and two tumblers, and some winter berries in a jar.

There were two pieces of furniture in the room, however, which were
placed with an eye to attract attention, and these the Girl prized most
highly: one was a homemade rocking-chair that had been made out of a
barrel and had been dyed, unsuccessfully, with indigo blue, and had
across its back a knitted tidy with a large, upstanding, satin bow; the
other was a homemade, pine wardrobe that had been rudely decorated by
one of the boys of the camp and in which the Girl kept her dresses, and
was piled up high towards the ceiling with souvenirs of her trip to
Monterey, including the hat-boxes and wicker basket that had come well
nigh to loading down the stage on that memorable journey.

But it was upon her bed and bedroom fixings that the greatest attempt at
decoration had been made; partitioning off the room, as it were, and at
the same time forming a canopy about the bed, were curtains of cheap,
gaudy material, through the partings of which there was to be had a
glimpse of a daintily-made-up bed, whose pillows were made conspicuous
by the hand-made lace that trimmed their slips, as was the bureau-cover,
and upon which, in charming disarray, were various articles generally
included in a woman's toilet, not to mention the numberless strings of
coloured beads and other bits of feminine adornment. A table standing in
the centre of the room was covered with a small, white cloth, while
falling in folds from beneath this was a faded, red cotton cover. The
table was laid for one, the charlotte "rusks" and "lemming"
turn-over--each on a separate plate--which Nick had been commissioned to
procure, earlier in the evening, from the Palmetto restaurant, looming
up prominently in the centre; and on another plate were some chipped
beef and biscuits. A large lamp was suspended from the ceiling in the
centre of the room and was quaintly, if not grotesquely, shaded; while
other lamps flanked by composition metal reflectors concentrated light
upon the Girl's bureau, the book-shelf and mantel, leaving the remainder
of the room in variant shadow.

All in all, what with the fire that was burning cheerily in the grate
and the strong odour of steaming coffee, the room had a soft glow and
home-like air that was most inviting.

In that brief moment that the Girl stood in the doorway reviewing her
possessions, a multitude of expressions drifted across her countenance,
a multitude of possibilitie