Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-09-04

read with nm Tor Two hours daily, ana
was well pleased when the boy remem.
bered just enough to give his CONVEX
sation peculiarly brilliant turn. He
argued great things from this when
Alexander should go to school. But
when he went to school, Osborne saw
the truth.
''Alex, the account Of You is very
bad. You've barely scratched through
on two things, and you've failed on
math :matics altogether. I've told you
that mathematics is the test at the
Point" Osborne admonished.
"Oh! come, say; let up, Herbert.
I'm trying to learn this piece" He
picked ON with beautiful absorption at
the guitar the lieutenant had given
him.
"Put up that thing and listen to
me-"
Alexander obeyed. as all men did
when Osborne willed.
81 am going to get you into West
Point at twenty. When I say 1 am
going to do it, you know it is going to
be done. Don't you? None fit depends
ON you except the study. I can't make
you drink, but I'll take you to water
and keep you there until you find it
will be easier to drink. You can go
back to the ranch if you like, but I'm
not afraid you'll like. I don't want to
treat you as a small boy unless you act
the part OF one. You can learn, and you
must learn, or the theatres will stop,
and the hops will stop, and the guitar
will stop-also the tennis. You have
been cutting time, but hence
forth you will study four hours day
and will sit with you to help you and
see that it is done"
So four hours out of every twenty
four Osborne put to the use of teach
ing one who did not wish to learn.
Density can be bored through with
patience. 1t is the india-rubber of
Indifferent cleverness that resists.
After some of the struggles Osborne
would lie awake for the rest of the
night from sheer nervousness. The
boy slept with unrufled brain. The
lieutenant almost came to forget the
girl. But never quite. A letter
would come when Alexander was most
inert, and Osborne would stare straight
in front of him and grit his teeth, and
wonder that q man could live with
both sides of his nature thwarted and
cut back.
But he had his reward. Alexander
went into the Academy at twenty. He
was the handsomest and most popular
cadet in his class-and he failed in the
first year.
Just how such things are done no
one is ever quite sure; but in Os-
borne's case it must have been sheer
force of determination. Alexander
was reappointed, and he himself was
made instructor at the Point.
He stood over the cadet with the
singing lash of his ambition; and
Alexander was graduated fifteen. Os-
borne unwisely took some credit to
himself.
"Nonsense," said Alexander, "I'd
have done it alone. The first miss
was only bad luck; don't think it's
your circus"
cit doesn't make any great differ
ence whose circus it is, so that yon
come out oil right. I'm only glad
you're getting some ambition"
"Ambition be hanged! It's the one
word in your lexicon. I'm sick of the
sound of it. 1t is the sin by which
the angels fell. Look out you don't
fall, angel brother"
"I'm not likely to fall, but shouldn't
mind it, if it put you on mountain
height"
'No heights for me. can't breathe
rare air." answered the younger.
Now, in the course of army events
it came to pass that a strange fate
made Alexander Osborne second lieu.
tenant in the troop of which his broth
er was first lieutenant. And the first
lieutenant continued his ambitious
goading. Alexander was independent
at present, and resisted to some pur'
pose. He would not spend his nights
in study and his days in wire-pulling
The War Department did not reward
that sort of thing, he said; it was &C
tion it approved. Wait until his time
of action came-then he would satisfy
his brother.
And the time for action did come
But the action was disappointing
They marched 200 miles, and ther
marched back again. Alexander com
planned loudly that he had had no oc
casion to display his prowess in battle
He should have been quite safe il
this, for that evening they would be onc'
more in Grant. But the Indian hos
is not to be reckoned with. At sunse
within ten miles of the post-th'
Apaches caught the battalion in raw
inc, and kept it there until we'll int
the night.
The moon came up and showed t.
the bucks hiding behind the cedar
and scrub oaks on the rise, the sol
diers penned in the gully below them
1t was merely, for the latter, ques
/ ton OF holding out and having q few
, men killed. The danger was not grea
unless the Apaches should be rein
, forced or the couriers should not reacl
the fort. So the men took shelter be
hind bushes and rocks, and fired q
the flashes of light in the darkness
above them. The officers walked abou
in the deep shadows, firing, too, ant
giving orders. -,
First Lieutenant Osborne was will
: his sergeant and another lieutenan
y when he came upon Second Lieutenan
, Osborne crouched down between tw'
rocks, his arms clasped over his ben
: head and his carbine dropped on tn
9 ground beside him.
There was no mistake to be made
+. The other lieutenant hesitated, tn
1 sergeant drew back. But Osborn
went up and touched his brother wit
Q his foot.
Lieutenant Osborne" he said t
P the Junior, ego and report to the oi
I ficer in command, Captain Clarke.
t shall have preceded you and have re
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