Evening star., 1898-02-19

| der eyes. An Miss Floe-she sot dar an
| make out she want ter laugh. I could a
| slapped her an, little mo- an I'd done 1t.
| too Aunt Candace's anger was almost
| venomous.
well. tell you now responded Plato,
! II seed some mighty quare doin's up yam
der endurin' de war; He nodded his head
| toward Atlanta. .'Dey wuz one time when
a river rund right 'twxt de lines. an 1t
got so dat mighty nigh ev'ry day de Yam
KEGS an our boys ID go in washn' an play
in de water dar like q passel er chillun.
Marse Jack wuZ in dar evey chance he
| got. an him an dat ar big Yankee what
wuZ in de house-he up yander watchn'
de stock right row-dey'd git ter proiick-
| in an tryin ter duck one amer, an l
| tuck notice dat de big Yankee alters let
| Marse Jack do de duckin'. Fo' dat. dey' d
| meet twixt de lines when dey want no
| rumpus gwine on. an dey'd swap an trade
| an laugh an talk an take on like dey
/ been raised wild one amer
| Huh, Much he look like bein' raised
| wild MarSe Jack.' snOrted Aunt Candace.
Maybe he de one what want ter take
| Marse Jack off wild de ARMY" suggested
| Plato, pursuing the subject. "Ef he is
you neen ter let dat worry you, kaze he IL
| be safe wild dat big Yankee, sho."
| mo, he won't, needer." exclaimed Aunt
| Candace.
How Gomez" asked her son.
| 'kaze he amt gwine. dat's how Gomez
Plato shook his head Significantly as if
! his mammys decision settled the whole
| matter. Still he was puzzled at the al
| legged Willingness of his mistress and Miss
Floe to allow Jack to be carried off by
1 the Yankee army.
| DR.. Pruden, the surgeon, was also worried
\ with a problem he could not fathom, and
| puzzled by a great many things he could
| Tot understand The problem was not very
| serious, as matters go In times of war but
| 1t was very interesting. Why should these
. southern ladies, who. his instinct told him
had very bitter prejudices against the
1 moi hG.rr A,ra1A %Iolr,
| Union soldiers. betray such interest In Capt
| Jarvis of New York? And not interest
| only, but genuine solicitude. that they
, sought in vain to conceal? The surgeon
| was young man, not more than twenty
! five or thirty years old, but he had knock ed
/ about good deal. and. he said to him.
| self, he was no fool. In fact, he had a pret-
| ty good knowledge of human nature, and a
| reasonably quick eye for Symptoms"
He cared nothing whatever for such
| preJudices. as the ladies surely had. They
We're natural and inevitable. They be-
| longed TO the order of things. They were
| TO be expected. 1t was their absence In the
| case of Captain Jarvis that worried him.
| He could see that these prejudices were In
| full bloom as far he was concerned and
| that his presence was tolerated only be-
= cause he could be OF some possible service
/ to Jarvis.
| While dressing Jacks wounded shoulder
| which, under the circumstances, was a
| tedious operation, DR.. Pruden noticed what
| ing him the best she could, and in that way
/ her hands were very much in evidence He
/ observed. too. that these beautiful hands
had a trick of Stroking the wounded man s
,, hair. and once he saw such an unmistaka-
BILE caress expressed in the pressure of the
\ fingers that he glanced quickly at her face
| The surgeons glance was so frankly in
| quisitve that Flora bIushed i'm spite of her.
| self: and it was the rosiest of bushes, too
| for she insunctiyely knew that the man
| suspected that she had fallen desperately
| iii love with Yankee captain in the course
| of a few hours. Then she was angry be-
| cause she blushed. and was so disturbed
and distressed withal that DIR. Pruden dis
| covering these signs of mental perturbation
| was vexed with himself for being the in
| voluntary cause of 1t all.
! But he was none the less satisfied tha:
| he had surprised and discovered the young
| woman's secret: and he wondered that II
| should be so, weaving with his wonderment
| the prettiest little romance imaginable. II
| was such a queer little romance, too, that
| he could not repress a smile as he bent over
| Jacks broken shoulder and deftly applied
| the bandaSes. Flora saw the smile and
| with a woman's intuition read its meanins,
| Whereupon. with ready tact, she trans
| TERED her anger. She made the surgeon
| instead of herself. the object of II, so thai
| when Jacks wounds had been properly
| dressed, DR.. Pruden found that the young
| ladys haughtiness toward him was in sig
| nihcent contrast to the tender solicitude she
felt for the supposed Captain Jarvis
| The surgeon paid small attention to this
es he told himself and yet ii was NOT a
pleasant experience. The careful way in
| which Flora avoided his giances gave him
| an opportunity to study her face and the
1 more he studied Ii the more 1t impressed
] MIN. He thought to himself that Jarvis