Just then the bugle sounded again, from the head of the column, and Prue had to hold on hard, for Hannibal suddenly began to canter, and he answered the music with a loud, clear whinny of delight.
Barry was half out of breath with running, but he kept up with the other two, and in a moment more Hannibal halted, proudly arching his neck, and treading daintily upon the grass, right in front of the regiment.
"I declare," exclaimed Colonel Dunway, "the old fellow has come to review the troops."
"So has Prue," said one of the officers.
Barry hardly knew whether to laugh or to cry, but the soldiers suddenly broke out in a grand "hurrah."
They were cheering Prue and her war-horse, and Colonel Dunway himself was compelled to let the "three children" stay and keep the place Hannibal chose for them at the head of the regiment.
There was plenty of apples for Nibble that day.
SEA-BREEZES.
LETTER No. 2 FROM BESSIE MAYNARD TO HER DOLL.
OLD ORCHARD BEACH, _July, 1880_.
The days must seem very long and lonely to you, my sweet Clytemnestra, and I will send you another letter, to "cheer you up a bit," as nursie used to say when she gave me a lump of sugar, after pulling my curls 'most out of my head, trying to get out the tangles.
How are you getting along all this time? and what do you find to amuse yourself with? Do you sit still in your own corner of the baby-house day after day, or does some kind fairy come in once in a while and wind you up, so that you can run round the room and get a little exercise? We will have lots of walks and talks when I get home, my Clytie. I heard mamma telling Cousin Frank last night that we should proberly go next month. If I did not know that you were at home expecting and wanting me, it would be awfully hard to think of leaving this place; for life by the sad sea waves is truly (as I heard a lady say yesterday) "fassernating and terancing."
There are so many people here it seems like a party all the time. There are not many children, though--at least not at _our_ hotel; only Fanny, Dora, and me for girls; Randolph Peyton, Jack Hunter, Charley Phillips, and Hal Davis for boys; Snip and Moppet for dogs; and the cunningest wee little mite of a pussykin, named Whitetoes, for cats. Not that cats and dogs are exactly _children_, either, but they are just as good, and sometimes better. I'm sure I would rather play any time with Snip and Whitetoes than with that horrid Randolph. He is the very unpolitest boy I ever knew. Let me tell you something he did yesterday, and then I guess you will agree with me. We seven children and the dogs had planned a beautiful picnic down on "the island," as we call it.
You know the geography says (or you _would_ know if you had ever been to school, poor child!) that "an island is a portion of land entirely surrounded by water." Well, _this_ "portion of land" runs out ever so far into the sea, and has a pretty grove on it; and at high tide the water covers the little strip of land where it really joins the beach, so that for a little while it _is_ an island, but the rest of the time it is a _peninsula_. That is a big word, and you don't know a bit what it means, and I can't tell you now; you shall learn about it when we begin our lessons.
But, oh dear, I was going to tell you about the picnic, and Randolph Peyton, the great disagreeable boy. Somehow or other, when I begin to write to you, there are so many things to essplain that I never seem to "come to the point," as papa says.
We had planned to start at eight o'clock, but what with Moppet's running away, and Snip's taking a nap behind a hay-cock down in the orchard, where we only found him by accident at the very last minute, we were not fairly on our way till almost nine. The boys carried the lunch baskets, Fan wheeled her baby carriage, with poor invalid Jane lying back on the pillows, looking too forlorn for anything, but really Fan seems to love her even more than she loved Lucille; and I do think, considering what Jane has been through, that she is the very best child in the world.
Sometimes when I look at her woe-begone face, and her poor little head without a single hair on it (she wears a lace cap, but we can see the _bald_ right through), and remember her cheeks as they used to be, and her lovely golden curls, and then think how gentle and kind she is, never complaining, nor speaking a single cross word, I can't help saying' right out to her, "You poor little dear thing. Solomon was right when he said 'Handsome is, that handsome does.'" Well, Fan wheeled her along, and I carried Moppet curled up in my arms like a white puff-ball, while Dora ran races all along the beach with Snip.
I forgot to tell you that Randolph had been behaving badly all the way, teasing us girls, pinching the dogs, and making fun of Jane; but the terrible thing of all did not happen till we were crossing over to the island. We always lay a board across from a rock on the beach side to a rock on the island side, and over that we girls walk, though the boys generally wade right through the water.
[Illustration: HOW WE LOOKED JUST BEFORE _IT_ HAPPENED.]
Fan and Jane went first on the board, then Dora and Snip, and last Moppet and me.
Now listen, my Clytie, though, without having seen it, you never can quite know how perfectly terrible it was. Just as Dora and Snip were in the very middle of the board, and _all_ of us were _on_ it, Randolph, who was standing in the water, gave a most unearthly screech, and at that very minute-- But, mercy me! there's the tea-bell, and you _must_ excuse me, my lamb, for leaving you right here, for how can I help it when I smell _waffles_?--waffles, and muffins too, I think.
In greatest haste, Your own mamma, BESSIE.
P.S.--It _was_ waffles I smelled, and I thought of you, dear Clytie, as I ate them. Now I shall have to leave my story of Randolph at its very smilax (or climax, which is it?), and finish it in my next letter, for I have written so much my fingers are all cramped up; so good-night.
THE PITIFUL HARE.
FROM THE JAPANESE, BY W. E. GRIFFIS.
Hares are always treated kindly by the Chinese and Japanese people, who make household pets of them. The Chinese believe that the hare lives to be a thousand years old, and that at the end of five centuries its hair becomes white. Instead of seeing a man in the moon, they imagine they see a hare standing on its hind-legs, and pounding drugs in a mortar.
There are great creatures like gigantic men, called genii, who live in the moon, and make "the elixir of life," a draught of which confers very long life. The hare is their steward, and spends his time in pounding the precious roots and bark of the "tree of the king of drugs," from which the elixir is made. In the Japanese fairy tales, whoever smells, touches, or tastes of this tree is immediately healed of all disease.
The country folks in Japan believe a great deal more in the influence of the moon on crops, and good luck, and the weather, than our farmers do, and some of the Japanese almanacs are very funny to read. It is for these reasons that the people do not injure the hare, for fear of hindering the good influence of the moon.
[Illustration]
The hare is considered above all others the faithful animal, and in the story which the picture tells he is comforting his master.
It would seem very queer to you, my readers, to see tame hares running about the house instead of your pet dogs and cats? But this is what the little Japanese see.
[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
MEREDITH, NEW HAMPSHIRE.
I thought some of the readers of YOUNG PEOPLE would like to hear about a young robin my papa found under a cherry-tree near the house. He thought I could raise him, and take him back to New York for a pet. But after I had kept him two days in my room, he would chirp so mournfully when he heard the other birds singing merrily outside that it made me feel so sorry, I took him and put him on a branch of the tree. Oh, I wish you could have seen him flap his wings with delight. Then the old birds came, so glad to greet him.
And how glad I was then that I had given him his freedom!
ALBERTO A. DAL M.
MEADVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA.
I am a subscriber to YOUNG PEOPLE, and am much pleased with it. It is the only pet I have.
I live near the Alleghany College, and I like to see the students drilling. On Commencement afternoon they had a regular sham battle. The military is composed of four companies, all under the command of Major H----. The Major ordered out two companies for the sham battle. One company he sent around the base of a hill, and up through a ravine. The other company turned the cannon round, and made the attacking party surrender as they came out in sight.
WILLIE V.
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI.
I caught some turtles, which I keep in a tub. I feed them on meat, bread, and carrots. Last summer I hatched out two land turtles.
Now I have fifteen turtles' eggs, and I think they will hatch. We found a land turtle that had July 3, 1776, carved on its back. I hope "The Moral Pirates" will catch some turtles. I am nine years old.
C. G. R.