f words going on at the moment between half a dozen young
officers who had had their eyes on that particular table ever since the
coming of the command, and were now making the most of their
opportunities before the trumpets should sound the assembly and the word
be passed to move aboard. All the heavy baggage and ammunition had, at
last, been swung into the hold; the guns of the battery had been lowered
and securely chocked; the forecastle head was thronged with the
red-trimmed uniforms of the artillerymen, who had already been embarked
and were now jealously clamoring that the troopers should be "shut off"
from the further ministrations of the Red Cross, and broadly intimating
that it wasn't a fair deal that their rivals should be allowed a whole
additional hour of lingering farewells.

Lingering farewells there certainly were. Many a young soldier and many a
lass "paired off" in little nooks and corners among the stacks of bales
and boxes, but at the table nearest the staging all seemed gay good
humor. A merry little woman with straw-colored hair and pert, tip-tilted
nose and much vivacity and complexion, had apparently taken the lead in
the warfare of chaff and fun. Evidently she was no stranger to most of
the officers. Almost as evidently, to a very close observer who stood a
few paces away, she was no intimate of the group of women who with good
right regarded that table as their especial and personal charge. Her Red
Cross badge was very new; her garb and gloves were just as fresh and
spotless. _She_ had not been ladling out milk and cream, or buttering
sandwiches, or pinning souvenirs on dusty blue blouses ever since early
morning. Other faces there showed through all their smiles and sweetness
the traces of long days of unaccustomed work and short nights of troubled
sleep. Marvelous were Mrs. Frank Garrison's recuperative powers, thought
they who saw her brought home in the Primes' stylish carriage, weak and
helpless and shaken after her adventure of the previous day. She had not
been at the Presidio a week, and yet she pervaded it. She had never
thought of such a thing as the Red Cross until she found it the center of
the social firmament after her arrival at San Francisco, and here she
was, the last comer, the foremost ("most forward" I _think_ some one
described it) in their circle at one of the most prominent tables,
absorbing much of the attention, most of the glory, and none of the
fatigue that should have