you'd tell us a story about the war in which you took part. Come; we're all ready."

"Very well, my dear; I suppose I'll have to keep my promise. A girl of seven perched herself on the broad arm of a piazza chair; Tommy climbed up on one knee, Billy on the other, and all waited eagerly for the story, which began as follows:

"When I was a soldier boy in the Federal army -I was 19 years old at the time I'm going to tell you about-we were fighting in Virginia. One day the general-we'll call him General Bumble."

"General Bumblebee?" asked Billy. "Yes. General Bumblebee, if you like. He was a real general, but what I'm going to tell you happened so long ago that I've forgotten some of the names. So I'll make 'em up as I go along. Well, General Bumblebee sent for a friend of mine, a very particular friend, and he looked like me, too.

"What was his name?" asked Tommy. "His name? Why, his name wasJohnny Spy."

"That's a funny name. Call 'em all by those made-up names."

"Johnny Spy went to General Bumblebee's headquarters, and the general said to him:

"Corporal'-Johnny was a corporal -'your captain recommends you as a good man to go down into the enemy's lines to secure information.' Now, the Southern general-what shall we call him?"

"You give him his name, grandpa." "We will call him General Gobble." "Turkey Gobble?"?

"Yes; Turkey Gobble if you like. General Bee told Johnny Spy to go down dressed up like somebody else so that the Confederates wouldn't know him, look about, find out what they were going to do and come back and tell the general.

"The next day a farmer's boy with a faded straw hat on his head and rough clothes and driving a cow got mixed up with the Confederate pickets."

"I know who that was," said the girl, Alice. "That was Johnny Spy."

"You're right. Johnny told them that

his home was back of their lines, and they let him go through. But after he got in the rear of the picket line somehow Johnny and his cow got separated and were not seen together any more.

"There were a great many peddlers following the armies on both sides who carried baskets full of cheap watches and jewelry that they sold to the soldiers at high prices. The morning after Johnny came into the Confederate camp one of these peddlers was going about selling watches and scarfpins."

"Was he Johnny?" asked Tom. "Yes; he was Johnny."

"Where did he get his watches and things?"

"From another peddler. You see, the general had given him plenty of money, and he bought a whole basketful. Johnny persuaded a family to let him stay with them awhile and soon found out that they were Union people. For awhile he pretended to be very bitter against the North, but there was a young girl in the family that Johnny took a shine to, and after awhile he told her that he was a Union soldier in disguise. You see, he wanted her to help him get information."

"What was her name?"

"Her name? Why, I reckon we'll call her Eudoxia."

"That's the funniest name for a girl I ever heard!" exclaimed Alice.

"It's the name of a Roman empress who lived at Constantinople."

"Does she live there now?"

"Not very likely, since she reigned some 1,500 years ago. The house this Union family lived in was right in among the Confederate camps, and Johnny Spy and Eudoxia found out a good many things for Johnny to tell General Bumblebee when he got back. It was an awful risky thing to do, for if they caught Johnny they would hang him up by the neck until he was as dead as the Empress Eudoxia."

"What's Eudoxia's short name?" asked Alice. "Eudie?"

"Yes, indeed, Eudie. I'll call her that after this. Eudie was very much worried for fear the Confederates would find out that Johnny was a Union soldier,

and, sure enough, one day Johnny found himself in trouble. You see, he had been within the Confederate lines before, and one of the soldiers recognized him-that is, the soldier thought he did, but when he had seen him Johnny was dressed as a curate. So the man wasn't certain.

"Eudie heard about it and told Johnny. He made up his mind to get out of that region as quickly as possible, and Eudie agreed to go part way with him, for they hoped that the two might pass for brother and sister when they got where they were not known. Johnny wanted to go to his room for some papers, but didn't dare.

In a wood they changed their outer garments. Eudie cut off her long hair that reached nearly to her ankles and fixed it up as a wig for Johnny. They had just finished-Eudie in Johnny's trousers and Johnny in her dress, with her hair coiled up on the top of his head-when they met some Confederate cavalrymen coming from the opposite direction. The general of another part of the Confederate army had received a telegram from General Gobble to head off a young farmer's boy and girl and hold on to the boy. The troopers took Eudie, whom they supposed to be the boy, and let Johnny go where he liked.

"Eudie was confronted by the man who had recognized Johnny. Of course he said she wasn't the one he meant, but, having on Johnny's clothes, looked suspicious. Besides, as soon as they suspected Johnny was a spy they searched the room in which he had slept and found the papers he had left there. They contained information about the Confederate army.

"So Eudie was brought before a lot of officers and tried. They didn't get together to find out whether she was a spy or not, but to hang her, according to army law, which, I fancy, is pretty poor law, but very effective with guilty persons. They fixed it so that they could hang her according to orders, and, since they didn't like to waste any time in carrying them out, she was to be hanged at 10 o'clock the next day."

"Oh, my, grandpa!" exclaimed Alice. "Wasn't that awful?"

"It seems so, but it really wasn't. Eudie could get off by telling them she wasn't a boy at all, but she wouldn't do it till the last moment, because she wanted to give Johnny all the time she possibly could to get away. But she put off letting them know she was a girl till she brought upon herself all the danger of being a spy. She let them put the rope around her neck before she said a word about it. Then they wouldn't believe her.

"Don't hang me,' she said. 'I'm no spy. I'm not even a boy. I'm a girl.'

"The hanging was under the direction of the provost marshal, who said: 'I know what you're after. You want to gain a little time till we can investigate?'

""That won't do, major,' interposed the officer of the day, who was present. 'I've been suspicious of this case all along. I think we'd better send her down to the hospital tent, where there are a couple of women nurses, and find out about the matter.'

"The provost marshal gave in, and they sent Eudie under guard to the hospital tent. When they learned that she was really a girl they asked her what she meant by masquerading as a boy, but she wouldn't tell them, fearing that Johnny hadn't got beyond the Confederate lines and she might compromise him. So they let Eudie go home.

He

"Johnny ran away in the wood and was awfully afraid that when the Confederates found out they had captured the wrong person and let the right one go they would hunt all over for him. walked toward the Federal lines for awhile, then, hearing the sound of horses' hoofs, he crawled into a hollow log. A company of Southern cavalry were going through the wood, and some of them jumped their horses over the very log that Johnny was hidden in. He was sure they were looking for him, but at that time it was not known that Eudie was not Johnny, and his fears caused him to be mistaken. However, they were just as dangerous to him as if they had been looking for him, because if they had found a girl loitering in the woods they might have suspected something.

"Johnny didn't dare crawl out of the log till it was dark. Then he looked up at the north star and walked toward it till he saw lights and knew that they marked the Federal camps. He must have gone through the Confederate pickets without knowing it, for suddenly he heard a click and a voice, 'Who comes there?' He answered: 'Friend. Don't shoot. Take me to General Bee.'

"The picket called a corporal, and Johnny was taken to the general's tent. The general was asleep, but Johnny's information was so important that an aid-de-camp waked him up, and Johnny told him what he had learned. And that's the end of the story."

"What became of Johnny, grandpa?" asked little Bill.

"And what became of Eudie?" asked Alice.

"After the war Johnny went down into Virginia and found Eudie, and they were married."

"Where did they go to live?"

"They came up here to Johnny's home."

"Are they alive now?"

"Yes."

"Are they any children's grandpa and grandma?"

"Yes." "Whose?"

"Yours."

"Oh, my goodness!" cried Alice. "You don't mean that grandma is Eudie?"

"She is."'

“And you are Johnny Spy?" asked Tommy with eyes wide open.

"I am."

"Well, I declare!" exclaimed all.

"Did all that really happen, grandpa," asked Tommy, "or did you make it up?"

"It really happened. The Civil War was so full of such adventures that if they were all written out a million books wouldn't contain them all. Many of our officers and men could tell such stories or could have told them," I added, "for our ranks are as thin as after the Wilderness and soon will cease to be entirely."

Stranger.

BY WILLIAM L. CHEW. (Copyright by American Press Association, 1911.) In the central part of the Crow valley was one of those villages that spring up mushroom-like upon the discovery of gold. Newcomers were arriving from the East and from the West. Among those from the West was a man who seemed to have stamped on his countenance "I have experienced a grief." He had no sooner entered the town than he walked through the street-there was only one street-looking at every one he met as though he were searching for someone. He kept this up until he seemed to be satisfied that he had seen everyone in the town, then discontinued it.

He was a very uncommunicative man and made no friends. His name was not forthcoming, so he soon acquired the sobriquet of Stranger. He entered a claim and went to work with pick and shovel like the rest of the men in the town. When the daily coach arrived from the East he was always on hand. He scrutinized every person who alighted, and when the coach was empty walked away.

"Who is he and who's he lookin' for?" asked one of a knot of men one evening as Stranger walked away from the coach with his usual look of disappointment.

"Want t' know who he is and who he's lookin' for, do y'?" said Bill Stubbs.

"Well, I'll tell y'. He's one o' them fellers who's life has been wrecked by a woman and another man. He's been married and another feller has taken his wife from him. It's my opinion that Stranger's expectin' the feller that robbed him of his wife, and when he comes you'll see a shootin' match."

"I don't think much of that explanation," put in Andy Jones. "I reckon Stranger's been doin' somep'n to git himself wanted somewheres. When he fust come yere I tuk notice he satisfied himself afore he settled down that there wasn't no one yere as knowed him; then he entered his claim and went to work. He ain' tellin' nothin' about himself. He ain't goin to furnish nobody who's huntin' him with information about where he is."