Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1901-06-07
nd BEGAN to button his blouse.

move in. such is my devotion to them
that I'll move in, too. And I'll put
in my formal appl' cation for those
two rooms. No other two in the post
will suit, either, you understand"
And it all came about exactly as he
had said. There was a hegira of Law
rences and an ingress of Collinses,
and great was the latters' wrath when
they found Drayton taking possess
SIGN of the upper floor. They pro-
tested to everybody in general, and
to the commandant and the quarter
master in particular. And the COM
mandant and the quartermaster said
they were sorry, but that Drayton
was certainly within his rights. He
had applied for the quarters IN virtue
of the general turning-out that D
troop was causing in the post and he
was entitled to occupy them. There
was nothing more to be said.
81 can't pretend I'm sorry for them,
exactly" Mrs. Lawrence conhded to
Drayton, when he advised her not to
try to settle in her new quarters very
deliberately; 'T'm only human, after
ALL and my house did look so sweet,
and my garden But Tn sorry for
you. I think those children are the
very imps of evil"
Drayton nodded "There are 9TH
ers," he said
1t was enigmatical, but Mrs. Law
renee looked doubtful, and ready to
be hurt. "You don't mean mine?" she
said.
"No, my dear lady" Bartlett reas-
sured her, she doesn't mean yours.
He thinks yours are all that tender
infancy should be. don't know what
he does mean, however. And prob
ably he doesn't know himself"
Don't ~" queried Drayton, enig-
NAUTICAL still. "Don't I just?"
"Perhaps," said Bartlett, you mean
Jimmy O'Brien. l saw you hobnob-
bling with him to-day. Would it be
Jimmy now?"
Drayton would not commit himself.
But it was Jimmy and none other,
nevertheless. Drayton had come upon
him when he was playing duck-on-
a-rock all by himself, near the suffers
store. The duck was a beer bottle,
and Jimmy was pitching stones at it,
with Indifferent aim. The father of
Jimmy was first sergeant of Drayton's
troop, and so the lieutenant felt they
had enough in common to warrant a
conversation.
1t began by suggestion as to bet
ter way to throw stone, and it end
ed with bargain struck. "Then,'
said Drayton, "if I promise to pay
you two bits for every centipede, four
bits for every tarantula, ten cents for
every lizard, nickel for every toad
and cent for every big spider, you
will catch all you can and bottle them
for me?"
Jimmy nodded, solemnly.
"And you won't say anything about
it to anyone?" A quarter was pressed
into chapped and grimy hand.
init" said Jimmy, the instinct OF
political race to the fore. There
was another race instinct strong ir
Jimmy, too. 1t was that of the con
| tractor.
The very next morning, before
guard-mounting, he clambered up the
stairway to Drayton's rooms. Dray
ton was only just dressing. He hat
kept late hours. Bartlett had helped
him, and until two o'clock they hat
alternated pacing heavily to and fro
with dropping weighty bodies on tn,
floor. The Collinses were kept awake
Its question of endurance, be
cause we are two" said Draytoni
"but / expect we can hold out"
He inspected Jimmy's first catch
There was a centipede, two lizards
and three toads. Jimmy's pockets
bulged with bottles. There were alsC
i've large and unpleasant spiders.
Good boy" said Drayton, and paiC
as per schedule.
Mrs. Collins and the mother-in-law''
nerves were not Gained any way, b,
the wakeful night. 1t was the harder
for them when they came upon three
large toads in their rooms that day
To have a toad hop out at you from
a dark corner is not nice. 1t is still
less to step on one and crush it. 1
gives q peculiar sensation. Mrs. Col
Inns found it so. There was a lizart
in the milk bottle, and another oil
the back of chair, from where i
climbed into n mother-in-law's hair
Big spiders infested the place.
Toward noon Drayton came down
stairs carrying on the end of a pin
and examining it critically, a cent?
pede. Large, isn't it?" he asked
with some pride; II killed it mysel
at the top of the stairs. They Away
come in families of three. The othe
two will be along pretty soon, I sup
pose"
The mother-in-law shuddered. "Yo'
and Mr.. Bartlett made a great dea
of noise last night, Mr.. Draytcn," sh