brief nod. The old man
handed Ralph his whip, and returned him the fur coat; which Ralph
was glad enough to put on, for the morning was bitterly cold, and
Ralph--enfeebled by his illness--felt it keenly. In another five
minutes, the carts were in motion across the bridge, and then away
due south.

For half an hour Ralph walked by the side of his cart and--being,
by that time, thoroughly warm--he jumped up in the cart and rode,
during the rest of the day; getting down and walking--for a short
time only--when he found his feet getting numbed with the cold.

In the afternoon they arrived at La Ferte, some fifteen miles from
Orleans. There they remained for the night. There were not very
many troops here, and Ralph could have obtained a bed by paying
well for it; but he feared to attract attention by the possession
of unusual funds and, therefore, slept in a hay loft; afraid, in
spite of his fur coat, to sleep in the open air.

The next morning the train was divided, twenty of the carts going
down towards Romorantin; while the rest--now fifteen in
number--kept on towards Salbris. Ralph's cart formed part of this
latter division. The night after they left La Ferte, they halted at
La Motte Beuvron, where there was a strong force of Germans. The
following day only four carts continued their route to Salbris,
Ralph happening again to be among them. He had regretted two days
before that he had not formed part of the division for Romorantin,
as from that place he would have been less than twenty miles from
Tours, which the Prussians had not yet entered; but as he had the
good fortune to go on to Salbris, he did not mind--as Salbris, like
Romorantin, was one of the most advanced stations.

They arrived late in the afternoon, and the carts were at once
unloaded. The sergeant in charge told them to wait, while he got
their papers for them; and in ten minutes he returned.

"You will have tomorrow to rest your horses, and the next day a
train will start for the north. Your work is over now, as there is
nothing to go back. Here are the passes for you, saying that you
have carried goods down here for the army; and are therefore to
return back, without your carts being further requisitioned."

Ralph put up his horse and cart for an hour in the village, while
he went to search for some farm house upon which no Prussian
soldiers were quartered. He was unable, for some time, to find one;
but at last, over a mile from the town, he fo