pany. He was shaking hands, and explaining, and haranguing to a high
degree.

Dan started. His face of bronze flushed to his temples. He seemed about
to leap from the ground, but then suddenly he sank back, and resumed his
impassive gazing.

The men were in a flurry. They looked from one to the other. "Dan! Look!
See who's coming!" some cried again. "Dan! Look!"

He scowled at last, and moved his shoulders sullenly. "Well, don't I
know it?"

But they could not be convinced that his eyes were in service. "Dan! Why
can't you look? See who's coming!"

He made a gesture then of irritation and rage. "Curse it! Don't I know
it?"

The man with a bandage of the size of a helmet moved forward, always
shaking hands and explaining. At times his glance wandered to Dan, who
saw with his eyes riveted.

After a series of shiftings, it occurred naturally that the man with the
bandage was very near to the man who saw the flames. He paused, and
there was a little silence. Finally he said: "Hello, Dan."

"Hello, Billie."

THREE MIRACULOUS SOLDIERS.

I.

The girl was in the front room on the second floor, peering through the
blinds. It was the "best room." There was a very new rag carpet on the
floor. The edges of it had been dyed with alternate stripes of red and
green. Upon the wooden mantel there were two little puffy figures in
clay--a shepherd and a shepherdess probably. A triangle of pink and
white wool hung carefully over the edge of this shelf. Upon the bureau
there was nothing at all save a spread newspaper, with edges folded to
make it into a mat. The quilts and sheets had been removed from the bed
and were stacked upon a chair. The pillows and the great feather
mattress were muffled and tumbled until they resembled great dumplings.
The picture of a man terribly leaden in complexion hung in an oval frame
on one white wall and steadily confronted the bureau.

From between the slats of the blinds she had a view of the road as it
wended across the meadow to the woods, and again where it reappeared
crossing the hill, half a mile away. It lay yellow and warm in the
summer sunshine. From the long grasses of the meadow came the rhythmic
click of the insects. Occasional frogs in the hidden brook made a
peculiar chug-chug sound, as if somebody throttled them. The leaves of
the wood swung in gentle winds. Through the dark-green branches of the
pines that grew in the front yard could be seen the mountains, far