overpowered him.

He had filled his pockets with sugar, and he began with "Clairette,"
feeding the sweet morsels to all his quadruped friends. "Clairette"
lifted her forefoot, begging for one more piece. He laid his head
against the velvety neck of the animal, stroking caressingly the silky
nostrils and around the fine eyes, then kissing her on the white spot
just below. The mare seemed to understand him. She whinnied softly,
and gave him a sad glance of parting. Next came old "Marie." How much
longer would she be able to stand the service? And thus he visited
them, one by one, in token of farewell. The last one was "Napoleon";
but even he showed to-day no trace of his accustomed ill temper. He
gave the strange man in civilian clothes a long look of doubt and
forbearance.

A last, lingering glance to his hundred darlings, and then he
painfully suppressed a tearful sob, and climbed up to his late
quarters to get his trunk.

There he met the sergeant-major of his squadron.

"Your invalid claims, Schmitz, have been disallowed. The colonel says
you would have had to make a report at the time. Now it is too late.
Just as I thought. Here is something for you,--the bill of your
attorney, who has asked the regiment to collect the amount due him.
It's a matter of sixty marks; and if you are unable to pay it he
threatens to seize your property."

Schmitz had almost forgotten about that.

"Within an hour I shall have the money," said he, after reflecting a
moment.

Then he went down to the city and entered the store of a watchmaker.
He laid on the counter his watch and chain and asked in a firm voice:

"What will you give me on this? I need money!"

The watchmaker examined both, and then said, with something of a
sneer:

"Twenty marks. That is all I can give you."

Schmitz calculated silently. He still had thirty-five, and twenty more
made fifty-five. So he needed another five marks. He removed a ring
from his finger, a little gift from his mother.

"What is this worth to you?"

"Ten marks!"

"Good, give it to me!"

Schmitz pocketed silently the two gold pieces, then went to the
barracks, paid the sergeant-major the sixty marks, and took his trunk
away. He was just in time to catch the evening train.

Those who saw this pale, downcast man, with his small trunk, seated
in the car, scarcely supposed that he was until recently a royal
Prussian sergeant, dismissed in disgrace from long service because of
a small