Waterbury Democrat., 1901-05-21


 by sne would have never laughed all her life through in the battalions of Africa.
 She saw him as he went beneath her balcony, and she sang all the louder, she flung her sweetheart mis- siles with the reckless force of a Roman carnivalist, she launched bolts of tenfold more audacious raillery at the delighted mob below. Cigarette was good soldier when she was wounded; she wound her scarf round the nerve that ached and only laughed the gayer.
 And he did her that injustice which the best among us are apt to do to those whom we do not feel interest enough in to study with that -closeness which can alone give comprehension of the intricate and complex rebus, so faintly sketched, so marvelousIy in- yolved, of human nature.
 He thought her little leopard in her vivacious play and her inborn bloodthirstiness. Well, the little leop- ard of France played recklessly enough that evening. Algiers was en fete, and Cigarette was sparkling over the whole of the town like humming bird or firefy-here, thTe and every where. She played through more than half the night the agile, bounding, graceful play of the young leopard to which he had Iikened her and with a quick punishment from her velvet sheathed talons if any durst offend hoy xx,hn fI,n ,srr1, leopardlike, the little one sought her den.
 ''The chateau of Cigarette was a standing jest of the army, for none was ever allowed to follow her thither or to behold the interior of her fortress, and one overventurous spahis, sealing the ramparts, had been rewarded with so hot a deluge of lentil soup from a boiling casserole poured on his head from above that he had beaten a hasty and ignominious retreat. "The chateau of Cigarette was neither more nor less than couple of garrets high in the air in an old Moorish house in an old Moorish court, decayed, silent, poverty struck. Up a long and winding rick ety stair Cigarette approached her cas- tie and opened her door There was dim oil wick burning. The garret was large and as clean as a palace could be. Its occupants were various and all sound asleep except one, who, rough and hard and small and three legged, limped up to her and rubbed a little bullet head against her lovingly.
 'Bouffarick, little Bouffarick," re- turned Cigarette caressingly in whis- per, and Bouffarick, content, limped back, to nest of hay, being Q little wiry dog that had lost a leg in one of the famous battles of Gran and lain in it's dead masters breast through three days and nights on the field. Cigarette, shading the lamp with one hand, glanc- ed round on her family. They had all histories-histories in the French army, which was the only history she consid- cred of any import to the universe. There was raven perched high, by name Vole-qui- Veut. He was a noted character among the zouaves and had made many campaign riding on his owners bayonet. He loved combat and was specially famed for screaming .'Tue. tue tue!"y- all oEer a battlefield. He was very gray now, and the zouaTe's bones had long bleached on the edge of the desert.
 There was big white cat curled in ball that had been the darling of a Tringlo and had travelled all over north Africa on the top of his mules back seven seasons through. In the eighth the Tringlo was picked off by flying shot.
 There were little Bouffarick and three other brother dogs of equal celebrity, one in especial, that had been brought from Chalons, in defiance of the regula- tions, inside the drum Of his regiment and had been wounded dozen times, always seeking the hottest heat of the skirmish. And there was, besides these, sleeping serenely, on a straw palliasse, very old man with a snowy beard and head fit for Gerome to give to an Abraham.
 A very old man-one who had been conscript in the hands Of young France and marched from his Pyre- mean village to the battle tramp of the "Marseillaise" and charged with the children of Paris across the plains of ,Gemappes, who had known the pas sage of the SAlps and lifted the long lcurls from the dead brow of Desaix st Marengoand seen in the sultry noon \ K 1T