hiny leather.

In a car of this description the young mother, with her baby, had
travelled a whole day, and nearly a whole night. It is no wonder then
that she looked worn out, or that the baby, who had been so jolly and
happy as to be voted a remarkably fine child by all the passengers,
should have sunk into an exhausted sleep, after a prolonged fit of
screaming and crying, that caused the few remaining inmates of the car
to look daggers at it, and say many unkind things, some of which even
reached the ears of the mother.

During the day there had been other women in the car, travelling for
shorter or longer distances. To one of these, a lady-like girl who
occupied an adjoining seat for some hours, and who was greatly
interested in the baby, the young mother had confided the fact that this
was his birthday, and also part of her own history. From this it
appeared that she was the wife of an army officer, who was stationed
with his regiment in the far West. She had not seen him for nearly a
year, or just after the baby was born; but at last he had been ordered
to a fort on the upper Mississippi River, where he hoped to remain for
some time. Now his young wife, who had only been waiting until he could
give her any sort of a home with him, had bravely set forth with her
baby to join him. He had written her that, on a certain date in the
spring, a detachment of troops was to start from St. Louis by steamboat
for the fort at which he was stationed. As one of the officers of this
detachment was to take his wife with him, he thought it would be a fine
opportunity for her to come at the same time. She wrote back that she
could not possibly get ready by the date named, but would come by a
later boat. After she had sent the letter, she found that she could get
ready; and, as the aunt with whom she was living was about to break up
her home and go abroad, she decided to start at once for St. Louis.
There she would join her husband's friends, travel with them to the
far-away fort, and give the lonely soldier a joyful surprise. There was
no time to send another letter telling him of her change of plan, and
she was glad of it, for a surprise would be so much nicer.

The early part of her journey had been accomplished quite easily. There
had been no rains in the East, such as were deluging the whole Ohio
valley. If there had been, it is not likely the soldier's wife would
have undertaken to travel at that time, and expose her preciou