TOO BIG FOR HIS PLACE.

THE disturbance in the Deacon's family when Shorty's note was delivered
by little Sammy Woggles quite came up to that romance-loving youth's
fond anticipations. If he could only hope that his own disappearance
would create a fraction of the sensation he would have run away the next
day. It would be such a glorious retribution on those who subjected him
to the daily tyranny of rising early in the morning, washing his face,
combing his hair, and going to school. For the first time in his life
the boy found himself the center of interest in the family. He knew
something that all the rest were intensely eager to know, and they plied
him with questions until his young brain whirled. He told them all that
he knew, except that which Shorty had enjoined upon him not to tell,
and repeated his story without variation when separately examined by
different members of the family. All his leisure for the next few days
was put in laboriously constructing, on large sheets of foolscap,
the following letter, in which the thumb-marks and blots were more
conspicuous than the "pot-hook" letters:

dEER shoRty:

doNt 4git thAt REblE guN u promist mE.

thAir wAs An oRful time wheN i giv um yorE lEttEr.

missis klEgg shE cride.

mAriAr shE sEd did u EvEr No Ennything so Ridiklus.

si hE sed thAt shorty kood be morE Kinds ov fool in A minnit
thAn Ary uthEr boy hE Ever node, Not bArrin Tompsons colt.

thE deAcon hE wAntid 2 go 2 the tranE & stop u. When hE
found hE kooddEnt do that, hE wAntid 2 tElEgrAf 2 Arrest u &
bring u bAk.

But si hE sEd bEttEr let u run till u got tirEd. Ude fEtch
up sum whAir soon. Then thEy wood sHp a bridlE ovEr yore
hEAd & brink u bAk.

i hAint told mAriA nothin but u hAd bEtEr sEnd thAt gun rite
off.

ile look 4 it EvEry dAy til i git it.

mi pen iz bAd, mi ink iz pAle, send thAt gun & NEVEr f ALE.

YorEs, SAM.

As soon as he saw that he was likely to remain at Headquarters for some
time. Shorty became anxious about that letter from Sammy, and after much
scheming and planning, he at last bethought himself of the expedient
of having the Chief Clerk write an official letter to Sam Elkins, the
postmaster and operator at Bean Blossom Creek Station, directing him to
forward to Headquarters any communications addressed to Corp'l Elliott,
200th Ind. Vols., and keep this matter a military secret.