ng good-humoredly until her sides shook, at some witticism
addressed to her.

She welcomed us very cordially, but to our inquiry, "Can you
accommodate us?" her reply was, "Not I. I have got twice as many people
now as I know what to do with. I have had to turn my own family out of
their quarters, what with the commissioners and the lot of folks that
has come in upon us."

"What are we to do, then? It is too late and stormy to go up to
Shanty-town to seek for lodgings."

"Well, sit you down and take your supper, and we will see what we can
do."

And she actually did contrive to find a little nook, in which we were
glad to take refuge from the multitudes around us.

A slight board partition separated us from the apartment occupied by
General Root, of New York, one of the commissioners of the treaty. The
steamer in which we came had brought the mail, at that day a rare
blessing to the distant settlements. The opening and reading of all the
dispatches, which the General received about bed-time, had, of course,
to be gone through with, before he could retire to rest. His eyes being
weak, his secretaries were employed to read the communications. He was a
little deaf withal, and through the slight division between the two
apartments the contents of the letters, and his comments upon them, were
unpleasantly audible, as he continually admonished his secretary to
raise his voice.

"What is that, Walter? Read that over again."

In vain we coughed and hemmed, and knocked over sundry pieces of
furniture. They were too deeply interested to hear aught that passed
around them, and if we had been politicians we should have had all the
secrets of the _working-men's party_ at our disposal, out of which to
have made capital.

The next morning it was still rain! rain! nothing but rain! In spite of
it, however, the gentlemen would take a small boat to row to the
steamer, to bring up the luggage, not the least important part of that
which appertained to us being sundry boxes of silver for paying the
annuities to the Winnebagoes at the Portage.

I went out with some others of the company upon the piazza, to witness
their departure. A gentleman pointed out to me Fort Howard, on a
projecting point of the opposite shore, about three-quarters of a mile
distant--the old barracks, the picketed inclosure, the walls, all
looking quaint, and, considering their modern erection, really ancient
and venerable. Presently we turned our attention