plied that I was doing too well in my legitimate business to require
direct pecuniary aid, and unless he could assist me in securing railroad
passes I had no requests to make.

How kindly he did this was manifest from the fact that I afterward
received from Ex-Governor Stanford, who was President of the Central
Pacific Road, a yearly pass, and with this introduction the favor was
readily extended by all the railroads on the coast.

A few evenings before I left Sacramento Mrs. Van Every, from her ever
overflowing goodness, improvised an entertainment for my pleasure and
benefit. It became necessary to initiate Hattie into the secret, but I
remained in blissful ignorance until one evening I received a not unusual
summons to go down to the drawing rooms, when I found myself the centre of
a charmed circle of the elite of Sacramento, the easy flow of whose
conversation was laden with love and sympathy for me, and then was
revealed the fact that each invited guest had received a card, upon which
Mrs. Van Every had traced the words "for the benefit of the blind lady."

"Music with its golden tongue was there," and the halls resounded with
melody, which, with love's sacred inspiration, is sweet as Apollo's lute.

Among the gathered guests was Mr. Charles Cummings and lady, Mr. Cummings
being one of the officers of the Central Pacific Railroad, of whom I shall
speak hereafter. A most sumptuous supper was served, each choice viand
being the result of Mrs. Van Every's culinary lore, which the most
epicurean taste could not but relish.

The light-winged hours brought all unconsciously the time for parting,
and the beauty and chivalry of Sacramento, left laden with books and
baskets which had been spirited from my own room and tastefully disposed
in the parlors; and each good night was blended with a kind wish and
gentle benediction.

Mrs. Van Every, and her sister, Mrs. Fulger, who lived with her, were
ladies of the noblest representative type of the Society of Friends, of
which my life already held such blessed memories. In general society, with
deferential etiquette, they adopted the usual form of speech, but in the
privacy of the home circle they used the "plain language" of their own
organization, hence it became to me doubly musical in its sacred
character.

Before starting again upon our travels, we made Sacramento our home, to
which we could turn for rest in our wanderings.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

"And this our