The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-07-23

L. V6GSNAA<
LRhkEBEN on them too severity.
M'&S8XHDm The safest plan is
M11,YBEKxN never to tread ON a
worm-not even to the last new sub
altern from home, with his buttons
hardly out of tissue paper, and the
red of sappy English beef in his cheeks.
This is the story of the worm that
turned. For the sake of brevity we
will call Henry Augustus Ramsay Faiz-
ann "The Worm," although he was
an exceedingly pretty boy, without a
hair on his face and with a waist like
a girls, when he came out to the Sc
cond "Shikarris" and was made I'M
unhappy in several ways. The "Shi-
HARRIS are a h~igh-caste regiment, and
YOU must be able to do things we'll
play a banjo, or ridemore than little,
or sing, or act-to get on with them.
The Worm did nothing except fall
off his pony and knock chips out of
the gate posts with his trap. Even
that becamemonotonou after atime.
He objected to whist, cut the cloth at
billiards, sang out Of tune, kept very
much to himself, and wrote to his
hltuiilIilcu bllu SlSUcIS dU llOIllG. Z our
OF these five things were vices which
the ''Shikarris" objected to and set
themselves to. eradicate. Every one
knows how subalterns are by brother
subalterns softened andnot permitted
to be ferocious. 1t is good and whole
some and does no one any harm un-
less tempers are lost, and then there
is trouble. There was a man once
but that is another story.
The 'Shikarris" shikarred The
Worm very much, and he bore every
thing without winking. He was so
good and so anxious to learn, and
flushed SO pink, that his education
was cut short, and he was left to his
own devices by every one except the
senior subaltern, who continued to
make life a burden to The Worm.
The senior subaltern meant no harm,
but his chaff was coarse, and he didn't
quite understand where to stop. He
had been waiting too long for his COM
.pany, and that. always sours a man.
Also, he was in.love, which made him
worse.
One day, after he had borrowed
The Worms trap for a lady who
never existed, had used it himself
all the afternoon, had sent a. note
to The Worm, purporting to
come from the lady, and vas telling
the mess all about it. The Worm
rose in his place and said, in his quite,
.lady-like voice: .'"That was a very
pretty sell; but I'll lay you a months
pay when you get your step that 1
work a sell ON you that you'llremem-
Der tor the rest ofyour days, and the
regiment after you when you're dead
or broke" The Worm wasn't angry
in'the least, and the rest of the mess
shouted. Then the senior subaltern
looked at The Worm from the boots
upward and down again, and said,
"Done, Baby" The Worm took the
rest OF the mess to witness hat the
bet had been taken, and retired into
a'book with q sweet smile.
Two months passed and the senior
~subaltern still educated The Worm,
who began to move about q little
more as the hot weather came ,on. I
have said that the senior subaltern
Was In love. The curious thing is,
THAT a girl was in love with the senior
subaltern. Though the colonel said
awful things, and the majors snorted,
and married captains lookedunutter-
able wisdom, and the juniors scoffed,
th0se two were engaged.
Th@ senior subaltern Was 80 pleased
with getting his company and his
acceptance at tbe same time that he
forgot to bother The Worm. Tie girl
was "a pretty girl and had money OF
her own. She does not oomeinto this
STORY at all.
One night at the beginningof thehot
weather all the mess except The Worm,
who had gone to his own room to
write home letters, were sitting on the
platform outside the house.
The band had finished playing but mo
one wanted to go in. Andtheeaptains'
wives were there also. The folly
of a man in love is unlimited. The
senior subaltern had been holding
forth OF the merits of the girl he was
engaged to and the ladies were
purring approval, while the mem
e yawned, when there was a rustic OF
skirts in the dark and a tired, faint
voice lifted itself:
where's my husband?"
1 do not wish in the least to reflect
on the morality OF the "Shikarris,"
but it is on record that four men
Jumped up as if they had been shot.
Three OF them were married men.
Perhaps they were afraid that their
wives had come from home unbe-
knownst. Thefourth said that he had
acted on the impulse of the moment.
He explained this afterward.
The voice cried"Oh. Lionel!" Lionel
was the senior subaltern's name. A
woman came into the little circle of
light by the candles on the peg tables,
stretching out her hands to the dark
where the senior subaltern was, and
sobbing. We rose to our feet feeling
that things were going to happen, and
ready 70 believe the worst. In this
bad, small world Of ours one knows
80 little OF the Life OF the next man,