Kitty's Conquest

interest of a strong faction not inaptly termed "carpet-baggers." Few of the Republican party of the white element had been natives and property-owners in

h found its way into our distant household. Its pictures of affairs in the Crescent City were startlin

very grave; Kitty picturesquely doleful. All, however, seemed to relax no effort to make me fe

re had been less damage, though far more display; for by this time there were three parties in the field. Then, however, Uncle Sam assumed the r?le of peace-maker; sent a general thither with his staff (giving him a major-general's title and a major's force), with vague orders as to what he was to do, as I chanced to know, beyond keeping the peace and upholding the law and the constituted authorities. As three parties claimed to be the "constituted authorities," it seemed embarrassing at times to tell which to uphold. Washington officials declined to decide for him, so the veteran soldier hit on the happy expedient of upholding the party that was attacked. This put him squarely in the right so far as keeping the peace was concerned; for whichever crowd sallied forth to whip the other, invariably found a small battalion of bayonets, or on on

et them get at one another. The Lord knows I'd afford them every encouragement. They don't want to fight. If old General F

od that sort of thing just as long as human endurance and their ebbing purses could stand it. They now had organized and risen against the perturbed State authorities; and when that class of men began shooting somebody was going to be hurt. As yet nothing aggressiv

mentioned this to Colonel Summers his fac

go together, and a

l the truth I ought to go, and at once. Will yo

Pauline was seated by her father's side as we ente

all that work. Mr. Brandon tells me he has decided to go at

ld on him very much in the last day or two-an

have,-great ones,-and I wish it were in my power to go myself; but that cannot be, for a fortnight at least; and by that

anxiously regarding her father, but saying not a word. For some moments we sat in general conversat

with a blush that was vastly becoming to her, handed me a letter for the major. "As yet, you know, Major Vinton has not been able to send me his

was looking on

what note or message

us Mars. She looked older, graver, but so gentle, so patient in the trouble that had come into her young life. Whatever that

. The faint shrug of her pretty shoulders, the forward movement of her hands, with open and extended palms,-something so Southern in

to turn sharply away

g his whip and reins; had "chucked" to his sleepy team. Harrod was sitting on the side nearest the group on the steps; I craning my neck forward for a last look at them. Kitty was eagerly bending f

d!" sh

e response, as he bent to

lancing at me, plainly saying, "Please don't listen," then, raised to his bronzed, tender face, as he bent ear towards her lips in response to the evident appea

kissed her forehead. "S

k went the whip, and we ro

here with the warmth and glow of the gladness-giving rays. The windows above blazed with their reflected glory. Even old Blondo's curly hide and Jake Biggs's woolly pate gained a lustre they never knew before. All around the evidences of approaching decay and present dilapidation, so general throughout the bright sunny South years after the war, all around the homeliest objects, the wheelbarrow and garden tools, there clung a tinge of gladness in answering homage to the declining king of day; but, central figures of all,

r?" I gasped, as at last the windi

s a darling!" was the

recisely m

uld not do to let Colonel Summers suspect that of me; neither would it answer to propound any question. We had much t

heir horses were carried had been coupled to the regular train. They had gone, we learned, to Grand Junction; thence down the Mississippi Central.

mfortable, gentlemen; that train's nigh on

hat will ruin our conne

I'd bet high on our being later'n we think for. Once a fellow gets off his s

stretched themselves, "'Lowed t'warn't no use waitin'; could see the derned train any other night just as well," and took themselves and their tobacco-juice off. The lights across the way, beyond the tracks, died out one by one, until only those two were left which represented the rival saloons, s

that the Central would not wait, I only sleepily gazed at the operator. The colonel had gone asleep, and the sound did not awake him. But another moment the expression on the face of the man sitting so

table. He had written half the message, the

a backward jerk of the he

he could get the thing straight

ake him,"

houlder. He started up wi

asked, as he began

It's news from the

w Orleans

but-read f

on, and lips that trembled under his moustache, the colon

s the m

leans,

Sandbrook Station, M.

rously ill; delirious. Post surg

nk A

ther with faces sad and blanche

e your hor

house and barn

or home at once

train was a bles