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

loss grim tnau the huge, Squht Woth'
house standing back from the road.
Tall iron ratings encircled IL like q
collar Of spikes, and one.windowed
porter's lodge blinked banefully at
passers-by.
A weary old man helped himself
along with the aid OF stick. He
Strengthened his figure when he
reached the lodge and seemed TO hest
tate while he looked at the building
with dim, weak eyes, and the rushing
wind futtered 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 q
hero, and he hesitated on the threshold
of the workhouse. He had braved the
Russian cannon and had slipped down
q rope at Lucknow into ruck of fren-
zied sepoys. Why should he hesi-
tate?
April rain began to pelter down ft-
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 square.jowled 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 Redfern, late OF the Tenth
Black Watch" answered the old man.
James Redfern was past work and
explained this to the governor, who
promptly ordered him to break hun
dredweight of stone as a preliminary
canter; this was probably TO take the
freshness out Of him and to disillusion
him as to his incapacity for work.
Redfern was locked In q 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.
"Hellov' said the square. iowled
warder, opening the door. "None Of
this, yer know. This amt ladies
boodoir. This amt A."
He ierked the old man face up. His
features were cut with the jagged
stone, aud black lines Of hunger ringed
his eyes.
4 When the warder, by twirling Rel
ferns hand round and round and by
pinching his arm, had satisfied himself
that there was no shamming, the old
man was removed to the inhrmsry.
He was very light burden, and q
stalwart casual slung him over his
shoulder and carried him of iauntily,
like sack OF flour. When he came
60, the doctor ordered him boiled eggs
and nourishing diet for day or
two.
A card to this effect was hung over
his bed with string. pauper in the
next bed, who suffered from epileptic
lfits, 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
the intervening space: "B'iled eggs!
yahr He put such an amount Of con.
demnation into this phrase that the
other patients took up the matter and
by muttered and disjointed converse.
ton arrived at the opinion that the
old soldier was parlous ruffian, a
presumer on generosity, an interloper
and a thief.
In three days the doctor certified
that Redfern was able to leave his
bed, and the old man meekly rose
and huddled his painful limbs into
his garments.
Redfern went into the Office of the
square. faced warder, who said that he
must return to breaking stones or
leave the house. There was to be q
meeting of the guardians that after.
noon, however, aud he had the option
of applying to them for lighter work.
The square-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 they9'
said the square-faced man. II sup