Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-11-09

fiinching.
| Never had she looked handsomer than
| i'll these days of fever and commotiOn.
Sometimes she twisted a scarlet hand
| kerchief round her raven hair, and
! danced and Sparkled under the Phry-
gian cap of Liberty. Her neat black
gown fitted he'd swelte figure to per-
lection. Her energy, her yivacity, her
| industry We're inexhaustible Her
hands were rs the hands of Briareus
for serving the patriots with their
coffee, their rolls and butter Her gay
| voice sounded above the other voices
in the melee of wit and patriotism.
She sang as she went to and fro among
the little tables, waiting upon her pa
irons: and her song was always the
newest ballad with which the ballad
mongers were undermining the govern
ment the ''Lillbullero" of the hour
"Jes sails lie plan de Trochu.
Plan, plan, plan, plan, planr'
Sometimes, in Il moment Of eXalta-
ton, her customers would call for a
Stave of the ''Marseillaise" or the Ca
ica,' and then the clink of cups and
Saucers and knives and forks upon the
tables was like the clash of swords.
But, tempting as these morning as
Semblies of the patriotic and the idle
might be to man of Gaston's tenn
permanent, he never crossed the thresh-
old Of SuzOn Michel's shop. He passed
her door twice a day, or Oftener. on
his way to and from the newspaper
office; he heard TIL: chorus of voices
inside, but he never entered the shop.
He had feeling that loyalty to Kath-
leen forbade him to hold commune
with Suzon And what need had he
to take his cup of coffee from a shop
keepers hand when the faithful wife
was waiting for him in her bower on
the third story, watching the little
brass coffee-pOt simmering upon a hand
full of charcoal? One could not be too
Sparing Of fire in these days, though
one were ever so sure that the PruS-
slams must retire from the enemy's soil
before winter began in real earnest.
The elements would fight upon the side
Of the beSieged. That vast army. shiy-
ering yOnder under canvas, must beat
Il retreat at dOuble-QUick time before
Jack Frost.
1t was on one of the clear gray after
moons Of October that Castor stood
resting upon his gun, at his post on
the rampant Of the fort, gazing with
dreamy eyes upon a landscape of pO-
etc beauty, the deep rich colOring of
autumn subdued into perfect harmony
by the tender miStS which shadoWed
without concealing wood and river,
vineyard and field, while far off in the
dimnesS Of the horizon his fancy con-
jured up the dark swarm of Prussian
helmets, blackening the edge of the
landscape. The atmosphere was full
of peace, and the silence of this lonely
outpost was broken only by the qui
vive of the sentries and the chime
of distant churchclockffis. A good place
for Il poet to brood upon the crea tions
of his fancy, or for Il journalist to hatch
a leading article.
While CASTOR stood at ease, with his
eyes wandering far afield towards the
distant foe, and his fancies straying
still further in day-dream of uni
versal peace, liberty, art for arts sake,
and all the impossibilities of the so
cialists Utopia, sound of Strident
laughter of deep bass voices and nasal
trebles, broke like volley of mus
kerry through the stiffness of the soft
gray atmosphere, and presently half a
dozen kepis, or National Guard, consid-
erably the worse for lie petit bleu, came
staggering along the rampant, escort
ing a young woman whose scarlet head
gear shOne in the distance like a spot
of flame.
1t was Madame Michel with the
little red kerchief twisted coquettishly
round her sleek black hair. She wore
| tight cloth jacket, frogged a Ia Mill
taire, over her black gown, the skirt
of which was short enough to show
an arched instep and a neat ankle.
She had put on haf-virile, half
sOldierly air, in honor of the times;
and her walk, her look, her manner.
were already prophetic of the coming
petroleuse.
She came along the rampant with
/ ueI I)dlEIOlS, WHO were pOlHllIS OuI
the merits and faults of the fortified
tons. explaining, showing her this and
that, staggering. Dragging, abusing
! Bismarck and his Pandours, singing
snatches of patriotic verse. She was
close to Castor before she recognized
him.
Then their eyes met, suddenly, his
returning from the far distance, hers
staring intently. Recognition came in
a flash, and the rich carnatiOn of her
cheek faded to an almost deadly pallor.
What, is it you, Citoyen Mortemar
so far from the Rue Git lie Occur
What. are you too in the National
Guard? I thought 50 devoted a bus
band would have found an excuse from
service. I Thought you would be ly'
ing at the feet of your English-Irish
wife all day, like Paul and Virginia
in their far-off island"
"The nation cannot spare even low
ers,' answered CASTOR lightly. ''Hectol
had t. leave AnGromache; and my
Andromache would deapise a husband
who did less than his duty. SO fal
our duties have been light enough, and
give no ground for boasting."
But let them come on, those Uhlans
those gredinS, those" here came {
string of double-barrelled substantive
adjectives and adjective substantives
too familiar afterwards in LIE Per'
, Duchene-'let them conner growlet
, the wine-soaked patriot, 'and we vii