et enthusiasm at this public
mention of their beloved leader of the year gone by. Up sprang the
entire corps, and the rafters rang with the thunder of their cheers--a
thunder that seemed to redouble rather than dwindle at sight of the
silver-haired commandant, smiling in through the opening door.

And from such a scene as that, with streaming eyes and trembling lips
and a heart overflowing with pride, joy, gratitude, and the longing to
throw herself upon her knees and pour out her very soul in praise and
thanksgiving, this devoted mother was summoned to another.

The doctor had fled away from the bevy of friends who had hastened to
congratulate and shake him by the hand. He had finally escaped to his
little den, trying to compose himself, and write calmly and
judiciously, as became a father, to his soldier son. Bud, nearly wild
with delight, had finally been "fired," as he expressed it, from Cadet
Frazier's room by the officer-in-charge, and started for home toward
half-past ten o'clock, when in front of the officers' mess he was
suddenly hailed by a grave-faced professor:

"You're needed at home, Bud," and, running, he found Colonel Hazzard
and his father at the library door, a telegram open in the latter's
trembling hand.

"Not a word now, son. Just read this and then--call mither."

With paling face and suddenly swimming eyes, Bud read the dancing
words:

"Severe action. Graham wounded; left thigh. Serious, but doing
well. Our loss heavy.

"(Signed) MCCREA."

And so they got the first news of the bitter midwinter battle that
ended the days of Big Foot and so many of his band, that cost us the
lives of so many gallant officers and men, among the icy flats and
snow-patched ravines along the Wounded Knee.

* * * * *

But there came a meeting in March that brought surcease for all that
fond mother's sorrow. There came an evening when the battalion, in its
muffling winter garb of gray, went bounding up the broad stone steps
into the old mess-hall, and, stripping off caps and overcoats, quickly
settled down to their hearty supper, for the days were longer, the
first spring drills had begun, and tremendous appetites had these alert
young fellows. The clamor and chatter began on the instant--a merry
riot of chaff and fun. No outlying picket gave warning of the approach
of disturbers, but once again that great-hearted commandant had planned
a demonstr