ing
chair that I might sing him to sleep but he had no idea of sleeping
when he was with me. His great brown eyes would look into my face
with an intensity of love; he would gaze at me till I feared that he
was something uncanny. If I gave him a lump of sugar, he would hold it
reverently a long time before he would presume to eat it. Every day he
and other little devoted natives would bring me bouquets of flowers,
stuck on the spikes of a palm or on tooth picks. No well regulated
house but has bundles of tooth picks arranged in fancy shapes such as
fans and flowers. All their sideboards and tables have huge bouquets
of these wonderfully wrought and gayly ornamental tooth picks.

They carve with skill; out of a bit of wood or bamboo they will
whittle a book, so pretty as to be worth four or five dollars.

One day I made a woman understand by signs that I should like to weave;
she nodded approval and in a little while a loom was brought to the
house; we went over to the market, purchased our fiber and began. I
found it a difficult task, as I had to sit in a cramped position;
and the slippery treadles of round bamboo polished by use were hard
to manage. I did better without shoes. The weaving was a diversion;
it occupied my time when the soldiers were out of the quarters. I will
not deny that yards of the fabric were watered with my tears. There
was dangerous and exhausting work for our troops; and there were bad
reports that many were mutilated and killed.

MY FIRST FOURTH IN THE PHILIPPINES.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

I can not tell what joy it was to me to see my son and the members
of the troop come riding into town alive and well after a hard
campaign. They looked as if they had seen service, and what huge
appetites they brought with them. On the third of July, 1900, I heard
that the boys were coming back on the Fourth. Learning that there
was nothing for their next day's rations I decided to prepare a good
old-fashioned dinner myself. All night long I baked and boiled and
prepared that meal; eighty-three pumpkin pies, fifty-two chickens,
three hams, forty cakes, ginger-bread, 'lasses candy, pickles,
cheese, coffee, and cigars. Having purchased from a Chinese some fire
crackers--as soon as there was a streak of dawn--I went to my window
and lighted those crackers. It was such a surprise to the entire town;
they came to see what could be the matter, as no firing was permitted
in the city. We began our first Fo