Project Gutenberg's Harper's Round Table, July 16, 1895, by Various

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Title: Harper's Round Table, July 16, 1895

Author: Various

Release Date: July 3, 2010 [EBook #33070]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S ROUND TABLE, JULY 16, 1895 ***

Produced by Annie McGuire

[Illustration: HARPER'S ROUND TABLE]

Copyright, 1895, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All Rights Reserved.

* * * * *

PUBLISHED WEEKLY. NEW YORK. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1895. FIVE CENTS A COPY.

VOL. XVI.--NO. 820. TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.

* * * * *

[Illustration]

HOW JACK LOCKETT WON HIS SPURS.

BY G. T. FERRIS.

A STORY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR FOUNDED ON FACT.

The chips flew merrily under Jack Lockett's axe to the tune of his
whistling, for he was chopping the night's supply of firewood, and the
dark was shutting down apace on the cold January day. He had already
made the horse and the cows snug in the barn, and his young appetite was
sharp set for the supper which would be ready with the finish of his
chores. He looked out on the dreary waters of the bay with the gleam of
a dull twilight on them, and saw shining through the dusk a white sail
skimming shoreward. "Some belated fisherman. Br-r-r, how cold it must be
out there!" Jack said to himself, as he breathed on his frosted fingers
and smote the wood with still harder strokes. This stalwart lad of
fourteen, with his fearless blue eyes and tanned face, looked more than
his years, for he lived in parlous times, which ripened men early. His
father, Colonel Lockett, of the Connecticut line, was away with the army
in winter-quarters at Valley Forge, and his young son had to shoulder a
heavy burden. He could not yet carry a firelock in battle, perhaps, but
he could toil patiently for his mother and sisters, with many a sigh
that there was no beard to his chin, while his brave father faced cold
and hunger in camp or the lead and steel of the redcoats in the field.
When he had lugged in the last armful of fagots, and sat down at the
smoking supper table, the common thought found vent on his lips.

"