Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-09-09

'Oh. come, I say; let up. Herbert.
I'm trying 10 learn this piece" lie
picked on with beautiful absorption at
the guitar the lieutenant had given him.
Put up that thing and listen 70 ne"
Alexander obeyed. as all men did
when Osborne willed.
4 am going to get you into West
Point at 20. When l say am going to
do it, you know it is going TO be done.
Don't you? None OF il depends on you
except the study. can't make you
drink, but I'll take you to water and
keep you there until you find il will be
easier to drink. You can go back TO the
ranch If you like, but I'm not afraid
you1l like. don't want TO treat Won
as small boy unless you act the part
of one. You can learn, and you must
learn, or the theaters Will stop. and
the hops will stop, and the guitar Will
stop-also the tennis. You have been
cutting time, but henceforth you viii
study four hours a day and l Mil sit
with you to help you and see that it is
done"
So four hours out of every 24 Os-
borne put to the use of teaching one
who did not wish TO learn. Density can
be bored through with patience. 1t
is the india rubber of Indifferent clev-
erness that resists~ After some of the
struggles, Osborne would lie awake
for the rest of the night from sheer
nervousness. The boy slept with I'M
ruttied brain. The lieutenant almost
came 10 forget the girl. But never
a A
ander was most inert, and Osborne
would stare straight in front of him
and grit his teeth, and wonder that a
man could live with both sides of his
nature thwarted and cut back.
But he had his reward. Alexander
went into the academy at 20. 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 Osborne's
case it must have been sheer force of
determination. Alexander was reap
pointed, and he himself was made in
structor at the Point.
He stood over the cadet with the
singing lash of his ambition; and AL
+ exander was graduated Is. Osborne
unwisely took some credit to himself.
Nonsense" said Alexander, "I'd have
done IL alone. The first miss was only
bad luck; don't think it's your circus"
1t doesn't make any great difference
to me whose circus it is, so that YOU
come out all right. Tn only glad you're
getting some AMBITION
MI ha
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"
m not likely TO fall, but I shouldn't
mind it, if it put you on mountain
height"
NO heights for me. can't breat the
rare air." answered the younger.
Now, in the course Of army events it
came to pass that strange fate made
Alexander Osborne second lieutenant
in the troop of which his brother was
/ first lieutenant. And the first lieu
tenant continued his ambitious poad-
ing. Alexander was independent at
present, and resisted TO some purpose.
He would not spend his nights in study
and his days in wire pulling. The war
department did not reward thae sort
of thing, he said; it was action it ap-
proved. Wait until his time for action
came-then he would satisfy his
| brother
And the time for action did come.
But the actionwas Disappointing. They
marched 200 miles, and then marched
back again. Alexander complained
loudly that he had had no occasion to
display his proves in battle.
He should have been quite safe in
this for that evening they would be
once more in Grant. But the Indian
host is not to be reckoned with. AT sun
set-within ten miles of the post-the
Apaches caught the battalion in a ra-
vine, and kept it there until well into
the night.
The moon came up and showed 10 the
bucks hiding behind the cedars and
scrub-oaks on the rise, the soldiers
| penned in the gully below them. It was
merely, for the latter, a question of
holding out and having a few men
killed. The danger was not great I'm
less the Apaches should be reinforced
or the couriers should not reach the
fort. So the men took shelter behind
bushes and rocks, and fired at the flashes
of light in the darkness above them.
The officers walked about in the deep
shadows, firing, too, and giving orders.
First Lieut.. Osborne was with his
sergeant and another lieutenant when
he came upon Second Lieut.. Osborne
crouched down between two rocks, his
arms elapsed over his bent head and
his carbine dropped on the ground be-
side him.
There was no mistake 10 be made.
The other lieutenant hesitated, the
sergeant drew back. But Osborne went
up and touched his brother with his
foot.
Lieut.. Osborne" he said, to tie