St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-01-21

llCNCA SoAAPloAA5 liz las uOI Given
| me an hours anxiety since he was
born"
The rash friend smiled, and agreed
| with the last remark more emphatic
ally than was, perhaps, quite polite
| Arthur, she was certain, had never
cost his mother a moments uneasi-
ness since he was born
So life-the easy, pleasant life of
the rich--passed happily enough for the
young Rilington's, with plenty of pas
time and very few troubles until the
year after they left Sandhurst. Even
at this point where, in the natural
course of events, there should have
been the parting of the ways, the
terfered
They We're both gazetted to the
same regiment. Then the Boer war
was declared, and with the down hard
ly formed on their faces, and in COM
pany with most that was young and
eager and strenuous in the Empire,
John and Arthur Ellington set sail for
the front
At Johns express wish their mother
consented that the farewells should be
said at home instead of on the crowded
transport. Dry-eyed, haggard and
intense, she followed the young mems
movements, and hung on their words
during the brief hours they could pass
with her. When the moment of part
ing came she watched them, in an
agony too great for words, mount the
dog-cart' that was to take them to the
station and out of her sight, perhaps,
forever. The reins were in Johns
hands when her white lips parted in
a supreme effort to speak. Then she
put out her hand and pulled her young
est son by the arm till her lips were at
his ear
''Take care of JOHN she whispered.
''Our bugles sang truce for the night
cloud had lower'd ~
And the sentinel stars set their watch in
the sky ss.s
8 Tonight the lines required inces-
sanity to Arthur 1.-THE sentinel
stars" he repeated to himself, linger-
ing on the expression. He loved to
think of them as such, for he, too, was
on sentry CO., and had been ever
since his mothers last injunction fell
on his ear.
The campaign had lasted IS months,
and for the most of the time the
regiment to which the Rilingtons be-
longed-the Light Defencibles-had
been in the thick of the fray In the
Orange Free State, in the Transvaal,
in Cape Colony, they had followed the
trend of the fighting; and, although
many brave soldier had fallen out Of
the ranks, never to rise again, the Ril-
ington brothers, the Gemini, as they
were commonly called, had escaped
unhurt. Among their brother officers
it was said that Arthurs anxiety
formed an invisible protective armor
round John that turned both shot and
shell. AS there was no such shield for
Arthur, his immunity, they agreed,
must be ascribed to luck. John himself
neither noticed nor returned the solicit
tude.
Arthur's presence tonight in The
little camp under the stars instead
Of in the comparative comfort Of the
mess tent at the temporary base, was
due to this well-known tie between
him and his brother. John, his senior
in the regiment as he was in life by a
single step, had been sent out in COM
mand of small convoy and its escort,
and Arthur had been deputed to ac-
company him.
1T dare say it will be bit of a
treat for the Gemini to be together"
thought their kind-hearted Colonel.
I'm blest if I ever saw brothers such
chums. It's rather the other way
round as rule"
The march was to be a short one.
The little column had only left camp
that morning and expected to reach
their destination the next evening.
The country to be traversed had been
reported free from the enemy; no dan
ger was anticipated. For this reason,
and also because we are a sanguine
nation, the escort was small, and Off
GERS and men proportionately light
hearted. s
Night had come and darkness had
fallen on the land as quickly as thick
veil drawn by hasty hand covers a
Scared face. AS far as the eye could
see the solitary little camp was the
only sign of human life in the vast and
boundless veldt. The usual precau-
tons against surprises had been taken,
The oxen had been watered, the rations |
eaten, the last pipe smoked, and weary |
men and patient, long-suffering ami
mails had lain down to rest. Only John
and Arthur seemed wakeful, and ex-
changed a few desultory remarks be-
tore turning in. They spoke of their
mother and of how lonely she must be, !
and again Arthur remembered the
charge she had given him.
But darkness is the best cover, and
under it's wing men who know the
country and its secrets can effect
in unbroken silence. Near
n and nearer through the muf1ed
hours of night crept foe who SUM
oered not, whose case was desperate,
Ind whose existence as a fighting
orce depended on the capture of that
convoy. All they craved-food, cloth