ds, the world will not forget that here was given a
universal banner of peace, and here was signed its greatest treaty--the
treaty of the Red Cross."

As the Major stopped, the Little Colonel looked up at the white cross
floating above the pier, and then down at the red one on Hero's collar,
and drew a long breath.

"I wish I could do something like that!" she exclaimed, earnestly. "I used
to wish that I could go out like Joan of Arc to do some great thing that
would make people write books about me, and carve me on statues, and paint
pictures and sing songs in my honah, but I believe that now I'd rathah do
something bettah than ride off to battle on a prancin' white chargah.
Thank you, Majah, for tellin' me the story. I'm goin' for a walk now. May
I take Hero?"

A few minutes later the two were wandering along beside the water
together, the Little Colonel dreaming day-dreams of valiant deeds that she
might do some day, so that kings would send _her_ a Gold Cross of
Remembrance, and men would say with uncovered heads, as the old Major had
done, "If America ever writes a woman's name in her temple of fame, that
one should be the name of Lloyd Sherman--_The Little Colonel_!"

CHAPTER VI.

THE WONDER-BALL'S BEST GIFT

As the time drew near for them to move northward, Lloyd began counting the
hours still left to her to spend with her new-found friends.

"Only two moah days, mothah," she sighed "Only two moah times to go
walking with Hero. It seems to me that I _can't_ say good-bye and go away,
and nevah see him again as long as I live!"

"He is going with us part of the way," answered Mrs. Sherman. "The Major
told us last night that he had decided to visit his niece who lives at
Zuerich. We will stop first for a few days at a little town called Zug,
beside a lake of the same name. There is a William Tell chapel near there
that the Major wants to show us, and he will go up the Rigi with us. I
think he dreads parting with you fully as much as you do from Hero. His
eyes follow every movement you make. So many times in speaking of you he
has called you Christine."

"I know," answered Lloyd, thoughtfully. "He seems to mix me up with her
in his thoughts, all the time. He is so old I suppose he is absent-minded.
When I'm as old as he is, I won't want to travel around as he does. I'll
want to settle down in some comfortable place and stay there."

"From what he said last night, I judge that this is the last time