Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-06-03

house standing back from the road.
Tall iron ratings encircled IL like q
collar Of spikes, and q one.windowed
porter's lodge blinked banefully at
passers-by.
A weary old man helped himself
along with the aid of q stick. He
Strengthened his figure when he
reached the lodge aud seemed TO hest
tate while he looked ut the building
with dim, weak eyes, and the rushing
wind huttered his clothes like rags on
q scarecrow.
He made several steps forward,
then retreated. As he Strengthened
himself to walk, three medals for valor
jingled loosely on his shrunken breast.
He glanced round nervously. There
was no one to watch. He was only a
hero, and he hesitated on the threshold
of the workhouse. He had braved the
Russian cannon and had slipped down
rope at Lucknow into q ruck of fren-
xied sepoys. Why should he hesi-
tate?
April rain began to pelter down At
fully. He pulled his worn coat closer
over him and strobe forward with
final resolution.
On the steps Of the workhouse he
turned to got last furtive glance at
the outer world. As the sun leaped
from behind cloudit glittered on the
medals on his breast.
In the lodge q square-j owled man,
with hard, straight creases in his sui
len face, was tapping abstractedly on
IN old desk with an enormous key
To an imaginative mind he would have
served as an admirable miniature por-
Trait of the workhouse itself.
"Name?" he said, projecting hims elf
toward big book,
flames Reifeyn, late OF the Tenth
Black Watch" answered the old man.
James Redeem was past work and
explained this to the governor, who
promptly ordered him to break q hun
dredweight Of stone as n preliminary
canter; this was probably TO take the
freshness out of him and TO disillusion
him az to his incapacity for work.
Redfern was locked in a cell fur
nished with great jagged Jumps of
stone, and IL was his compulsory duty
20 break them into pieces small enough
to pass through grating In the wall.
The old man toiled hour after hour,
but his weak blows seemed TO be
rather caressing the stone than break
ing it. At length, in the afternoon,
he fell forward over his hammer and
the Jagged stones that Uttered the
floor.
"Hello!' said the square, owled
iwarder. opening the door, "None Of
this, yer know. This amt ladies
boodoir. This amt A."
He jerked the old man face up. His
features were cut with the Jagged
stone, and black lines Of hunger ringed
his eyes.
I When the warder, by twirling Rel
ferns hand round and round and by
pinching his arm, had satisfied himself
tbat there was no shamming, the old
man was removed to the infirmary.
He was very light burden, and a
stalwart casual slung him over his
shoulder aud carried him off iaun.ily,
&Aho buNh VI Whtu no tuult
20. the doctor ordered him boiled eggs
and a nourishing diet for a day or
two.
A card to this effect was hung ove-
his bed with string. A pauper in the
next bed. who suffered from epileptic
'fits, mathematical the old man gar
rulously. The boiled eggs seemed
particularly to rouse his ire. Every
time the warder passed to the other
end Of the long room he would lift
himself on his elbow aud scream across
thc intervening space: "B'iled eggs!
yahF" He put such an amount OF con.
domination into this phrase that the
other patients took up the matter aud
by muttered and disjointed conversa.
tion arrived at the opinion that the
old soldier was a parlous rufian, a
presHmer on generosity, an interloper
and a thief.
In three days the doctor certified
that Redeem was able to leave his
bod, and the old man meekly rose
and huddled his painful limbs into
his garments.
Redfern went into the Office OF the
sauare-faced warder, who said that he
must return to breaking stones or
leave the house. There was to be
meeting of the guardians that after
noon, however, aud he had the option
of applying to them for lighter work.
The faced man took out of
his desk the three medals which Red
fern had been obliged to temporarily
surrender on his entrance.
'They amt bad medals, are they?"
said the squar,-faced man. 81 sup
vosa than ava worth Ave hob apiereou