rrested next week for his barn, but he's agreed to let up if
he'd go to the Cubapines. Maybe that isn't true, but they say so."

"I venture to say that it is a mistake," said Sam, who had been much
pained by the conversation. "Young men who are so patriotic in the hour
of need must be men of high character."

"Maybe they are and maybe they aren't," replied the insurance agent,
"but old Mrs. Crane told me she was going to buy chickens again next
week for her chicken-yard. There was so many stolen last year that she
gave up keeping them, but next week she's beginning again, and next
week the Thatchers are going away. It's a coincidence, anyhow."

"Oh, boys will be boys," said Reddy. "When they get a good pension
they'll be just as respectable as you or me. Here comes Tom Slade now,
and Josh Thatcher, too."

The door had opened, and through the smoke Sam descried two young men,
one a slight wiry fellow, the other a large, broad-shouldered,
fair-haired man with a dull expression of the eye.

"Who says 'drinks all around'?" cried the former. "Everybody's blowing
us off now."

"Here," said Jackson, waking up, "I'll do it, hanged if I don't. You
fellows are a-goin' to civilize the Cubapinos, and you deserve all the
liquor you can carry."

He got up and approached the bar and the crowd followed him, and soon
every one was supplied with some kind of beverage.

"Here's to Thatcher and Slade! May they represent Slowburgh honorably
in the Cubapines and show 'em what Slowburghers are like," said
Jackson, elevating his iced cocktail.

The health was heartily drunk.

"And here is to that distinguished officer, Captain Jinks. Long may he
wave!" cried old Reddy.

"Speech, speech!" exclaimed the convivial crowd.

"Gentlemen," responded Sam, "I am a soldier and not an orator, but I am
proud to have my name coupled with those of your honored fellow
townsmen. It is a sign of the greatness of our country that men of just
the same character are in all quarters of this mighty republic
answering their country's call. Soon we shall have the very pick of our
youth collected on the shores of these ungrateful islanders who have
turned against their best friends, and these misguided people will see
for themselves the fruits of our civilization as we see it, in the
persons of our soldiers. Permit me in responding to your flattering
toast to propose the names of Mr. Reddy and Mr. Tucker as
represe