The Manitowoc Pilot

An Army Kitten.

One evening, toward the close of the war, while Union soldiers lay in camp on a hillside near the Stanton River, Virginia, the cry of "Halt! who goes there?" from a sentry startled every lounger to his feet; and several of the more curious ran to the guard-line to find out what the trouble was. A minute later all knew, that the night visitor who had been challenged was no enemy. A little girl, about ten years of age, holding a white kitten in her arms, came forward into the light of the fires, conducted by two soldiers, who had told the sentry to pass her in, and who looked as proud as if they were escorting a queen.

The whole regiment gathered-including the Colonel himself-to look at the child and hear her tell her story. A very short story it was-scarcely a paragraph; but there was matter enough in it for a full chapter. She lived near by with her father, who was sick and poor; and they were Northerners, she said, "Union folks." She -wanted to give something," and when the Union soldiers came she thought she would bring her pet kitten and present it to the Colonel.

The Colonel took the little girl in his arms and kissed her, and the kitten, too, and said he was not a bit ashamed of his weakness. He accepted the kitten with thanks, and its innocent donor was gallantly waited on to her humble home, loaded with generous contributions.

The white kitten was adopted by the regiment, but considered the property and special pet of the Colonel, and when the war was over he took it home with him. Like the white lamb that staid and fed with the victors after the battle of Antietam, that little creature, during its short but stirring army life, was a daily inspiration to better feelings and thoughts in the presence of all that is worst-a living flag of truce gleaming among the thunder clouds of human passion and strife.--Harper's Young People.