Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-29

it under his pillow.
Whats that, Fiddler" asked.
Nothing" said he. But l up with his
pillow, and there was red flannel bag of
gunpowder.
You pinched that out of the ordnance
closet" l said
Il cannot tell lie" said he II did, and
it was good work. Do you think that'll be
sufficient"
For what?" I demanded.
For the old cannon
Fiddler" said l, with my hand on his
shoulder, for the sake of the Tads, hold off,
won't vou?"
He sighed "All right" said he, "for the
good of the Tads." And he hid the powder
bag under his mattress
TT was fve-ffteen as l hurried up the hill,
l having spent a miserable afternoon
hanging about Fanny's neighborhood. |
had seen Susie Diamond. with his hair curled
and his shoes blackened till they shone like
his rosy face, enter her house. and l had
longed to follow him and drag him from her
side. But contented myself with standing
at the corner and kicking the hitching posts
till l thought it was time to get back to
school.
On the way up the hill Buck met me. He
and the boys who had volunteered to watch
the Fiddler had had terrible time; for the
Fiddler had been seized with a desire to
sneak behind Paul Physiog's drugstore
counter and turn the soda spigots on, and
when they had got that idea out of his head
he had hardly been persuaded from stealing
cigar Indian on Main-st. in broad daylight
But they had him safe and sound.
Whats the matter with your asked
Buck, noticing how pale was.
I H.
calls in five minutes"
Never saw you in hurry for it before,
said Buck
well, 1 am" said I, looking back down
the hill to see if Susie Diamond was coming.
If he had been, l think l should have turned
on him and throttled him at that moment.
The time never passed so slowly and in
each arriving group or single straggler | saw
the face hoped not to see. The increasing
darkness made my watch from the stairs OF
the big building all the more tantalizing,
because could not tell until a figure was
right upon me who it was. But none of the
painting fellows was Susie. He was still at
Fanny's, if she was doing her duty!
A I last saw Badly Sours come out from
his Office and enter the assembly hail.
and then Charley Stroebel appeared on the
piazza and blew the bugle call. 1t had never
sounded sweet to me before; but now it was
music indeed. Only prayed that its notes
would not reach Susie, wherever he might be.
We piled into the assembly hall, where
Badly stood upon the platform beside Bige
Bigelow, Officer of the Day. A bell rang.
The calling of the roll began.
"Alden!' called Bige, and Alden an
swe-ed, "Here!''
"Ament! -" Here!"
"Bailey!" Before Bailey could answer
the door flew open, and somebody darted
breathlessly behind the line to his place. If
it was Suse No! 1t was Jimmy Mapes,
just in time!
Bailey" Here"
"Bigelow, b."
A laugh, because Bige had called his own
name: The idiots! They wouldn't laugh if
they knew!
"Bigelow, MI" Here!"
"Cantwell, Cleaver, Clements, Cowan,
Crowninshield!" punctuated by staccato
''Here's!" And then
Diamond" Bge in the assurance that,
although he heard no reply to his challenge,
Susie must be there, was about to pass on.
1t is great thing to have a reputation!
But Badly was too cute. He looked sharply
at the line.
'Damond?" he said. Diamond"