y, became graver. She was beginning to be conscious
of her incivility, and was trying to think of something to say, when
he exclaimed with a slight air of relief, "Here we are!" and the shanty
suddenly appeared before them.

It certainly was very rough--a mere shell of unpainted boards that
scarcely rose above the level of the surrounding grain, and a few yards
distant was invisible. Its slightly sloping roof, already warped and
shrunken into long fissures that permitted glimpses of the steel-blue
sky above, was evidently intended only as a shelter from the cloudless
sun in those two months of rainless days and dewless nights when it was
inhabited. Through the open doors and windows she could see a row of
"bunks," or rude sleeping berths against the walls, furnished with
coarse mattresses and blankets. As the young girl halted, the man
with an instinct of delicacy hurried forward, entered the shanty, and
dragging a rude bench to the doorway, placed it so that she could sit
beneath the shade of the roof, yet with her back to these domestic
revelations. Two or three men, who had been apparently lounging there,
rose quietly, and unobtrusively withdrew. Her guide brought her a tin
cup of deliciously cool water, exchanged a few hurried words with his
companions, and then disappeared with them, leaving her alone.

Her first sense of relief from their company was, I fear, stronger than
any other feeling. After a hurried glance around the deserted apartment,
she arose, shook out her dress and mantle, and then going into the
darkest corner supported herself with one hand against the wall while
with the other she drew off, one by one, her slippers from her slim,
striped-stockinged feet, shook and blew out the dust that had penetrated
within, and put them on again. Then, perceiving a triangular fragment
of looking-glass nailed against the wall, she settled the strings of her
bonnet by the aid of its reflection, patted the fringe of brown hair on
her forehead with her separated five fingers as if playing an imaginary
tune on her brow, and came back with maidenly abstraction to the
doorway.

Everything was quiet, and her seclusion seemed unbroken. A smile played
for an instant in the soft shadows of her eyes and mouth as she recalled
the abrupt withdrawal of the men. Then her mouth straightened and her
brows slightly bent. It was certainly very unmannerly in them to go off
in that way. "Good heavens! couldn't they have stayed arou