The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1899-08-24

kept him on the staff. The women were
all with him and that meant far more
than may seem possible outside the
army. There was many q gentle dame
in the old days Of adobe barracks who
could be an Artemisia in the cause of
friend.
No one knew just what object Ned
Lawrence had in coming back to Dixie.
Every one knew he had Indignantly re-
fused the second lieutenancy, despite
the fact that one or two men with war
service and rank almost equal to his
own had meekly accepted the grudging-
ly rendered commission and others were
said to be about to follow suit-all, pro-
sumably, with tie hope that their
friends and representatives in congress
assembled would speedily legislate
them back where they thought they be-
longed. No one knew where Ned Law
renee had made raise of money, but
raise he certainly had made, for, to
Blythe's indignation, there came draft
Of 500 to cover the expenses, he said,
of his children and Old Nanny and to
pay the latter some Of her wages. The
balance he would settle, he wrote, when
he arrived. Blythe would far rather he
had waited until his accounts were adj
justed; then, if Lawrence were in
funds, Blythe could have found no fault
with this insistence on at least partially
defraying the expenses incurred in pro-
viding for the little household. Law
renee hoped to have his accounts adjust
ed, his letter said, and he had reason to
believe, from what friends in Washing
ton told him, that he would find his
successor willing to receipt to him for
missing items, trusting to luck and the
fotsam and jetsam of the frontier to re-.
place them in course of time. Lawrence
indeed was curious now to meet and
know Captain Barclay, for he had been
told many things that had gone far to
remove the feeling of unreasoning an
tagonism he had felt at first.
Only one thing did he say to Blythe
that threw light on his future plans
81 am dreadfully sorry" he wrote, "to
hear such i'll tidings about Harry Vim.
was always fearful there was some
thing wrong about that fellow Mars
den, and sometimes strove to caution
him-I, who could not see the beam in
my own eye-I, with two scoundrels in
my orderly room, trying to warn him
against the one in his. VIM is a
proud, sensitive, self centered sort Of
fellow, whom wealth perhaps might
have made popular. He is no better
manager than I. He has wife who
could never help him to live within his
means, as poor Kitty certainly tried te
do with me-" (Oh, the blessed touch Of
time! Oh, the sweet absolution of death
Kitty was an angel now, and her ways
and means were buried with all that
was mortal Of herr "And, worse thar
all, poor Hal has no one, fear, to hell
him now, as-I write it with blinded
eyes, dear Blythe-it has pleased God
should find in many friends in the day!
Of my sore adversity-you and you,
blessed wife, and the colonel. ant
Brooks-even rough old Follansbee an(
, our dilettante De Lancy, and that in
imitable Collabone. My heart overfows
and my eyes, too, at thought Of all 20,
and they have done and said and writ
ten for me and mine. And here, too
. where in my bitterness I thought wa
: deserted Of all, here is gallant old From
de Boeuf (you remember how we swor
3 by him in the valley after Davy Russell
was killed). He has housed and fed an,
nursed and cared for me like brother
and Senator Howe and even old Catni]
God bless him-have worked hare
| for me, and though my soldier day
seem over for the time at least my stub
born spirit has had to surrender to suc]
, counselors and friends as they have beef
to me. They all say congress will
surely put me back next winter, an
, meantime Buffstick says I'm to have
, salaried position in a big company wit
, which he is associated and to begi
work as soon as my health is re-estat
r lished and my accounts straightene'
! out"
"Who is Buffstick?'' queried Mrs
s Blythe at this juncture.
3 "Buffstick? Oh, that was our pc
name for Colonel Dalton of the til Mas
sachusetts, Lawrence's friend and hos
2 in Washington; magnificent fellow
r dear, with head and chest that mad
some lover Of Scott iken him to From
. de Boeuf, out of 'Ivanhoe, you know
r But he was stickler for neatness i
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