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w EDDED. Some quick and bitter words we said And then we parted. How the sun Swam through the sullen rn’stof grayl A chill fell on the summer day, Life's best and happiest hours were done; ! friendship was dead. How proud we went our separate ways. And spake no word and made no moan! She braided up her flowing hair, That I had always called so fair, Although she scorned my loving tone, My word of praise. And I! I matched her scorn with scorn, I hated her with all my heart, Until—we chanced to meet one day; She turned her pretty head away; I saw two pretty tear-drops start, ,, Lo! love was born. Some fond, repenting word I said, She answered only with a sigh; But when I took her hand in mine A radiant glory, half divine, Flooded the earth and filled the sky— ! Now we are wed. — Chambers' A DRUMMER BOY HERO. ■> On the first day of the battle of Cus tozza, the twenty-fourth of July, 181?, about sixty soldiers belonging to one of the Italian infantry regiments, having been sent to occupy an isolated house on a height, were unexpectedly attacked by two companies of Austrians, who, firing on them from different points, barely gave them them time to take refuge in the house and hastily barricade the doors, leaving fields. several dead and wounded in the Italian soldiers After barricading hastily the doors the ran to the win¬ dows on the first floor and began to pour a steady fire into the assailants, who circle, were gradually advancing in a semi¬ and replying vigorously. The sixty Italians were commanded by two subalterns and a captain, a tall, old fellow, lean and severe, with white hair and moustaches; with them was a Sardinian drummer boy, a boy not much more than fourteen years old, and who scarcely appeared to he twelve; he was small, with olive brown face and two -captain sparkling little directing deep the black defence eyes. The was from a ■window on the first floor, shouting his ■orders like pistol shots and with no sign of emotion on his hard face. The drum¬ mer his boy, who was a little pale, but firm stretching on legs, got his up neck on a table and was out to see out of the windows and leaning against the wall; through forms the smoke Austrians, he saw who the white uni¬ of the were slowly advancing situated through the fields. The house was on a summit of a steep slope and on the side towards the slope had but one small window, high up, which looked out from the garret; therefore the Austrians did not threaten the house from that side and the slope was clear; their fire was directed only toward the front and two sides. • It was a hail of leaden bullets, which on the outside cracked the walls and ■crumbled the tiles, and on the inside smashed ceilings, furniture, window frames, and door posts, filling the air with splinters, clouds of plaster and bits of pottery and glass; hissing, re¬ with bounding, crashing fit drive into everything a noise to one mad. From time to time one of the soldiers who were firing floor, from the windows fell hack on the and was dragged to one side. Some tottered from room to room, pressing their hands on their wounds. In the kitchen there was al¬ ready one dead man, with a hall through his forehead. The semi-circle of the ■enemy kept closing up. All at once the captain, who until then had been impassible, was seen to show signs of uneasiness and to stride •out of the room followed by a sergeant. About three minutes afterwards the ser¬ geant came running back and called the drummer boy, beckoning him to follow. The hoy ran after him up a woodeu stair case, and went with him into an •empty garret, where he saw the captain, who was writing with a pencil on a sheet of paper, leaning against the win¬ dow; with a well-rope on the floor at his feet. The captain folded the paper and looking with his cold, grayish eyes, be¬ fore which all the soldiers trembled, into the eyes of the boy, said abruptly: “Drummer boy 1” The drummer boy -saluted. The captain said: lighted “You’ve got grit.” “Y T The captain,” boy’s eyes he answered. up. es, “Look down there,” said the captain, rushing him to the window, “in the jplain, near tho houses of Villafranca, where there is a glittering of bayonets. Those arc our friends, standing idle. Take this note, catch hold of the rope, slide down from the window, run down the hill, go through the fields and give the note to the first officer you see. Chuck away your belt and knapsack.” The boy took off liis belt and knap¬ sack and put the note in his breast pock¬ et; the sergeant threw out the rope and grasped one end of it with both hands; the captain helped the boy to pass back¬ wards through the little window. “Take care,” he said to him, “the safety of the detachment depends on your courage and on your legs.” “Trust me, captain,” replied the drummer boy, swinging himself out. “Stoop as you go down,” said the captain hold again, helping the sergeant to the rope. “Never fear.” > “Godhelp you!” the In a few minutes boy was on the ground; the sergeant drew up the rope and disappeared; the captain sprang to the window and saw the boy flying down the hill. succeeded He was in already hoping that he when had five six little escaping unobserved, dust or clouds of which rose behind from the the ground warned both that before had and boy him he been seen by the Austrians, who were firieg at him from the top of the hill. Those little clouds were earth thrown up by the bullets. But the hoy contin¬ ued to run at a breakneck pace. All at once he fell. “Killed!” roared the captain, biting his fist. But he had scarcely said the word when he saw the hpy get up. “Ah! only a fall!” he said to himself, and breathed again. In fact, the boy began to run again as fast as he could, hut he limped. the captain. “A sprained ankle, ” thought A few more little clouds of dust rose here and there around the boy, but they were always farther off. The captain gave an exclamation of triumph. But he continued to follow him anxiously with his eyes, because it was a question of minutes; if he did not get down there as quickly as possible with the note, which requested immediate re¬ lief, either all his soldiers would be killed or he would have to surrender and become prisoners with them. The hoy ran swiftly slackened for a while and then limped and his pace, and then broke into a run again, but he seemed to become more and more fatigued, and every little while stumbled and paused for a moment. * “Perhaps he has been hit by a glanc¬ ing shudderingly bullet,” thought watched the captain, his and he all move¬ ments, and encouraged him and spoke to him as if the boy could hear him; he measured incessantly with keen eyes the distance interposing between the run¬ ning boy and the glittering of arms which he saw down there in the plain in the midst of the wheat fields, gilded by the sun. And meanwhile he heard the whistling and the noise of the bullets in the rooms below, the imperious and an¬ gry cries of the officers and sargeants, the groans of the wounded and the crashing of the furniture and plaster. “Up! courage!” he cried, following with his gaze the distant boy. “Forward! run! he he has stopped, curse him! Ah! is running again.” An officer came, out of breath, to say that the enemy, without ceasing their fire, were waviug a white flag as a sum¬ mons to surrender. “Don’t answer!” re¬ moving already his the eyes from but the boy, who was in plain, who was no longer dragging running, and who appeared difficulty. to be himself along with “But get on! run!” said the capta'n, grinding his teeth and clenching his lists; “kill yourself, die, scoundrel, but go on!” Then a horrible oath burst from him. “Ah! the infamous coward! he has sat down!” In fact, the boy, whose head till now he had seen projecting above a wheat field, had disappeared, as if he had fallen. But in a moment his head came into view again; finally he was lost be¬ hind the hedges, and the captain saw him no more. He then flew down stairs; it was rain¬ ing bullets; the rooms were encumbered with the wounded, some of whom reeled about like drunken men, catching at the furniture; walls and floors were spat¬ tered with blood; corpses were lying across the doors; the lieutenant’s arm had been broken by a hall; everything was in a whirl of smoke aud dust. “Courage!” yelled the captain. Stick to your posts! Relief is coming! Cour¬ age for a little longer!” had drawn yet, The Austrians nearer their contorted faces loomed through the smoke; above the rattle of the firing rose their savage cries, insulting, de¬ manding surrender, threatening slaugh¬ ter. Occasionally a soldier, terror stricken, retreated from the window; the sergeant drove him back, but the defenders’ fire was slackening; their faces showed discouragement; it was impossible Suddenly to prolong the resistance. the firing of the Austrians slackened and a thundering voice shouted, first in German, then in Italian: “Surrender!” “No!” howled the captain from a window. And the firing began again steadier and fiercer on both sides. More soldiers fell. Already more than one window was without defenders. The fatal mo¬ ment was close at hand. The captain was muttering between his teeth in a broken voice: “They’re not coming! They’re not coming!” and he ran furi¬ ously about, twisting his sabre in his clenched hand ; resolving to die, when a Sergeant, coming down from the garret cried in a loud voice: Tney’re coming'/’ “They’re coming,” the captain re peated with a shout of joy. At this all shout, unhurt, wounded, Sergeants and officers rush to the windows, and once more the resistance grew fierce. A few moments after a sort of uncertainty and beginning of disorder were remarked in the enemy. Immediately, in grea. haste, the captain formed a small company down stairs, with fixed bayonets, ready to make a sally. Then he flew up stairs again. He had scarcely got up there when they heard a heavy tread, accom pan led by a formidable hurrah, and from the widows they saw advancing through thei smoke the two-cornered hats of the Italian carbineers, a squadron dashing along sword at blades full speed brandished and the the flashing de- of in air, scending on the heads, shoulders and backs of the enemy. Then the little troop rushed out of the door with low¬ ered bayonets; the enemy wavered, be¬ came disordered and took flight; the ground remained cle ir, the house was free, and a short time after the height was occupied by two battalions of in¬ fantry and two cannons. his remaining sol¬ diers,rejoined The captain, with regiment,fought again his and was slightly wounded in the left hand by a glancing hall, in the last bay¬ onet charge. The day ended in victory for us. But the day after, Italians the fight having begun again, the were resistance, over¬ whelmed, superior in spite numbers of a brave of the Aus¬ by the of the 2(ith trians, aud on the morning they were compelled to retreat sorrow fully toward the Mincio. although wounded, The captain, marched on foot with his soldiers, who were tired and silent, and toward sunset reached Goito on the Mincio and imme¬ diately sought out his lieutenant, who had been picked up, with who a broken had arrived arm, by our ambulance, and there first. He was directed to a church, where a field hospital had hastily been installed. He went there. The church was full of wounded, reclining on two rows of beds and mattresses stretched on the floor; two doctors and various as¬ sistants were going and coming, and stifled cries and groans were heard. On entering, the captain stopped and looked about him, in search of his offi¬ cer. Just then he heard a faint voice close by balling him: He turned around: it was the drum¬ mer boy; he was stretched on a trestle bed, covered up to the chest by a coarse window curtain with little red and white squares, with his arms out; he was pale and thin, but with his eyes still spark¬ ling, like two black gems. “Are you here?” the captain asked him in an astonished hut stern manner. “Bravo! You did your duty.” the “I did what I could, ’ answered drummer boy. “Have vou been wounded?” said the captain, looking around for his officer in the beds near by. have?” said the “Wbat "would you hoy, who took courage to speak from the proud pleasure of being wounded for the first time, and without which he would not have dared to open liis mouth in the presence of the captain. “1 had to run like a hunchback, they saw mo immediately. I should have arrived twenty minutes sootier if they hadn’t hit me. Fortunately I found a staff captain directly to whom to give the note. But it was hard coming down after that lick 1 I was shouldn’t dying of thirst, there, kept thinking that I get and was crying with rage to think that every minute’s delay some one was going to the other world up there at the house, Bah! I did what I could. Iam con- tented. But, allow me, captain. Look at yourself. You are bleeding.” In fact, from the captain’s badly bandaged palm a few dtops of blood were “Do trickling down his fingers. captain? you Hold want to tighten the bandage, it out a moment.” The captain held out his left hand, and put out his right to help the boy undo and retie the knot; hut no sooner had the boy raised himself from the pil¬ low than he grew pale, and was com¬ pelled to rest his head again. looking “Enough, him enough,” said the captain, at and drawing away his bandaged hand, which the boy wished to keep; thinking “take care of yourself instead of of others, because even slight they things can become serious when The are neglected.” drummer hoy shook his head. “But you,” said the captain, looking at him attentively, “you must have lost a good deal of blood, to be as weak as that.” “Lost much blood? -> atl8We red the boy witi a smiIe- “More than blood. Look!” And with a jerk he pulled off the cov er ; D (f r j' be captain but’one stepped back, horrified, The boy had leg; his left leg had been amput ated above the knee and the 8tump was bandaged with rags which were covered with blood, Just then a fat little army surgeon p a g S ed in his shirt sleeves, “Ah, captain,” he said, quickly, nod d ; n g a t. the drummer boy, “that is an unfortunate case: one leg which could bave beell saved easily if he had not f orced jj j n that mad way; a cursed in fammation; it had to he cut off at once. Q bi bu j. a brave boy t assure; bedidn’t shcd a tear noi utter a cry! On rnv word of honor. I was proud he was an kalian hoy, while I was operating. lie came of good stock.” away. The captain frowned and looked in¬ tently at the drummer boy while draw¬ ing the covering without over him again; it, then and slowly, almost knowing still looking at him, he raised his hand to his head and lifted his cap. “Captain!” exclaimed the boy in sur¬ prise, “what are you doing; captain—to me:” And then the rough soldier, who had never said a gentle word to au inferior, replied in voice: an inexpressibly soft aud af¬ fectionate Then “I am but threw a captain; himself you with are a hero.” he open arms on the little drummer boy, aud kissed him three times on the heart.— Cosmo¬ politan. Agricultural Hands in Mexico. The Pabellon National newspaper has agricultural been exposing laborers the ill-treatment haciendas to in which oil re¬ mote parts of Mexico are subjected. It says that in some districts of the State of Chiapas the indigenes are ignorant of the existence of hats, since they never cover the head. These wretched peons hire themselves out as beasts of burden to whomsoever desires to lease them. The arrangement is made on this basis: Wages $4 per month, with from $25 to $30 in advance. The obligation of the Indian draught animal is to fetch and carry on his hack the load committed to him, whatever may be the distance. Still more, they are sub-rented without right of receiving any excess of payment. As the poor Indian is never able to discharge the debt which he has incurred through the amount advanced him, he is always a serf. If he dies his children must work out his obligations. Many hacien dados of Tobascoare sub renters of these Indians. Metallic Sap. Curious incidents cocur in this land, and one of them is sufficiently so to ex¬ cite interest. Mrs. Andrews, who lives live or six miles from town, brought re cently to the drug store ol Mr. 1 or ter a quantity of a certain metul resembling what is known as babbitt, or pewtei, hut which, on being struck with a piece of steel, gave forth a clear ringing sound, as of silver. Mrs. Andrews ac count of the metal is as follows; < me of her sons, during the cold snap, had cut down a tree and put parts ot it ou the life f°r fuel. Presently, when the tire had well burned, tins metal began to pour from an opening in the stick of wood, falling on the hearth in trout of the fire. 1 his metal was gathered up m the shape it had taken on the hearth, while among the ashes particles of the same metal were found. lhe quantity was supposed to be several pounds, and all pronounce it of queer origin. — Oftensboro (N.C.) 11