LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 48, 25 July 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

DAISY'S SERGEANT.

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

" And that was ?" asked Daisy. " And that was the woman to be selected. As I was going to marry for myself, and not for my uncle, I remonstrated. Remonstrance made a row, and I enlisted for three years. The lady in question is married; my uncle is ready to welcome me back; but I insist on serving out my time, which lasts about five months longer. Now, won't you tell me your story?" " Mine!" cried Daisy. " Why, nothing ever happened to me." " I'm very glad to hear it," said Mr Harry Curran. Then there was silence for a little while.

" It was curious the way we first met; wasn't it ?" said Daisy. " Very," said Mr Curran. So, after this, Daisy rode out frequently with her sergeant; and as people generally mind their own business west of the Mississippi, nothing was said except by the private soldiers, who naturally envied their comrade's luck. But one July day, when General Bulhngton sat, radiant in Panama hat and linen duster, under the cotton-wood trees on the bank of the creek, endeavoring to beguile some nnwary fish, he heard the steps of horses, and he heard voices. The voices were soft and low; he looked, and saw Daisy and her sergeant, and he heard them call each other " Daisy" and " Harry." His first impression was that he was dreaming; then, as he listened in astonishment to what they were saying, he felt very young for a few seconds; and then, with an elephantine bound that threw his fishing-pole out into the creek, he sprang to his feet, and cried out, " Stop!" They stopped. They were on the opposite side of the creek ; and the general was forced to elevate his voice slightly, so that the tableau was not entirely impressive.

" What," said the general, sternly, " does all this mean 1 "

Then Daisy began to cry, and the sergeant tried to explain, in a straightforward and manly way ; and the general felt himself growing steadily younger and younger, and finally said—- " You needn't say anything more. I don't know about such things mysi'lf ; but come over to my house immediately on your return to camp." And the pair rode off, and the general walked slowly to his home. ''l never was mixed up with anything romantic before," he said to himself ; " and I never will be again. What right has a sergeant to be no sergeant at all ? And what will Matilda say ? " This is what Matilda said. She advanced smilingly to meet her husband, and said—- " What a charming little romance this is!" "What!" said the general; "you like it ! " "Certainly," said Mrs Bullington ; "it is an excellent match, Why, general, it is

an excellent match. Why, general, he will come into half a million. And the wedding' is to be here in Camp. ..His time is up in! seven weeks now." ... ... 1

• The general eat down.and wiped his forehead. "Well," said: he, ."I do not. understand,women." > ... ••

UNCLE JOB OR UNCLE AUISTIDES?

[From (,'hambcrs's Journal.]

'Well, Harry, baby must have another god-father, and I don't see why Uncle Aristides should not be asked. . He will, I know, accept, and is sure to remember the child.' Thus spake Mrs Highfly to her husband, as over the tea-table they concerted arrangements for the christening of their firstborn.

Mr Highfly apparently paid little heed to his wife's remark, and was about to. ask her to again pass him the toast, when, glancing upwards toward the lady's face, he perceived indications of a coming storm. He could tell from certain outward and visible signs that his Matilda Jane meditated a sudden swoop, so, nerving himself for the encounter, he responded in a mild tone: ' We ought not, dear, to forget Uncle Job.'

The tempest broke. Mr Highfly had been expecting it, but not so soon. The lightning was flashing in his wife's eyes, and the thunder of her majestic voice was rattling about his ears in a couple of seconds after he had spoken. The reference to Uncle Job did it.

'Uncle Job indeed!' exclaimed the irate Matilda Jane, every fibre of her body seeming to quiver with passion. ' Who next would you like to stand to your child V When Mrs Highfly tossed her head, and thus indicated supreme contempt for her husband's selection of a sponsor, his reply was as follows: 'With Uncle Job, my dear, we have the required number, and we need not further pursue the subject, unless, having in your mind's eye—Sbakspeare, dear—the likelihood of other christenings to come, you are preparing a list of eligible persons to keep by you.' Poor Mr Highfly made this remark iu his softest manner, and the little simper with which he concluded would have made it, apparent to any one that he was only giving utterance to a timid joke. Stately Mrs Highfly, however, did not choose to accept it as such, but turning savagely uoon her husband, poured out some scathing remarks. Pausing to see what would be the effect upon Harry, aud observing that he was unconcernedly sipping his tea, she bounced from the room, noisily banging the door after her.

Whilst tlie good lady of the house has gone to vent her spite upon the domestic below stairs, the opportunity may be taken of introducing Mr and Mrs Highfly in a more satisfactory manner. From his youth upward, Harry Highfly had been a clerk in Caghit and Bullion's Bank, in Threarlneedle street, and from being one of the juniors, had risen to a confidential and important position. He owed none of his advancement to influential relatives, since his parents had been humble country-fclk, who died soon after their son came to the metropolis. He was an only child, and knew of no blood-relations but an uncle on his mother's side. Uncle Job Smith, however, was a sort of nobody—that is to say, he had tried a good many things, and had always failed ; he was a bachelor, but liked company ; Uncle Job was, in fact, a 'choice spirit;' his friends always welcomed him when they wanted a bright, jovial, mirth-creating fellow among them ; but the same good people invariably 'cut' poor Job when they met him next day in a crowded thoroughfare. It was all very well to know him in private, but in public it was an entirely different matter. Job was a good-hearted, generous soul, ready to lend his last shilling to any one who asked him ; an act, however, seldom within his power, inasmuch as he was more often compelled to borrow than able to lend. Of course, people with any reputation wouldn't publicly recognise Job Smith, for he had three times figured in the ' Gazette' —three times in fifteen years. Is not that shocking 1 The first occasion was when he was in partnership with Steppit, the grocer in Bristol. A noble establishment they had too. The shop was blocked with tea-chests, but, unfortunately, the chests were empty. The partnership existed for six months, and then Steppit ran away, leaving Job to settle all the claims. A good many people averred Job had been swindled, but he himself did not say much about it. By the way, you would not have expected Job would, for he was never known to utter an unkind or ill-natured word of any one. Harry, however, stuck to his uncle amid this and his other reverses, for the remembrance of former kindnesses lived in his memory. When Harry was in his thirtieth year, and had obtained a good position in the banking establishment, he looked about him for a wife. He is very small of stature, and, following the example of most little men, fell in love with a lady who was above the average height of her sex. Matilda Jane Brownjohn, like her suitor, had but few relatives living—a mother and an uncle. This was at the outset a wonderful recommendation, but it was not the only one. M J. Brownjohn had money—fifteen hundred pounds in round numbers, left her by deceased connections, in addition to some three hundred more saved by careful economy during the twenty-eight years of her existence. She was not exactly good-looking when Marry married her, and has not improved since ; but many people I know have rather a preference for sharp features, a lurid tinge in the hair, a long neuk, and a bony figure. Hairy, for example, considered her a very fine woman —a splendid creature ; and he backed his opinion by making her Mrs Highfly. The lady had borne this honorable title some fifteen months when an heir came to share the family prosperity. Harry, it need scarcely be said, was immensely proud of his offspring, who was reported by every one to be exactly like his father. Had the opinion been vice verm, perhaps Harry would not have been so jubilant, for he had discovered (come closer, dear reader, that I may whisper this) that he had married a ' deuce of a temper, as well as a magnificent woman. Happily the little man was not easily roused : and when she had tired, his goodhumour remained undisturbed, and the wonted merry twinkle of his eye was not in the slightest degree dimmed. When the :'n fant was a couple of months old, the subject of the christening arose, and many a battleroyal was fought over the choice of sponsors. When he had married, Harry had taken a small semi-detached villa just outside Kaling, and their next neighbors being the Foozles, an intimacy soon arose. Mrs Foozle having been tiumiuoned to the bedside of Matilda

Jane at a very critical period, and having, with Mr 1?., expressed a desire to act as godparents to the youthful Highfly, it was impossible to balk--their'wish. Over the remaining, sponsor there easued the gratoi struggle,;.-Harry would'have liked his Uncle Job (whom Matilda Jane seldom allowed withinthe house); but his larger if not better half was determined that her Uncle Aristides her late father's brother, should be selected. Matilda Jaue, be it noted, believed in her uncle, who had passed some years in Australia, but was now an oilman in the Borough, a bachelor, and, by reason of his colonial experiences, claimed to be a very clever and practical man. This gentleman, like Matilda Jane's surviving parent, snubbed Harry, and considered him as much inferior to.them in intellectual and moral attributes as he was in size; so, altogether, a very pretty family quarrel seemed to be brewing over the matter of the christening of the infant Highfly. On the present occasion, the irritable Mrs Highfly allowed her ppouse an hour and a half's peace ere she returned to renew the attack. Harry, being in the calm enjoyment of a cigar, and the latest novel, was indisposed to resume hostilities; but the lady was not to be defeated in her object. She bustled about the place, noisily arranging the chairs, &c, savagely stirring the fire, and ringing the handbell for the servant with such vehemence that at last Harry was fain to put aside his novel, and content himself with smoking and staring into the blazing coals. Mrs Highfly was an adept in all those petty feminine devices for annoying the male sex which seem to be born in some women; so, when she saw that she had succeeded in making her husband forego the exciting narrative which had solaced him in her absence, she began to make comments about the illsavour of his cigar, and the disagreeable consequences likely to ensue to the winter curtains, only that morning brought out, and suspended for the ensuing season. When all else failed to arouse the placid Harry, Mrs Highfly invariably fell back upon the quality of his cigars, which she querulously proceeded to disparage.

To be continued,