Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1899-06-22

an m not goin to get ont of chansi
o. seein service, an don't You try t.
make me do SO. I'll come back Girls. an
when take on as man I'll marry you
marry you when I'm lance.
Promise, Piggyf''
Lew reflected on the future as arrang.
ed by Jskin a short time previously,
but Girls mouth was very near to his
own.
81 promise s'elp me Gawd" said
he.
Girls slid an arm round his neck
81 won't old you back no more, Pig
gy. Go away an get your medal. an I'll
make You new button bag as nice as
know how, she whispered.
"Put some o. your air into it, Girls,
an I'll keep it in my pocket so long s
I'm alive.
Then Girls wept anew, and the inter
view ended. Public feeling among the
drummer boys rose to fever pitch. and
the lives of Jakin and Lew became I'M
enviable. Not only had they been per-
mitted to enlist two years before the
regulation boys age-14-but. by
virtue, ii seemed, of their extreme
youth. they were allowed to go to the
front-which thing had not happened
to acting drummers within the knowl-
edge of boy The band which was to
accompany the regiment had been cut
down TO the regulation 90 men, the
surplus returning to the ranks. Jakin
and Lew were attached to the band as
supernumeraries, though they would
much have preferred being company
buglers.
Don't matter much, said Jakin
after the medical inspection. "Be
thankful that we're lowed to go at all
The doctor e said that if we could
stand what we took from the bazaar ser
geant's son we'd stand pretty nigh
anything.
(Which we will, said Lew, looking
tenderly at the ragged and i'll made
housewife that Girls had given him with
lock Of her hair worked into sprawl
ing IL" upon the cover.
at was the best could, +" she sobbed.
81 wouldn't let mother nor the ser
geant's tailor clip me. Keep it always,
Piggy, an remember love you true.
They marched to the railway station
900 strong, and every soul in canton
ments turned out to see them GO The
drummers CRASHED their teeth at Jakin
and Lew marching with the band. the
married women wept upon the plat
form, and the regiment cheered its mo-
BILE self black in the face
"a nice level lot. said the colonel
to the second in command as they
watched the first four companies en-
training.
"Fit to do anything, said the second
in command enthusiastically. But il
seems to me they're a thought too
young and tender for the work in hand.
It's bitter cold up at the front now"
They're sound enough, said the
colonel "We must take our chance of
sick casualties.
So they went northward, ever north
ward, past droves and droves of camels,
armies of camp followers and legions of
laden mules, the tbrong thickening day
by day, till with a shrek the train
pulled up at a hopelessly congested
junction where six lines Of temporary
track accommodated six 40 wagon
trains where whistles blew, Baboos
sweated and commissariat officers swore |
from dawn till far into the night amid |
the wind driven chaff of the fodder
bales and the lowing of a thousand
steers.
Hurry upl You're badly wanted at
the front, was the message that greet
ID the Fore and Aft, and the occupants
IF the Red Cross carriages told the
same tale.
"'Tisn't so much the bloomin fight
n, gasped head bound trooper of
lussars to knot of admiring Fore and
Ats. 'Tisn't so much the bloomin
ightin, though there's enough O. that.
It's the bloomin food an the bloomin
climate. Frost all night cept when il
rails an b'ilin sun all day, an the wa
cI nlihhc 1T W ALUM 9oh hONhs XVI
ny cad Clipped like an egg. I've got
too, an my CUTS is all out
: order. 'Tain't no bloomin picnic in
hose parts, can tell You.
"Wot are the niggers hkef" demand
d private.
There's some prisoners in that train
onder Go an look at 'em. They're the
ristocracy o the country. The com
non tvik are dashed sight uglier. If
on want to know what they fight
With. reach under my seat an pull out
be long knife that's there
They dragged out and beheld for the
rst time the grim, bone handled. tri-
ngular Afghan knife II was almost
S long as Lew,
That's the thing to j'int you. :" said
be trooper feebly.
at can take off mans arm at the
boulder as easy as slieing butter. i
alved the beggar that used that un. \
ut there's more o his likes up above
hey don't understand thrustin. but
lev re devils TO slice