handed Shorty a badly-thumb-marked
and blotted yellow envelope, on which was scrawled in a very schoolish
hand:

"To Mister Corpril Elliott,
"Co. Q, Two Hundred Injianny
Volintears,

"Chattynoogy, 10-S-E."

Opening it he read:

Mister Shortee

U ar a Frawd!!! That's what U ar!!!

Whairz mi Gunn??????

U ar a long-shanked, brick-topt Frawd & a promisbraker!!!

Whairz mi Gunn???

U hav now bin away a hole month, & I haint seen no Gunn!

Awl the boiz is makin fun ov Me, bekaws I blowed around bout
the Gunn I waz going 2 git, & I didn't git none.

Whairz mi Gunn???

I likked Ans. Beechum till he hollered nuff, for teezin Me
bout mi Gunn. That's quiled the other boiz.

But I want mi Gunn!

I have just lots & Gobs 2 tell U, bout what Maria's bin
sayin bout yore saffron head, but I shant write a word till
I git mi Gunn!

I wont tell U how the girls is pleggin her bout her Big
Sunflower till I git mi Gunn!

If U doant send mi Gunn rite off He tel Maria everything I
no.

I tel U now. He spile yore fun

Onless at once U send mi Gunn.

Yores til deth,

SAMUEL WOGGLES.

The reception of this perturbed Shorty to his depths. He had not
forgotten his promise to Sammy--merely postponed its execution under
the pressure of other engrossments. He reproached himself for not
remembering how eagerly the boy had been looking forward to a possession
which would make him the envy of the other boys--really hated by them
for his towering and undeserved fortune.

"And Maria and the girls is talkin' about me," he communed with himself.
"I knowed that my left ear hadn't bin burnin' ever since we crossed
the Ohio River for nothin'. I thought it was because it'd got so tender
layin' on pillers that the blankets chafed it. Now I understand it. And
I can't hear nothin' of what they've bin sayin' till I git that gun to
Sammy. I'll start it to him this day, if it takes a leg. I'd intended to
go over to the camp o' the Maumee Muskrats today, on a missionary, tower
with them new tricks I brung back with me, but I'll put in the time
gittin' Sammy's gun and shippin' it to him. Wonder where I kin pick up a
rebel musket and trimmins'?" Shorty did not find this so easy as he had
anticipated. Generally, rebel guns had been a drug in the market. They
could be found lying around camp almost a