nly thing that consoled me while having to endure the
anguish of eatin' that bone was the thought of your watchful sympathy!'
Which bein' the case, I'd thank you to tell me whar I can find my
gov'ment."

"Ai-yi!" said old Sally. "I ain't seein' no bone this deal. Just a lettle
green gourd 's all I see with my strongest specs."

Mary Carmichael, in one of the inner rooms, was writing a home letter,
which was chiefly remarkable for what it failed to relate. It gave long
accounts of the scenery, it waxed didactic over the future of the country;
but the adventures of the trip, with her incidental acquaintance with the
Daxes and Chugg, were not recorded. Eudora announced the arrival of Mrs.
Yellett, and Mary, at the news, dropped the contents of her portfolio and
started up with much the feeling a marooned sailor might have on hearing a
sail has been sighted. At this particular stage of her career Miss
Carmichael had not developed the philosophy that later in life was
destined to become her most valuable asset. Her sense of humor no longer
responded to the vagaries of pioneer life. The comedy element was coming a
little too thick and fast. She was getting a bit heart-sick for a glimpse
of her own kind, a word with some one who spoke her language. And here, at
last, was the woman who had written such a charming letter, who had so
graciously intimated that there was room for her at the hearth-stone. Mary
was, indeed, eager to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Yellett.

To the end of her life she never forgot that first meeting--the perfect
confidence with which she followed Eudora to the open room, the ensuing
blank amazement, the utter inability to reconcile the Mrs. Yellett of the
letter with the Mrs. Yellett of fact. The lamp on the table, burning
feebly, seemed to burst into a thousand shooting-stars as the girl
struggled with her tears. Home was so far, and Mrs. Yellett was so
different from what she had expected! And yet, as she felt her fingers
crush in the grip of that hard but not unkindly hand, there was in the
woman's rugged personality a sustaining quality; and, thinking again of
Archie's prospects, Mary was not altogether sorry that she had come.

"You be a right smart young maverick not to get lost none on this long
trail, and no one to p'int you right if you strayed," commented Mary's
patroness, affably. "But we won't roominate here no longer than we can
help. It's too hard on old Ma'am Rodney. She's just 'bout th