with a tan-colored vine, blue sashes and
hair ribbons; and each held a bunch of flowers in her hand. It was a
costly trinket, in a case inlaid with pink roses, in mother of pearl,
and she was very proud of it.

Grandma's answer to Mr. Miller was a death-knell to Elitha's hopes and
plans in our behalf. Her little daughter had been dead more than a
year. Sister Leanna had recently married and gone to a home of her own,
and the previous week the place made vacant by the marriage had been
given to Frances, with the ready approval of Hiram Miller and Mr. and
Mrs. Reed. She had now come to Sonoma hoping that if Mr. Miller should
pay grandma for the care we had been to her, she would consent to give
us up in order that we four sisters might be reunited in one home.
Elitha now foresaw that such a suggestion would not only result in
failure, but arouse grandma's antagonism, and cut off future
communication between us.

CHAPTER XXIX

GREAT SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC--ST. MARY'S HALL--THANKSGIVING DAY IN
CALIFORNIA--ANOTHER BROTHER-IN-LAW.

"Mrs. Brunner has become too childish to have the responsibility of
young girls," had been frequently remarked before Elitha's visit; and
after her departure, the same friends expressed regret that she had not
taken us away with her.

These whispered comments, which did not improve our situation, suddenly
ceased, for the smallpox made its appearance in Sonoma, and helpers
were needed to care for the afflicted. Grandma had had the disease in
infancy and could go among the patients without fear. In fact, she had
such confidence in her method of treating it, that she would not have
Georgia and me vaccinated while the epidemic prevailed, insisting that
if we should take the disease she could nurse us through it without
disfigurement, and we would thenceforth be immune. She did not expose
us during what she termed the "catching-stage," but after that had
passed, she called us to share her work and become familiar with its
details, and taught us how to brew the teas, make the ointments, and
apply them.

I do not remember a death among her patients, and only two who were
badly disfigured. One was our pretty Miss Sallie Lewis, who had the
dread disease in confluent form. Grandma was called hurriedly in the
night, because the afflicted girl, in delirium, had loosened the straps
which held her upon her bed, and while her attendant was out of the
room had rushed from the house into the rain, and w