66 'Why, madam," said I, "these accounts are not worth collecting.' "That's what he was afraid of," said she, moving toward a bundle that lay upon the floor. "He 5 told me if you said so, to give you this, and ask you to sell it if you could, and make your money. It's all he had, sir, and he would n't die easy until I told him I would. God knows"-and tears rolled down her thin and hollow cheeks-"God knows 10 it was a struggle to promise to give it up. He wore it, and his father before him. How many times it has covered 'em both! I had hoped to carry it to the end with me, and wrap my old body in it when I died. But it was all we had which was fine, 15 and he would n't rest till I told him I would give it to you. "Then he smiled as brightly as a child, and kissed me, and said, 'Now I am ready to go.' He was a good boy, sir, as ever lived." And she rocked 20 her old body to and fro with her grief. Need I say that she had offered me the old dress coat? That sacred garment, blessed with the memory of her son and his father, and which, rather than give up, she would willingly have plucked 25 either of the withered arms that hung at her sides from its socket. I dropped my eyes to the account book again, for what purpose I am not ashamed that the reader may guess. In a few moments I spoke. "Madam, I was mistaken in the value of these 5 accounts; most of the debtors on this book, I find upon a second look, are capitalists. The eleven dollars' worth of accounts will sell for twelve anywhere. Your son owed me seven dollars. Leave the book with me; I will pay myself, and here is a 10 balance of five dollars which I hand to you. Your son was a good boy, and I feel honored that I can serve his mother." She folded up the old coat and departed. I kept the book. It was a simple record of Dobbs's simple life. Here ran his expense list,- a dreary trickle of "bacon" and "meal" and "rent," enlivened only once with "sugar." 15 Here were his accounts, of say fifty cents each, 20 on men accounted responsible in the world's eye, accounts for papers furnished through snow, and sleet, and rain. Some of them showed signs of having been called for a dozen times, being frescoed with such notes as "Call Tuesday," "Call Wednes- 25 day," "Call Thursday," etc. In its thumbed and greasy leaves is written the record of a heroism more lofty and a martyrdom more lustrous than ever lighted the page of book. before or since. martyrdom: the giving up of one's life for a principle. silhouetted: having the black outlines of an object thrown against some background, as the shadow is thrown against the ground. intercepted cut off. - suffuses: spreads over. - quadrille: a dance.somber: sorrowful. — decrepit: broken down, feeble. driveled : hung weakly. audacious: bold. - bilk: cheat. - Banquo: one of the characters in Shakespeare's Macbeth. He was murdered by order of Macbeth, and, according to the story, his ghost came to disturb his murderer. — sanctum : office. - capitalists: rich men. - frescoed: covered. THE CHARGE AT SANTIAGO WILLIAM HAMILTON HAYNE WILLIAM HAMILTON HAYNE (1856- ), an American poet, is the son of the poet, Paul Hamilton Hayne. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but has spent most of his life at his father's country home, "Copse Wood," near Augusta, Georgia. His first poems began to appear in papers and magazines in 10 1879. Since that time his contributions to American periodicals have been regular. In 1892 a volume of his verse was published under the title Sylvan Lyrics and Other Verses. 15 With the shot and shell, like a loosened hell, Smiting them left and right, They rise or fall on the sloping wall Of beetling bush and height! They do not shrink at the awful brink Of the rifle's hurtling breath, But onward press, as their ranks grow less, Through a storm of lead, o'er maimed and dead, 5 Onward and up they go, Till hand to hand the unflinching band Grapple the stubborn foe. O'er men that reel, 'mid glint of steel, Bellow or boom of gun, They leap and shout over each redoubt Till the final trench is won! O charge sublime! Over dust and grime In shot and shell, like a molten hell, To the topmost height of fame. And prone or stiff, under bush and cliff, Wounded or dead men lie, While the tropic sun on a grand deed done Looks with his piercing eye. maimed wounded. redoubt: a small fort. 10 15 20 A GALLANT GIRL JULIA MAGRUDER AND FRANCES LEEDS JULIA MAGRUDER (1854- ), an American author, was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is the author of many stories. Among these are The Child Amy, Child Sketches from George Eliot, and A Manifest Destiny. 5 FRANCES LEEDS was the pen name of the late Mrs. Emma Wigfall of Baltimore. She was well known as a contributor to various magazines. In Holland, where the roadways are so often water instead of land, the canal boat takes the 10 place of our wagons and electric cars. In many cases, also, these boats constitute the only homes of the poorer people, who are born and bred and live and die in these traveling houses. It is an unusually pretty sight to watch these 15 canal boats gliding along the narrow water ways, which run like some lace pattern over this land. All the work of a simple household is done as they move on, laden with the burden of traffic, or stopping to take up passengers going from one 20 village to another. Little gardens are often made to sprout with beauty, -a bed of tulips opening their brilliant cups in the moist air, or lettuce heads and other vegetables making squares of greenery in the broad boxes filled with earth, 25 which are placed midway of the flat decks. |