imation that we were to have
one of our late sittings. In confirmation of this suspicion a second
order was given to have certain refreshments, including hot lemonade,
made ready to await our pleasure. When we were once more alone I begged
her to go on with her story.

"We left the rendezvous in May, and traveled without any unusual
incidents all through the summer."

"I beg pardon for interrupting you; but I do want to know how you
endured that sort of life. Was it not terrible?"

"It was monotonous, it was disagreeable, but it was not _terrible_ while
everybody was well. There were compensations in it, as in almost any
kind of life. My husband was strong and cheerful, now that he was having
his own way; the baby throve on fresh air and good milk--for we had
milch cows with us--and the summer months on the grassy plains are
delightful, except for rather frequent thunder storms. The grass was
good, and our cattle in fine order. Everything went well until the
cholera broke out among us."

"And then?"

"And then my husband died."

"Ah, what have not pioneer women endured!"

"Mr. Greyfield had from the first been regarded as a sort of leader.
Without saying much, but by being always in the right place at the right
time, he had gained an ascendancy over the less courageous, strong and
decided men. When the cholera came he was continually called upon to
nurse the sick, to bury the dead and comfort the living."

"And so became the easier victim?"

My remark was unheeded, while my hostess lived over again in
recollection the fearful scenes of the cholera season on the plains. I
wanted to divert her, and called her attention to the roaring of the
wind and beating of the rain without.

"Yes," she said; "it stormed just in that way the night before he died.
We all were drenched to the skin, and he was not in a condition to bear
the exposure. I was myself half sick with fever, and when the shock came
I became delirious. When I came to myself we were a hundred and fifty
miles away from the place where he died."

"How dreadful!" I could not help exclaiming. "Not even to know how and
where he was buried."

"Nor if he were buried at all. So frightened were the people in our
train that they could not be prevailed upon to take proper care of the
sick and dying, nor pay proper respect to the dead. After my reason
returned, the one subject that I could not bear to have mentioned was
that of my husband's death. Some of the