before was the Twenty-third Infantry after
they came back from the Islands. He's never even been out of the
States."

"But where did he get it from?" asked Whitney. "His imagination is equal
to most anything but gettin' so many facts straight. Of co'se I noticed
things yere an' there--but the most of it was O. K."

"I tell you," said Hansen, grinning, "he got it from an old Fourteenth
man--Dan Powerss--at practice camp last Chuly. He an' I wass often
talking of China. He wuss in my old company an' wass then telling me how
he an' the other fellerss all that extra chow got. I tank Bill he hass a
goot memory."

"But the nerve of him!" cried Whitehall, "tryin' ter pass that off on us
with Hansen sittin' right there."

"It iss one thing he may have forgot," smiled Hansen.

"Well, who cares anyway?" said Stone. "It was a blame good story. An'
now clear out, all of you. I want to hit the bunk. Reveille does seem to
come so early these cold mornin's. Gee! I wish I knew of some kind of
button that would keep _me_ lyin' down when Shorty wants me to get up
an' call the roll."

THE SPECTER BRIDEGROOM

BY WASHINGTON IRVING

The Specter Bridegroom

A TRAVELER'S TALE[2]

BY WASHINGTON IRVING

He that supper for is dight,
He lyes full cold, I trow, this night!
Yestreen to chamber I him led,
This night Gray-Steel has made his bed.
SIR EGER, SIR GRAHAME, AND SIR GRAY-STEEL.

On the summit of one of the heights of the Odenwald, a wild and romantic
tract of Upper Germany, that lies not far from the confluence of the
Main and the Rhine, there stood, many, many years since, the Castle of
the Baron Von Landshort. It is now quite fallen to decay, and almost
buried among beech trees and dark firs; above which, however, its old
watch tower may still be seen, struggling, like the former possessor I
have mentioned, to carry a high head, and look down upon the neighboring
country.

The baron was a dry branch of the great family of Katzenellenbogen,[3]
and inherited the relics of the property, and all the pride of his
ancestors. Though the warlike disposition of his predecessors had much
impaired the family possessions, yet the baron still endeavored to keep
up some show of former state. The times were peaceable, and the German
nobles, in general, had abandoned their inconvenient old castles,
perched like eagles' nests among the mountains, and had built more
convenient residences in the valleys;