Connecticut western news., 1897-05-27

tremely tantalizing, "Nice fresh oranges, ten for quarter'' A stoical warrior with out cent could repel that, but the music al throat of one young girl in the crowd had decided charm. There was rush to the spot by all who were able to use crutches, although there was not a dime in the entire party.
 Some one called out, "Do you take stampsp' Of course the answer was "Yes" as soon as the money panic was known to tho hawkers. Some of the live Hest of the crippled ones then hustled into the barrack, and one by one they returned and counted out their last fiscal symbols and sat down on the grass to enjoy their fruit. Those who could not join certainly felt no better for looking on. Among the latter was furnishing lad whose wits had been turned by his suffering, and when he saw some of the men eating oranges he reached out and seized one from a basket and began to deyour it, and that without question or bargain or pay. The girl with the musical throat looked startled at the bold act, but soon smiled and continued her cry, "Nice fresh oranges!' But the girl was only helper of the real owner, and now swarthy, hard looking Hun stepped forward and held his hand out to get the proceeds of the sales. He counted the money and then the oranges in the hands of the men, and as he saw there was difference he demanded something from the girl in jargon we could not inter pret The girl began to weep, and just then the famished boy, unconscious of ev- erything but his desperate craving for food, reached for another orange. He so- cured one, but the old Hun grabbed the basket, gave the girl rough shaking, and then, after placing his goods beyond reach of the soldiers, returned and attacked the boy. The lad was too weak to stand, but he chung to his prize, and the brutal hawk CT wrung the slender wrists to make him let go.
 There were some strong, cool men there 1 who could not endure this sight, ard Ee- | fore I could see just how the melee opened 1 the soldiers had raided the whole pack of gypsy peddlers and gathered up every scrap | of edibles, overturning the baskets and beating off the owners, some of whom | fought like beasts. l could never see any | glory in the black eyes and bruises of a | common brawl, no matter what the occa | sion, and was only sad spectator here. l At the beginning of all this business had | taken parcel of keepsakes from my pock- | ct, and, just to make sure for the twen- tieth time that I had no current values | about me, ran over the pile carefully. The | torn stamp was in the lot and caught my attention, and, with flood of memories, it
 bore my thought away from the present
 scene. Fis,, Lucy's letter and what was | she thinking now of me. There were two l heads bending over it now, for wounded colnrade stood so close that he could look
 into my hand and was studying me as in tently us studied the stamp. What his
 thoughts were never knew, but they were
 equally distracting with mine, for we two had not yielded to the passionate drift of | the crowd, and when these broke out upon peddlers we alone were cool. We yainly l begged them to stop, but their slogan was
 unanswerable in words:
 "Down with the foreigners! They have
 no right herel We don't fight just to keep | up the country for themp
 The men were mad, and the rage must i work itself out. More than one badly
 wounded man had his hurt opened afresh
 in the rough and tumble encounter, and ! all of them retired shamefaced from their
 ignoble triumph.
 1 said to my strange mate as I held out
 the torn stamp, Had this been good
 would have paid for the boys orange and
 prevented this trouble.' Tears were in
 his eyes, and I saw that he was a man of
 sensibilities. He turned away, and the
 figures on his cap, which had not noticed
 before, gleamed in the sunshine, and al
 once branded themselves upon my vision
 -a142nd Vols"
 I left the scene with my companion, and
 the quicker to drop the unpleasant affair
 from mind proposed that we two exchange
 one of our crutches. Such things are relics
 and mine had come from Washington old home, White House, Va, and my ao quaintance's from Winchester, in the val
 ley We tried them, and were both suited but he had carved his very neatly with sev eral designs and with his full name in olt
 English" Joseph Pennington. This, too , was transferred mystically to place il !, my memory and stood out boldly besid . those characters had seen on his cap, st that the legend now fixed there was, "Jo . seph Pennington, 14snd Vols. Tha . evening mr furlo1nh reached me. aud