The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1894-10-06

when ne lcdTueU HOW LII StCIcbs t4S
rough fellow had been so long his benz
efactor, but he forbade all such traffic
in future, and Lot and Billy howled for
oranges and raisins in vain. Christ
mas found their little stockings filed
Many an army mother, planning for
her own brood, had remembered the
motherless in the humble quarters
down the row. But no one could tell
whose hand had sent the rocking horse
and the big wax doll that were found
by Penner at the door when he opened
the house on Christmas morning. Sus-
picion attached to several heads, in
GLIDING Tintop's. whose head, by the
way, had been cracked by shell dur
ing the war, and portion of whose
skull, so rumor had it, had been re-
placed by silver plate, which led to
his wearing nickname and a wig.
But one and all the accused established
what Mrs. Whaling once pronounced
an aIbi, because they had sent some
thing else Then they thought OF
Trooper Schramm, now a ine-looking
dragon, consummately at home in his
business; but Schramm hadn't been
near the house for two weeks. A pay
masters escort was needed to convoy
that official to distant winter canton
ments, and Schramm had promptly
asked to be allowed to go. This time
he didn't say INIT dem fellers" as he
had in the field the autumn before,
neither did he add ''once'' or ''alretty."
Schramm was studying book English"
said the first sergeant. The paymaster
got home to his Christmas all right--he
needed no escort when his money was
gone-but Schramm and his squad
trotted in two days later, after the tur~
key and cranberry sauce were all de-
voured, so Schramm could have had
nothing whatever to do with the gifts
sent out from town. So long as they
had them, Lot and Billy didn't care
who was the donor. They believed all
the more in Santa Claus. 1t was Con-
ME who thought and wondered: it was
Connie, alas! who hoped and dreamed.
Among the daily visitors to the house
Perry Thornton, second lieutenant Of
Mannings troop, had been prominent
all winter, and there wasn't a hand
somer, blither boy in all the regiment
when he ic;ned. He was barely twenty
two, with face al act womanly fair,
and a form =, ,sle1'-- " and graceful as
boys could be: E:e rode and danced
and sang we'll. He didn't drink; he
wouldn't gamble. He was a soldiers
son, an enthusiastic youngster who had
seen some years of schooling and travel
in Europe, and who had much to tell
of soldiers who had won the V. c. or
the Iron Cross. "Now in Europe" said
he, s'the officer is held as hero who,
at the risk of his life, bore off a wound
ed comrade to whom it meant death if
abandoned" The cross for valor,
pinned on his breast by royal hands,
was the last reward to which lie could
look. Joining the regiment just at the
end of the autumn work, and reading
of the narrow escape of Lieut., Morgan
on the way, Thornton's first longing
was TO make the acquaintance OF the
gallant subaltern who had so bravely
stood by the humble recruit and got
his wound in saving him. Down went
his ideal to dust when grizzled, care
worn, sad-faced veteran was borne
from the ambulance into the holnely
quarters: and somebody said: '"The
old mans about petered" Thornton
could not understand it. "In England
or in Germany officers and men would
have been lining the way and stand
ing at salute said ne, ''for a fellow
who did what Mr.. Morgan did,
ooh, up there when he went deer
hunting, DO you mean? Oh, yes, re-
Misunderstanding Schramm out when
he got hit. Ye-es that was all right, .
said one of the young gentlemen OF the
regiment, and in SO saying conveyed
the idea to the newcomer that there
was nothing in that sort Of thing to
excite remark. 1t was the rule, not
the exception, in the American cavalry.
''We'd all do just as much"-as, indeed,
very probably they would. But Thorn
ton determined he would cultivate
Morgan, decorated or not, and SO it had
happened that it was the ''plebe," the
newest conner to the regiment, who
spent an hour almost every afternoon
before stables playing checkers with
tuC lAVd1Ao VCCC1 OH, A0ACAy AScA>AAS
silent, busy Connie, who came and
went, or sat beside them with her
needlework, darning the youngsters
stockings or sewing on buttons by the
dozen, yet saying never word. Perry
had no end of interest in his new pro-
fession, but none whatever in children.
1t was the proper thing for him to be
devoted to the senior subaltern, who,
in other armies, perhaps, would have
won such distinction, and he wrote
with both pride and complacency to
his friends at home of his daily inter
course with a fellow who did what
Beresford was v. cd for at ulundi.
"But nobody out here seems to think
it worth mentioning" he added. lie
was immensely proud of being second
lieutenant in a troop whose cap
tain had won three brevets with
the regulars and whose first
lieutenant had done as much with
the volunteers, both in the great civil