The Trumpeter Swan

that, beginning in a thunder-storm in Washington,

-room, a fourth an intermittent occupant of a berth at the end. They had gone to bed unaware of the estate or circumstance of their fellow

termittent sleeper in the end berth, was a smug little soul, with a small nose which pointed to the stars. When the door of the compartment

over the seat of the section in front of him and drawled,

, "Come around here and talk to me

," young Randolph, as he dropped into the seat opposite the

know this

one and flesh of my flesh," there was a break in the

nd I am greedy to get aw

ifor

er I might. But I've got to be near Washington, it seems. The heat d

t. By day we're

strenuous. I h

tch by his side. Young Paine noticed

ouldered, thin-hipped, who had come to worse than crutches. He did not want to think of them. He had escaped without a scratch. He did not believe that he had lacked courage,

He struck, therefore, a note to wh

here before, you'll

ng to one

hi

's Cr

"That's my home. I have

ce. "I heard of it in Washington-d

ing as a-pa

es

denly he broke out. "If you knew how rotten it s

ou don't think it is goin

't know until I came back from France-- She

ng it all the tim

ished in a year if I hadn't enlisted. And Mother insisted there was enough for her. But there wa

oing to tu

Randy smiled back. "I supp

being asha

hamed of the boarding-house. I am

, softly, "that's it? A

st. There have been a lot of

Mark P

ime of th

erful 135th-God, what men t

salute. "They were that. I don'

rest," the Major said,

the drizzle of rain. "How quiet

ame the staccato voice through

n this beastly hole, Kemp, and

like a Lilliputian drum majo

ir," he said,

er him. "'His Ma

"that the coldest thing he can g

l of lemon peel, ready for an innocuous libation, brought his nose down from the heights t

snapped the voice, "isn't there an ele

to the gods," said the Major sof

The train moved on before they had finished. "We'll be in Ch

ere we get

d. Are they goi

a statio

But if Mother knows you're coming she'

France-it will be

e rain, and the red mud,

Just as I love the

ort of tense calmness. One doesn't

laid out the belongings of the man he served, he took a sudden recess, and came back with

en minutes, sir," they heard him say, as