Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-03-12
"IH nerer do nothtnk rotN ven you "

AHele, IueT6, JUeT6! Sdlu DOOIl5S, pdI-
ting the boys brown head, that he might
check this sudden outburst of passionate
gratitude. 'Now go along with Terry, and
mind you do what he bids you. There, go
along"
1t occurred to both the officers at the same
moment that he was by no means an ILL
looking boy. True, he was understood
and meager, and his face was pinched and
white, the lips very tight and drawn. But,
though his face was tear stained and the blue
eyes red with weeping, he vas not dirty.
In fact, his nightly performances prevented
any possibility of that, and he had always
been considered one Of the b. st-looking boys
in the troupe.
Poor little chap!'' said BOTTLES, as the
door closed behind the groom and the boy.
Pm glad l happened to be passing just
then"
"vewry lucky for bm," murmured Lacy.
"His fortunes made"
BOTTLES laughed. ooh, nonsensei I've
no doubt he will turn out a very smart
groom; and, as 1 said just now, Terry has
been needing help badly for a long time"
He then told Lacy all the details Of the
scene he had witnessed-how Frisco had sent
the lad up the ladder twice, when i0 was evi-
IDENTIFY impossible he could perform the feat
how he had threatened to make him try it
without the netting spread for protection
below, and had even gone SO far as to begin
to undo the ropes which held it in place.
Finally, how he had knocked him down,
and then made him get up AMI take a regu-
lar sound hiding, just by way Of letting him
know what the cut Of that particular whip
was like.
"But I let the brute off too oasily,n Bottles
wound up, r%egretfully. II almost wish l
had Civ Il him a little more"
II don't suppose he does," laughed Lacy,
rising. "Well, l must lie off,"
1t was surprising how soon young Houp-
La, or Tom Snow, as he soon came to be
called, settled down into his new life. He
took to it as q young duck takes to water.
Within a week he was wearing the darling
ambition of his heart-that is, top boots and
q tall hat with a cockade-and had achieved
as smart q salute and ''yessir" as any groom
in the regiment. Bottles declared he was
the sharpes5- witte1 boy he had ever known,
at which, Of course, neither Bottles nor any
one els9 wondered when his training was
taken into consideration.
He was popular, too, with everybody,
high and low. He worked hard at his les
sons-he would do anything to please Terry
and he adored Bottles. All his masters
belongings were sacred in his eyes, and his
orders once given were as unalterable as tie
laws of the Medes and Persians. In Toms
eyes there was no officer in the regiment
the regimentl nay, in the whole OF the SER
vice-whom he would admit to be as strong
o. as clever, as handsome or as rich, as his
master; not one who could ride, or drive, or
shoot, OF do any mortal thing with the same
degree of excellence to which the cap'n at
tanned. Yes, he had very early dropped the
"~capting," and now clipped the word as
s. 1T as any soldier in the barracks. In
fact, in Toms eyes, Bottles, like the king,
could do no wrong.
The winter months wore away, and by
and by the Scarlet Lancers were moved
from Idleminster to Aldershot, when Tom
numbered among his experiences a different
kind of march to those which he had shared
with the travelling wagons of the circus, for
his master chose him to accompany Terry
with his second charger, partly because he
was an unusually light weight, and partly
because he wanted to keep him under his
own eye.
By that time Tom was thoroughly du fat
of all the ms and outs Of barrack life, had
learned to speak very much better than
when Ferrers had rescued him out Of Frisco's
cruel hands; could already read a page fairly
well, il the words were not too long, and
could write his own name legibly by dint of
sprawling his left leg well out and lolling
some two inches of his tongue out of the
mouth which was not nearly SO pinched and
tight as it had been afcretimc.
"Ahl he's oil very smart aud that Just
now" said Hartog one day to Bottles; shut
wait a few months until the change has had
time to work. He'll gst fat, and then where
will your nice smart lad boz Simply not
ioTth his sat"
But Tom never did get fat, not even plump.
He ate well and heartily, but though his lips
grew less tight and his blue eyes rather less
anxious and bright-less u~nnaturally bright,
1 should say-he never came to be anything
but a skinny slip of a lad, with a pinched,
pale face and a deadly sharp tongue, and he
did not seem to grow at all. No one was
sorry for that. Neither Bottles nor Terry
wished him any taller or heavier. The lad
himself boosted Of his small size and weight.
He had no further ambitions-he had, in
fact, reached the summit Of his hopes and
desires. Capt. Ferrers needed a lightweight
about his horses, and very often a SHARP
groom about himself. Tom supplied both
needs to q nicely. He had no desire to r
into a man, because he was perfectly happy
as Capt. Ferrers' boy. He had known rough
weather, and now that he had got into aport
which seemed only suited for small craft he
was not anxious to go into a t~hree-decker.
Thus more than two years passed away,
and many changes came about in the Scar.
let Laneers, such changes as do come about
in a regiment during so.long aspace of time
A very graceful poet sings t%ouchingly and
tenderly upon that theme;
All are scattered now, and fled;
Some are married, some are dead.
1t was true Of the Scarlet Lancers, as Of
the circle of lfe-and among the marrieC
ones was Bootlesl
But the tale of Bottles love and marriage
has been told already in the story Gale,
Boobies Baby 1t is enough to say hert
that he married the widow Of a brother-ofl
Ger, a lady, who had one little child, whom
for other reasons than for themother's sake
Bottles loved as his own flesh. But though
be married he did not leave the service; b
was in fact, too thoroughly and really a
heart a soldier to entertain that idea for
moment, and his wife, Mrs. Boobies as al
the Scarlet Lancers called her, was NOR