ead in which all the cares of eight children had scarcely
imprinted a wrinkle, also a kind expression of interest in whatever was
spoken of, with a quiet voice and smile, and a power of not saying too
much at a time, combined to make this lady pleasant.

Without any fuss or declaration, she took me immediately under her care;
and I doubt not that, after two years passed in the society of Suan Isco
and the gentle Sawyer, she found many things in me to amend, which
she did by example and without reproof. She shielded me also in the
cleverest way from the curiosity of the saloon, which at first was
very trying. For the Bridal Veil being a well-known ship both for swift
passages and for equipment, almost every berth was taken, and when
the weather was calm, quite a large assembly sat down to dinner. Among
these, of course, were some ill-bred people, and my youth and reserve
and self-consciousness, and so on, made my reluctant face the mark for
many a long and searching gaze. My own wish had been not to dine thus in
public; but hearing that my absence would only afford fresh grounds for
curiosity, I took my seat between the Major and his wife, the former
having pledged himself to the latter to leave every thing to her
management. His temper was tried more than once to its utmost--which was
not a very great distance--but he kept his word, and did not interfere;
and I having had some experience with Firm, eschewed all perception
of glances. And as for all words, Mrs. Hockin met them with an obtuse
obliqueness; so that after a day or two it was settled that nothing
could be done about "Miss Wood."

It had been a very sore point to come to, and cost an unparalleled shed
of pride, that I should be shorn of two-thirds of my name, and called
"Miss Wood," like almost anybody else. I refused to entertain such a
very poor idea, and clung to the name which had always been mine--for
my father would never depart from it--and I even burst into tears, which
would, I suppose, be called "sentimental;" but still the stern fact
stared me in the face--I must go as "Miss Wood," or not go at all. Upon
this Major Hockin had insisted; and even Colonel Gundry could not move
him from his resolution.

Uncle Sam had done his utmost, as was said before, to stop me from
wishing to go at all; but when he found my whole heart bent upon it, and
even my soul imperiled by the sense of neglecting life's chief duty, his
own stern sense of right came in and si