frozen"
Alas! Young Stenne was trembling
all over, not with cold, but with
shame and fear. Inside they found q
few soldiers crouched around dying
fire-a real widows fire, as they were
trying to thaw some biscuits on the
point end OF their bayonets. They
moved up close to make room for the
children, and gave them little coffee
and a drop Of brandy. While they
were drinking an officer called out to
the sergeant from the door, said a few
words to him and hurried off.
The sergeant returned in high glee.
"Boys!" he said, 'tgrog all round to-
night; we have got the password Of the
Prussians, and this time l think we'll
take that id Bourget away from
them"
There was burst OF applause, and
the men began to dance and to sing,
while some OF them polished up their
bayouets. Taking advantage of this
confusion, the children escaped.
Beyond the trench they struck the
plain, the end of which doomed up a
long white wall, broken by loopholes.
They made straight for the wall,
stopping at every step to look, as
though they were picking uppotatoes.
"Let us. go home-don't let us go
on" young Stenne kept saying. The
other merely shrugged his shoulders
and kept on advancing. Suddenly
they heard the clicking OF gun being
cooked.
ellie down. cried the elder, throw.
ing himself on the ground.
AS he lay there he whistled-anl
another whistle answered over the
snow. They advanced, slowly creep
Ing on all tours. On a level with the
ground, and just before the wall, a
yellow moustache appeared under a
greasy cap. The big boy jumped into
the ditch by the side of the Prussian.
''That is my brother" he said,
pointing to his companion.
The boy Stenne was so small that
the Prussian began to laugh as he
looked at him, and seized him in his
arms to lift him up to the break in
the wall, on the other side OF which
rose heavy earthen entertainments,
cut tree trunks, and black holes in
the snow, in each OF which you just
saw the same greasy cap and the
same yellow mustache that laughed
as the boys passed.
In one corner stood the gardeners
house with tree trunks for classmates.
The lower floor was full of soldiers
playing cards, while some were cook
ing q stew over a large fire. 1t smelt
SO good OF cabbage and lard; what
difference between that and the sharp
shooters camp! Upstairs the officers
were playing the piano and uncorking
champagne, and gave joyful cheer
as the boys entered. They gave their
papers and the men began to give them
wine to make them talk. Most Of the
officers looked like proud, fierce men,
but the big fellows slang and his cad
dish, monkeyish manners seemed to
amuse them vastly. They laughingly
the words after him, taking
a curious delight in wallowing in the
mud which he brought them from
Paris.
Young Stenne would have liked to
say something, too, SO to show them
that hewas no fool either; but some
thing embarrassed him. A little to
one side, and facing him, sat Prus-
sian older than the rest, and more
serious-looking. He was reading, or
pretending to read, for he never took
his eyes off the boy, and there was
something OF reproach in his look, as
though he was thinking ofhis own son,