dd--

"I think Mc K. may have left Milk Street, now, and I don't know where
he has gone."

"Never mind; the new comers will know where he has moved to, my dear,
so don't be discouraged; and if you don't succeed, come to me, and we
will see what to do next," said my General.

I blessed her in a fervent manner and a cool hall, fluttered round the
corner, and bore down upon Milk Street, bent on discovering Mc K. if
such a being was to be found. He wasn't, and the ignorance of the
neighborhood was really pitiable. Nobody knew anything, and after
tumbling over bundles of leather, bumping against big boxes, being
nearly annihilated by descending bales, and sworn at by aggravated
truckmen, I finally elicited the advice to look for Mc K. in Haymarket
Square. Who my informant was I've really forgotten; for, having hailed
several busy gentlemen, some one of them fabricated this delusive
quietus for the perturbed spirit, who instantly departed to the
sequestered locality he named. If I had been in search of the
Koh-i-noor diamond I should have been as likely to find it there as any
vestige of Mc K. I stared at signs, inquired in shops, invaded an
eating house, visited the recruiting tent in the middle of the Square,
made myself a nuisance generally, and accumulated mud enough to retard
another Nile. All in vain: and I mournfully turned my face toward the
General's, feeling that I should be forced to enrich the railroad
company after all; when, suddenly, I beheld that admirable young man,
brother-in-law Darby Coobiddy, Esq. I arrested him with a burst of
news, and wants, and woes, which caused his manly countenance to lose
its usual repose.

"Oh, my dear boy, I'm going to Washington at five, and I can't find the
free ticket man, and there won't be time to see Joan, and I'm so tired
and cross I don't know what to do; and will you help me, like a cherub
as you are?"

"Oh, yes, of course. I know a fellow who will set us right," responded
Darby, mildly excited, and darting into some kind of an office, held
counsel with an invisible angel, who sent him out radiant. "All serene.
I've got him. I'll see you through the business, and then get Joan from
the Dove Cote in time to see you off."

I'm a woman's rights woman, and if any man had offered help in the
morning, I should have condescendingly refused it, sure that I could do
everything as well, if not better, myself. My strong-mindedness had
rather abated since then, and I was no