sk no pay but love.

"I shall depend on being invited to your wedding, then, and yours,
too, Miss Ruth," added Randal, shaking hands with "the little
baggage," as if he had quite forgiven her mockery and forgotten his
own brief lapse into sentiment.

Before she could reply Aunt Plumy said, in a tone of calm conviction,
that made them all laugh, and some of them look conscious,--

"Spring is a good time for weddin's, and I shouldn't wonder ef there
was quite a number."

"Nor I;" and Saul and Sophie smiled at one another as they saw how
carefully Randal arranged Emily's wraps.

Then with kisses, thanks and all the good wishes that happy hearts
could imagine, the guests drove away, to remember long and gratefully
that pleasant country Christmas.

ON PICKET DUTY

"Better late than never."

"What air you thinkin' of, Phil?"

"My wife, Dick."

"So was I! Ain't it odd how fellers fall to thinkin' of thar little
women, when they get a quiet spell like this?"

"Fortunate for us that we do get it, and have such memories to keep
us brave and honest through the trials and temptations of a life like
ours."

October moonlight shone clearly on the solitary tree, draped with
gray moss, scarred by lightning and warped by wind, looking like a
venerable warrior, whose long campaign was nearly done; and underneath
was posted the guard of four. Behind them twinkled many camp-fires on
a distant plain, before them wound a road ploughed by the passage of
an army, strewn with the relics of a rout. On the right, a sluggish
river glided, like a serpent, stealthy, sinuous, and dark, into a
seemingly impervious jungle; on the left, a Southern swamp filled the
air with malarial damps, swarms of noisome life, and discordant sounds
that robbed the hour of its repose. The men were friends as well as
comrades, for though gathered from the four quarters of the Union,
and dissimilar in education, character, and tastes, the same spirit
animated all; the routine of camp-life threw them much together, and
mutual esteem soon grew into a bond of mutual good fellowship.

Thorn was a Massachusetts volunteer; a man who seemed too early old,
too early embittered by some cross, for, though grim of countenance,
rough of speech, cold of manner, a keen observer would have soon
discovered traces of a deeper, warmer nature hidden behind the
repellent front he turned upon the world. A true New Englander,
thoughtful, acute, reticent, and opiniona