It appeared possible to the minds of the soldiers that the liver-colored slabs of fungus which grew out of the sides of the chestnuttrees and the birches might be as palatable and nourishing as mushrooms. One day they broke off one of these pieces, which was away in the same direction as the first had taken. worms, and saved the crumbs that fell from They disappeared so soon above the tree-tops the table. that he thought the swarm was not far away, but every time he advanced, the loaded bees continued to fly south, until he had moved the paralyzed old rooster by easy stages the whole length of the plateau; and the bees, which came in greater numbers now, rose into the air and flew in a "bee-line" over the top of the southern cliff. Philip was as disgusted at this issue of his bee-hunt, as any fisherman, after wading to his middle in a cold river to humor a shaped like the half of an inverted saucer, and was moist and clammy on the under side. They had a suspicion that such things were poison. They had never heard of any one eating the like, and after they had fine trout, might be to lose his victim at last in the foaming rapids; but he knew to certainty that there was a LOCAL HAPPENINGS CHARLESTON The controversy just concluded between the Cour stewed it in their camp-kettle, inviting as its odor was, they sniffed and hesitated, and feared to taste it. In the end they shook their heads, and spilt the contents of the kettle on the ground, where as soon as their backs were turned Tumbler and five of the sad roosters fell to devouring the rejected food. When the soldiers discovered what their domestic animals were about, the bear was licking his chops and the old For the present the thought of honey was abandoned, and the economy of the camp, where food was now alarmingly low, was cunningly exercised to discover edible things in lieu of the corn, which, after the planting, was all stored in the nine gunny sacks that had fallen from the balloon. The sacks were piled one upon another in a small heap behind the hopper in the mill, and the sad roosters had to shift for themselves as best they could, except the old fellow who was paralyzed, and for him they gathered grubs and roosters were waltzing about in the grass picking up the last morsels of the feast. They regretted their carelessness, and rather expected that before night the old paralyzed rooster would be their only living companion on the mountain. When, however, the bear and the five sad roosters survived the test, and seemed rather to flourish on the new food, the soldiers took heart, and found the fungus not only good but so much like meat that it was quite startling to their vegetarian palates. After eating all of this peculiar food-product that grew on the plateau, they gleaned the field above the deep gorge, and as a last resort they made a hunting expedition to the half acre of rocks and brambles where they had found the mica. Terrible as the passage through the cavern had at first seemed to the mind of Lieutenant Coleman, the lapse of time and a better acquaintance with the interior of the subterranean tunnel made it but a commonplace covered way to the field of mica. Not that the soldiers had any further use for the mineral wealth which was so lavishly strewn among the rocks. It was as valueless to them now, as the buttonhook found in the handbag of alligatorskin. To go now and then through the underground passage, however, if only for the purpose of looking at the world outside from the view-point of their newest territorial possession, was a temptation which no landed proprietors could resist. The little shelf afforded them a glimpse to the south of the Cove road, which on account of certain intervening trees was not to be had from the plateau above. Several cabins with smoking chimneys could be seen in the small clearings which surrounded them, but since the telescope had gone into the avalanche with Philip, there was but poor satisfaction in looking at them. had found some curious reptile. Instead, however, of this being the case, Bromley was kneeling over a scrap of newspaper which was impaled on a dead twig under the shelter of a rock where neither the sun nor the rain could reach it. The torn fragment was scarcely larger than the palm of one's hand, and snugly as it was now protected from the weather, it was yellow from former exposure, and the print was much faded, so that parts of it were illegible. It was possible, however, to decipher enough of the small advertisements on the exposed side to show that it was a Charleston paper, and they knew of course that it must have come by the balloon almost a year before. Undoubtedly it had lain for a long time on the plateau above, exposed to the storms before the wind had tossed it over the cliff and landed it in such a wonderful way on the twig under the cover of the rock. On the reverse side most of the print was was fairly legible. The scrap was torn from the top of the paper and had on it a capital G, which was the only letter left of the name of the paper. The line below read "September (day of month gone), 18-." The center column was headed: FOREIGN WORL The Hon. Charles nowden, M. P., goes down with his yacht-Earthquake in Spain; four distinct shocks felt-No dam e done-Movement of specie. London, September 4th. The steam-yacht of the Hon morning, when a heavy sea was running. They found a single piece of the liver-colored fungus growing on the root of a half decayed orable Charles Snowden, M. P., which was wrecked old chestnut, and even this they regarded as yesterday off the old Head of Kinsale on the south coast well worth their journey. They spent some of Ireland, was this morning looted by thieves. The time wandering about the mica shelf, and when ri plate, carpets, upholstery and fittings, as well as a Lieutenant Coleman und Philip were boring large quantity of storage, sails and stores, were taken. their torches into the ground, one after the Lights were seen from the main land at two o'clock this other, to rid them of the dead coal, and getting ready for the start back, Bromley, who had been poking about among the rocks, called to them in a tone of voice that indicated a very important discovery of some kind. He was down on his hands and knees upon the turf, and as his comrades approached him, he exclaimed excitedly : "I have n't touched it yet. Just come here and look!" Naturally, Coleman and Philip thought he VOL. XXIV.- 106. Later. The Hon. Charles Snowden and the first officer of the boat lost their lives by the swamping of the raft on which they had embarked. Madrid, September 4th. Four distinct shocks of an earthquake this morning were felt in the province of Granada, in the south of Spain. Coming as t shocks have, twenty-four hours later than the ances reported on the coast of Italy by y ws, would indicate that the disturbanc No damage is reported. In from the vineyards. What remained of the right-hand column deception!" exclaimed Lieutenant Coleman. bore, to the soldiers, these surprising words, in "Let us get back to the house at once, and sentences and parts of sentences: determine what is to be done." LOCAL HAPPENINGS, CHARLESTON The controversy just concluded between the Couri Mercury on the strategic merits of the two command developed nothing new. The Sherman Cam ending at the city of Atlanta ably discussed and with justice to the dead Comma the great March to the sea b More brilliant achievement of the war and its in another colum South is satisfie happy endin When Coleman and Philip caught the first glimpse of the scrap of paper, tattered and yellow, they believed it to be some fragment of the Blue Book, which they themselves had discarded. The exposed surface was almost as free of print as if it had been treated with potash, and looked as insignificant as a dried leaf, or a section of corn-husk. Bromley, on the other hand, had examined it more closely, and just as Coleman began to laugh at him, he put out his hand and removed the scrap of paper from the twig that held it fast; and as he turned it over to the light, he was nearly as much surprised as his companions. The three were down on their knees in an instant, eagerly devouring the words of the headlines; and Philip being on the right, it happened that his eyes were the first to fall on the name of General Sherman. Against undue haste Bromley remonstrated feebly, for he himself was laboring under unusual excitement. His eyes were so dimmed by a suffusion of something very like tearstears of anger-that he could read no further for the moment, so he put the paper carefully into his pocket, and picked up his torch and followed his comrades sulkily into the cavern. Upon Bromley's peculiar character, this new revelation had a depressing effect. He still entertained doubts. If the new hope was finally realized, his joy would be as deep and sincere as that of the others. For the present, the thought that they might all along have been deceived angered him. He had an inclination to stop even then and examine the paper more fully by torchlight; but the underground passage was long, and the pine-knot he carried was burning low. He felt obliged to hasten on after Coleman and Philip, who were now considerably in advance. They were still in view, however, and as he held the torch to one side, that which he saw far up the narrowing cavern had a softening effect on his conflicting emotions. He even laughed at the grotesque exhibition; for the small figures of Coleman and Philip were dancing and hugging each other and dashing their torches against the rocks in a way that made them look like mad salamanders in the circling flames and sparks. Such reckless enthusiasm was a condition of mind which George could not understand; but the possibility occurred to him that in their wild excitement they might set fire to the house as a "Sherman at the War Office!'" he cried. beacon-light to the people in the valley; for "What does that mean?" they could never get away from the plateau "It means we have been deceived," said without help from beyond the deep gorge. Coleman. “I—” To prevent, if possible, any rash action on the part of his more excited comrades, Bromley hurried his pace, and in the effort to overtake them, soon found himself leaping over obstacles and dodging corners of the rocky wall in a wild race, which tended to excite even his phlegmatic nature. As he ran on, that magical sentence, "Sherman at the War Office," stood out in black letters before his eyes. What war "We have been the victims of an infamous office? If the paper referred to the war office "Hurrah!” cried Philip, leaping up and dancing about until the rags of his tattered clothing fluttered in the sunlight. "Hurrah! Uncle Billy is alive! He never was killed at all! If that message was false, they were all false all lies! lies! What fools we have been? We must leave the mountain to-mor row-to-night." ment. of the United States, it would have certainly so designated a department of a foreign governIf there were two governments, it would be necessary to say which war office was meant. If the old government in whose military service he had enlisted as a boy had regained its own, the phrase "Sherman at the War Office" would be natural and correct; and with this triumphant conviction he ran on the faster. On the other hand, if the Confederacy had gained everything! at the sickening thought, his feet became so heavy that his speed relapsed into a labored walk, and the oppressive air of the cavern seemed to stifle him. He would reach his companions as soon as possible, and compel them to examine the scrap of paper, and weigh its every word. It was beginning to dawn on Bromley that they had all acted like children; and when he finally came out at the entrance to the cave of the bats into the subdued light under the dark pines, he found Philip and Coleman waiting for him, and clamoring for another look at the scrap of paper. There was not much to read in the fraction of a column that interested them most, but Philip and Coleman were determined to twist the meager context to the support of their new hopes, and Bromley naturally took the opposite view, heartily wishing that the others might prove him mistaken. There was something in the reading of the broken sentences that tended to quiet the enthusiasm of Lieutenant Coleman, and when Bromley could make himself heard, he called attention to the second sentence, "The Sherman Campaign ending at the Atlanta, ably discussed," and "Justice to the dead commander." What dead commander, if not General Sherman? If he had lived, his campaign would not have ended at Atlanta. It was evident that there had been a newspaper controversy in Charleston on the merits of two campaigns by Sherman and Lee-The Atlanta Campaign and the March to the Sea foresaw: that after the capture of Washington, Lee led his army across Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, living on the country, to meet the foreign allies of the Confederacy in the harbor of New York. It was certainly a brilliant military movement. Look," he cried, when the others were silent, "South is satisfied -happy ending-"" "But," said Philip, still obstinate, "what do you make of those five words 'Sherman at the War Office?' How do you get around that?" "Why, my dear boy," said Bromley, "this is only the heading of a newspaper article. It does not mean that General Sherman was at the war office in person. It simply refers to General Sherman's record in the War Department." After all their excitement, Coleman and Philip were obliged to give way to the convincing evidence revealed in the broken sentences. They were too tired by this time to consider the bits of foreign news, or notice the dates, and it was quite dark when they reached the house and went dejected and supperless to bed. The next morning they got down the map, and looked ruefully at the States which Lee must have devastated in his triumphant march. With the consent of the others, Bromley took a pen and traced the probable route by Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Trenton to the Jersey coast of New York harbor. Bromley was determined to lay out the line of march by Harrisburg, and was only restrained by physical force, which resulted in blotting the map at the point where his clumsy line was arrested. They agreed, however, that Lee's victorious army had undoubtedly camped on the lower bay and along the Raritan river, in the country between Perth Amboy and the old battlefield of Monmouth. They were convinced that the map was utterly wrong, for after such a march it was doubtful if there were any United States at all. The disaster appeared more overwhelming than ever, and they hung the map back on the wall-in another place, however, for it was discovered that the rain had beaten through the logs and run down across the Pacific side. Poor as the map was, they were determined to preserve it. (To be continued.) ever that might be. The latter, Bromley thought, was clearly some achievement of Lee's. And then he remembered a prophecy he had made on the night when they had changed the name of the plateau to Sherman Territory. "It proves," cried Bromley, "just what I |