the colonnade, would be to become his prisoner. To linger in the shadow of the trees was to wait too far from the colonnade to distinguish one passing figure from another. To know the exact hour was the whole necessity, to reach the colonnade as Louise reached it and spirit her instantly away. Seven bells! What did they mean? Why had he never troubled himself to learn their message? Oscar dropped down on the stone bench in the garden, his head hanging in despair. If to-night the way was blocked, would Louise consent again to-morrow? Oscar's heart sank in answer to the question. and, his cards still in his hand, walked out into the garden. "Oscar," he said, "what do you want? What are you doing here?" The young Dane stepped out from the shadow of the house so that the bright moonlight fell on his light hair and wide blue eyes. "Will you please, sir," he said, gravely, "tell me what time it is?" His master looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean? You didn't come here to disturb me just to know the time. You knew better than that. What has happened?" Oscar looked at him unwaveringly. "Nothing has happened," he said, with "It was nothing, Julia. It's your the same gravity. "I have been stupid lead." and didn't learn the bells. I have lost my watch and I need to know the time, and I can't go into the kitchen for a very good reason." Mr. Benton rose from the card-table, ly. "Give it to me," said Mr. Benton, quickOscar stood looking at him and Mr. Benton also stepped out into the moonlight. They were eye to eye. "As man to man," said the overseer, suddenly, "is there any reason why I should not marry Louise? I am going to run away with her to-night on the stroke of half-past eleven, and that's why I need to know the hour." Mr. Benton stood motionless for a moment, then he took out his watch and looked at it. "You will not run away with her tonight at eleven-thirty," he said, "for it is quarter of twelve now." "No!" exclaimed Oscar, forgetting himself, and stepping forward as an equal would have stepped. "Then I have lost her! She will not consent again," he added, despairingly. "Do you mean," asked Mr. Benton, in the same quiet tones and after another pause, "that the girl did consent to run away to-night with you? Where were you going to take her?" "Five miles off to my clergyman and then home." Here is my overseer, Oscar," he said, as Mrs. Benton, also holding her hand of cards, came out into the garden, looking wonderingly at the two figures. "Oscar," Mr. Benton went on, "has come to ask my permission to marry your maid, Louise, and I have told him to regard the matter as settled. I am very indulgent in all domestic matters, my dear, but I wish it clearly understood that I draw the line sharply at acts of tyranny. They were planning to run away together, so the sooner they are married the better. I desire you to arrange for it immediately. As we have a clergyman in the house, as the young man is here before us, and you have only to ring for your maid, the ceremony can be performed at once in the parlor, with the rest of the servants as congregation." Mrs. Benton stood looking at her husband with dilated eyes. Her delicate draperies fell from her hand and brushed over the gravel walk as she came forward swiftly and anxiously. "Jack," she inquired, tremulously, "are you quite crazy?" "Exactly what I told you you'd say!" exclaimed Mr. Benton, breaking down with a laugh. Mrs. Benton started and turned quickly, then she flushed high in the moonlight and with this change turned suddenly and kindly to Oscar. "Of course-" she began But for those who know the world and its women this story is already finished. WHAT make ye, O mariner, hailing from far, That wagged a loud tongue, when the Bar made moan, This telleth ye not that peril is near But if softest of voices fall on your ear As blinded by billows and blown by the gale Through a mist of gray eyes by dead-reck'ning ye sail; If a tinkle of laughter be borne on the breeze; If a smile like a sunbeam lighten the seas; If in the wave of that golden hair Ye see not a breaker that bids ye beware Then, mariner, mariner, turn and flee, Ye're shoaling fast and the shore is lee; Avast! and About! Ahoy, all hands! Every reef-point untie, loose gaskets and bands, Alow and aloft set all that will draw And everything taut, to windward to claw. It is, Ready! About! and Helm a-lee Your safety lies in the open sea! THE UNITED STATES ARMY BY FRANCIS V. GREENE (Late Major-General U. S. V.) S soon as the treaty of peace was ratified, in February, 1815, the army was reduced to 10,000 men, consisting of eight regiments of infantry, one of rifles, and the four regiments of artillery which in the previous year had been merged into one corps. In 1821 it was still further reduced to 6,000 men, by disbanding one regiment of infantry and reducing the number of men in the other regiments. It remained of that size until the Florida War, which began in 1835. John C. Calhoun became Secretary of War in 1817, and remained in office until the close of Monroe's administration, in 1825. For the first time the War Department was administered by a man of commanding talent, and he impressed upon the army the marks of his ability, which endured for a full generation. He recommended legislation for the organization of the Staff Corps, which was adopted by Congress in 1818 and put into operation under his direction. The departments of the Adjutants - General, Inspectors, Quartermasters, Commissaries, Paymasters, Judge Advocates, and Surgeons, were then organized substantially on the basis which continued until the law of 1901. Concentration of responsibility, economy of administration, and rigid accountability for materials as well as for money, were the guiding principles of the system which he put into operation. In the line he organized the artillery into regiments, and adopted the ten-company regiment for the infantry, which was well adapted to the conditions of his time, although it survived many years after modern firearms had made it unsuitable, and it was only changed in 1898. He fostered the Military Academy, supporting Colonel Thayer in all his measures for its improvement and keeping the corps of cadets at its maximum strength. He first pointed out the necessity of having thoroughly trained officers, and an efficient staff in time of peace, combined with a minimum of enlisted men which could be increased to its maximum in war. In connection with the reduction of 1821, he drew up a plan by which the enlisted strength of a company in time of peace would be only thirtyseven men, but which on the outbreak of war could be increased to seventy-seven, and by making two battalions instead of one in each regiment the army could be expanded from 6,000 to 18,000 men with only adding fifty per cent. to the number of officers. In the two reports which he made to Congress in 1818 and 1820, he set forth the present army as dangerous to with success those that were regularly trained. Genius without much experience may command, but it cannot go much farther. It cannot at once organize and discipline an army, and give it that military tone and habit which only in the midst of imminent danger can enable it to perform the most complex evolutions with precision and promptitude. Those qualities which essentially distinguish an army from an equal assemblage of untrained individuals can only be acquired by the instruction. of experienced officers. If they -particularly the company and regimental officers are inexperienced, the army must remain undisciplined, in which case the genius and even experience of the commander will be of little avail." - Such views as these had never before been put forward by an American statesman, except Washington. They were essentially different from those which prevailed in 1776, in 1783, throughout Jefferson's administration, and during the War of 1812. They were amply justified by the experience of the forty years succeeding the outbreak of the Revolution. They have since been controverted and are to-day disputed, but the significant fact is that since CalInfantry Private, 1810. houn's time the majority has always sustained them, whereas prior to that time the majority had always opposed them. It was during his administration as Secretary of War that our true military policy was adopted of a small but highly trained and efficient regular army in time of peace, supplemented by a large army of volunteers in time of war. This policy has been followed with a very fair degree of consistency ever since 1818. |