News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-11-08
WINGED WARRIORS.
How a Saxon Village was Saved by a
Little Girls Device.

The quiet little village of Holzmengen
in Pennsylvania, was all in an uprual
one bright summer afternoon long ago
for its Saxon inhabitants were fighting
Tor their lives against terrible odds, as
they had fought many a time before
The whole slope of the hill on tho brow
of which 1t stood was one CT, at crowd oI
wlld-lOoking men, with dark, fierce fuces,
and white turbans and strangely fash
Toned armOr-those dreaded Turkish
soldiers the memory of whose tierceness
is still preserved in our saying that any
man OF savage temper is "a regular
Turk"
And all this time, while the air was
rent with the din of battle, and Death
was gaping to devour the village and all
within it, a little girl barely ten years
old, with long fair hair and eyes as blue
and bright as the sky overhead, was at
work In her little garden just behind the
village church as quietly as if no enemy
We're within hundred miles of her.
But this was not so strange as it look
ed. Little Lizzie was the daughter of
the sexton who had charge of the church,
which, as the largest and safest build
ing IN the place, was always used as a
hospital in time of war; and the work
upon which the little woman was so busy
was the preparing of bandages for the
wounded, who were now being brought
in thick and fast.
But in the midst of oil this uproar
and agony and death the sun shone as
bright as ever, and the trees of the tiny
garden rustled in the evening breeze,
and around the twelve neat hives that
stood, ranged in a row, the lees were
humming blithely as they hovered
among the flowers; and any one who had
shut his ears to the frightful din below
might have thought this spot the most
peaceful in the whole world.
And now Lizzie, catching up whole
armful of bandages, hurried into the
church, where she was soon so busy
among the wounded men that she hard
ly noticed that the noise of the battle
was growing louder. seeming to roll
nearer and nearer every moment.
But suddenly fearful cry from with
out made her look up, and through tho
nearest window she saw the Germans
crowding wildly into the one small gate
of the churchyard wall, while behind
them the dark Turkish faces and snow
white turbans were eddying like a flood
taken the village, and were coming on
to attack the church itself
Luckily it could only be attacked ON
one side, for on the other the rock was
so steep and slippery that no man alive
could have scaled it. So the brave viii
lage bailiff, though bleeding from sew
eral wounds, ranged his men along the
side of the wall that faced the enemy.
and encouraged them to stand firm and
fight it out to the last.
On came the Turks with hoarse wells
of triumph, and in n moment the whole
space outside the churcbyard wall was
a sea of grim faces and flashing steel.
And now the swarnling assailants
made n third charge, which brought
them right up to The foot of the wall
that sheltered all VINO "cro left of the
defenders: and while sone thundered
upon the gate with axes. others planted
Iadders against the III or tried to
clsmber uD it on each q aer's Shoulders.
Another moment aud all would h~To
been over but Just then Lizzie, struck
with a bright idea (Which came TO her
from an old story that she had heard
one winter evening", darted back into
her little garden, seized two OF the beo-
hives, one in each hand, and springing
upon the low wall, hurled them among
the swarming assailants. Two more in
stantly followed, and then two others,
until the whole dozen hives had been
flung down upon the heads of the clam
boring Turks.
The bees, enraged to madness at
being sent whirling through the air so
fell like furies upon
the shaven heads and bare arms of the
Turkish soldiers, and gave them such q
pricking that the Saxon arrows which
had been falling so thick among them
seemed q mere nothing in comparison.
Every man in the front rank was litter
ally black with the infuriated insects,
which kept stinging the more fiercely
the more the bewildered Turks tried to
beat them off.
There was no more thought of battle
or assault; for who could WELD q sword
or climb wall with his head covered
with perfect nos bag af enraged bees,
and every exposed inch of his body
smarting as if pierced by thousand
red-hot needles Away flew the enemy,
and away flew the bees after them,
while the yells of pain OF the discounted
Turks were answered by the uproarious
laughter of the triumphant Saxons, who
might well laugh to see q whole Turkish
army put to flight by the device Of one
little girl.-Harpers Young People.