LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 46, 23 July 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

DAISY'S SERGEANT.

[A Story by the late Fred W. Loring.] Continued.

" Crestle," said the General, " my wife is coming next week." " So is mine," replied Crestle. " And the cottage is not in order, and the carpets are not down," said the General plaintively. Here's the doctor." " I have good news," said Dr Gilbert; my wife is coming next week." " It's a conspiracy!" said General Bullington. " What do they all come together for ? There will be a row here in two days." "That's an ungallant remark,' said Dr Gilbert.

" 1 can't help it," said General Bullington

"Matilda is the Lest woman in the world; but when she comes—well, gentlemen, how do I pass my afternoons now /" " You sleep and you go fronting," said Colonel Crestle.

" Well, after Matilda comes," said General Bullington, " I shall go trouting altogether." With these oracular words General Bullington ceased. Men were detailed to paper and carpet the officers' cottages; and a week after the General icceived his wife's letter that lady was deposited at the door from the ambulance which had been sent to the railway station, a trifling distance of sixteen miles, for her. At the same time Mrs Crestle alighted. The General knew who Mrs Crestle was, and greeted her cordially. " Your husband will be here in a few minutes," he said. "I see you and my wife have travelled together part of the way, so that I suppose you arc acquainted." " We have not yet been introduced," said Mrs Bullington severely. The General felt vaguely that there was a natural antagonism between Mis Crestle and his wife, and introduced them with the air of a in arty i'.

" I am happy to meet you, Mrs Crestle," said Mrs General Bul'iugtcu.

" You are very kind," returned Mrs Crestle. Mrs Crestle was a small woman, and Mrs Bullington a large one; but size is not always victorious in feminine contests.

"Is your husband stationed here?" inquired Mrs Bullington. " Yes, Mrs Bullington," replied Mrs Crestle. " Colonel CiesUe was transferred to this place by ihe same order that sent your husband here." "Ah!" remarked Mrs Bullington, in a slightly surprised tone. "Is your husband a colonel (hen ? "

" That is his volunteer rank," replied Mrs Crestle, sweetly, " just as brigadiergeneral by brevet is Captain Bullington's you know." The skirmish had proved successful for Mrs Crestle. Mrs Bullington realised it, and wondered whether that audacious woman, as she inwardly designated Mrs Crestle, would ever dare to address her as Mrs Captain Bullington. As for the general, he felt that there had been a battle, though he could not comprehend how it had been fought.

The arrival of Cornel Crestle, who was affectionately greeted by his wife, suspended hostilities for a time, and the couple went in to dinner.

Now, what Mrs Bullington said to the general at dinner, only she and her husband know ; but, after dinner was over, the general was seen with his extensive fish-ing-tackle, taking his way to the trout stream.

Two days after this, Mrs Dr Gilbert arrived ; and with her came her sister-in-law. Daisy Gilbert. Daisy Gilbert was uncommonly pretty. She had. curls, and dimples, and smiles fluttering round and across her face. She was lithe and graceful, though petite. She had considerable independence of character. She seldom asked advice, and still more seldom took it. She was in a word a spirited little beauty. By the time of her arrival, there was a distinctly recognised hostility between Mrs General Bullington and Mrs Crestle. They still greeted each other politely enough; but Colonel Crestle did not smoke an afterdinner cigar, as formerly, on the piazza- of General Bullington's cottage ; and a distinct boundary line seemed now to be drawn between the respective premises of the two gentlemen. The arrival of Daisy Gilbert produced a marked effect on the camp. In the first place not only did it inspire the two unmarried lieutenants with a wild passion, which made them drill their men for the most part directly under her windows, especially when a right or left wheel was required. Thereby Daisy's lawn was injured, and her temper slightly ruffled. But, strong as was Daisy's effect upon the gentlemen, still more marked and intense was the impression she produced on the ladies. Mrs General Bullington remarked to Mrs Crestle that Daisy was so gentle and modest. Mrs Crestle replied in acquiescence with Mrs Bullington, intimating that a chief charm of Daisy was that she never gave herself any airs. To this Mrs Bullington retorted that Miss Gilbert wasn't always "working and contriving to gain gentlemen's attention, Mrs Crestle ;" and Mrs Crestle responded, " that she wasn't so old, that she had to exert herself to do so." The ladies were fast becoming a little broad and inelegant in their manner of scratching each other, being so far removed from civilization. Each looked on Daisy as an adherent that must be won by her side. But Daisy would not ally herself to either the Bullington or the Crestle faction, though she was a great pet with the general, and accepted numberless little attentions from Colonel Crestle.

Now one day, when it happened that Daisy and Mrs Crestle were on Mrs Bulliugton's piazza together, a sergeant came up with a message to the general, which he delivered, and went away. " What a handsome soldier!" said Daisy. " Is he?" said General Bullington.

" My dear," said Mrs Bullington, " you really ought not to notice a common soldier." " He wasn't a common soldier," said Daisy; " for he had braid on his arm."

" The principle is the same," said Mrs Bullington. " But he was handsome," insisted Daisy; and Mrs Crestle laughed. But Mrs Bullington did not laugh. She delivered a short lecture upon the evils which might arise from young ladies looking at young people of the opposite sex; and then, with swift, feminine logic, asserted that such pvils were intensified when there was great social inequality between the looker-on and the looked-on. Daisy stood there, very pretty and slightly vexed, pulling a bouquet to pieces, as the calm stream of Mrs Bullington's discourse meandered gently on. Again the sergeant appeared, and stood before them. Daisy saw him look at her admiringly, and colored; then she observed that his eye fell upon the liowers she held. Suddenly, almost abruptly, she held them out to him. "Do you like liowers ?" she asked. "If you do you can have them." And the sergeant bowed, and glanced expressively at her —his eye was blue but expressive—and then he walked away.

"My dear," began Mrs Bullington; an J then she stopped; utterance failed her. " Well," said Mrs Crestle, " has that sergeant made a conquest of you, Daisy 1 First you called him handsome, then you gave him (lowers; what will you do next ?" "Oh! was that the same sergeant?" said the little humbug innocently. " Of course it was," replied Mrs Crestle. " I think you are mistaken, Mrs Crestle," said Mrs General Bullington, with dignity. " Oh, come now!" said General Bullington indignantly, "let us drop the sergeant." And so the sergeant was dropped. But three or four days afterwards, as the same people were sitting iu the same spot, Colonel Crestle said—" There is going to be a ball to-morrow night."

"A ball!" said Daisy, suddenly brightening up. "Yes," said Colonel Crestle, "a ball over at Porter's Gulch. Shall we go ?" "Oh yes!" said Daisy, "by all means." "Why, Ned," said Mrs Crestle, "justthink what you are proposing! There will be miners and all sorts of dreadful creatures there, and it's fifteen miles from here. Our going is quite out of the question." " I think you are mistaken, Mrs Crestle," said Mrs Bullington. "It is possible for us to go, and I for one should enjoy it. General we will go and take Daisy with us." " Very well," said the general submissively

Now Mrs General Bullington did not wish to go to the ball at Porter's Gulch, but the controversial spirit inspired her to do so. But, of course, it was impossible for her to recede from her position, and so, on the appointed evening, she and Daisy, together wilh (icneral Bullington and Dr Gilbert, entered the huge mountain-wagon belonging

to the camp, and started for Porter's Gulch. Just as they entered that nourishing settlement, Dr Gilbert was recognised and carried oil to attend a sick person near, so that the Bullingtons and Daisy entered the diningroom of the Gulch house, where the ball was to take place, alone.

The dining-room was certainly not an imposing apartment. The ceiling was low and smoky; the walls, unlike those in most of the houses at Porter's Gulch, were papered, but with paper so hideous in its design and color as to make the spectator regret that the laths and plaster, which had, at all events, the merit of simplicity, were hidden from view. Dancing had already began when the Bullington party entered. The room was crowded; there were three sets of " plain cotillions"— wonderfully plaiD, Daisy thought, with a shudder—already on the floor; while fortythree young men with large hands and feet, who had been unable to secure partners, sat grimly in the seats which were placed on all four sides of the ball-room. Such a motley assemblage as that was! Fat women, gaunt women, gray-haired women, and little girls were among the dancers, and a grandmother, if Daisy had only known it, was executing that interesting and beautiful figure known as the "ladies' chain" with her granddaughter.

At one end of the room the orchestra sat in state, composed of a melodeon, a violin, a guitar, a cornet, and a bass trumpet. The performers on these various instruments seemed to have various ideas of time and tune, and continually indulged in little departures from the key in which they were playing. The blast of the trumpet was not sustained, but intermittent; when it did occur, however, it was so powerful as to entirely drown everything else. Iu spite of the confusion and noise, the entrance of the two ladies excited an amount of attention calculated to delight both ladies, had they been voraciously craving of masculine admiration. The " plain cotillion" soon reached its end, and several men thereupon rushed toward Mrs Bullington and Daisy. " The next dance," said one of the rough-est-looking of these, " is a waltz. May I have the honor, marm ? "

" Sir," said Mrs Bullington, in mingled anger and disdain ; " I do not waltz." " I'll learn you how, marm," said the man, with a persistence worthy of a better object.

" I do not dance with strangers," said Mrs Bullington, with her >ased severity. " You'd better, marm," said the man, persuasively. " Women is scarce hereabout, and we'd like to have you and your daughter there trot out a little. We don't want no folks here that won't dance."

(To be continued.)