e glance at the little lady
now being lifted up to shake hands with the carriage folk, after being
loaded with compliments and congratulations by the ladies of the two
favored tables.

"Not at all," was the prompt reply. "He is a volunteer officer she never
set eyes on before to-day. I _would_ like to know what was on that
paper."

But now the roar of cheering and the blare of martial music had reached
the very gateway. The broad portals were thrown open and in blue and
brown, crushed and squeezed by the attendant throng, the head of the
column of infantry came striding on to the pier. The band, wheeling to
one side, stood at the entrance, playing them in, the rafters ringing to
the stirring strains of "The Liberty Bell." They were still far down the
long pier, the sloping rifles just visible, dancing over the heads of the
crowd. No time was to be lost. More tables were to be carried, but--who
but that--"that little army woman" could give the order so that it would
be obeyed. Not one bit did the president like to do it, but something had
to be done to obtain the necessary order, for the soldiers who so
willingly and promptly obeyed her beck and call were now edging away for
a look at the newcomers, and Mrs. Frank Garrison, perched on the carriage
step and chatting most vivaciously with its occupants and no longer
concerning herself, apparently, about the Red Cross or its tables, had
the gratification of finding herself approached, quite as she had
planned, by two most prominent and distinguished women of San Francisco
society, and requested to issue instructions as to the moving of the
other tables. "Certainly, ladies," she responded, with charming smiles.
"Just _one_ minute, Mildred. Don't drive farther yet," and within that
minute half a dozen boys in blue were lugging at the first of the tables
still left on the crowded side of the dock, and others still were bearing
oil stoves, urns and trays. In less time than it takes to tell it the
entire Red Cross equipage was on its way across the pier, and when the
commanding officer of the arriving regiment reached the spot which he had
planned to occupy with his band, his staff and all his officers, there in
state and ceremony to receive the citizens who came in swarms to bid them
farewell, he found it occupied by as many as eight snowy, goody-laden
tables, presided over by as many as eighty charming maids and matrons,
all ready and eager to comfort and revive the inner man