A Waif of the Plains

oo quickly over. The resistless gallop of the fiery mustangs, the rush of the night wind, the gathering darkness in which the distant wagons, n

eir experiences on the morrow, confident of some equally happy end. And when Clarence, timidly reaching his hand towards the horse-hair re

h. Was it a school feast, or was this their ordinary household arrangement? Clarence and Susy thought of their own dinners, usually laid on bare boards beneath the sky, or under the low hood of the wagon in rainy weather, and marveled. And when they finally halted, and were lifted from their horses, and passed one wagon fitted up as a bedroom and another as a kitchen, they could only nudge each other with silent appreciation. But here again the difference already noted in the quality of the sensations of the two child

thoroughly clean, that her hair was tidy and not rumpled, and that, although she wore an apron, it was as clean as her gown, and even had ribbons on it, to listen to what was said. And when she ran eagerly forward, and with a fascinating smile lifted the astonished Susy in her arms, Clarence, in his delight for his young charge, quite forgo

little thing? She's such an angel, isn'

ir complimenter than the compliment to his companion, but he was pleased for her sake. He was not yet old enough to be conscious of the sex's belief in its irresistible dominati

wagon, to reappear later, washed, curled, and beribboned like a new dol

ou haven't told

ence,

lls you, bu

ence

nel Brant?" asked the

rightening under this faint prospec

other. The leader looked at

of Colonel Bran

stirring of uneasiness in his heart.

he die?" said

mber him much. I was very little,"

don't rem

to express their deeper feelings. He also had an instinctive consciousness that this want of a knowledge of his father was part of that vague wrong that had b

ith the Silsbees?"

how his stepmother had procured his passage with the Silsbees to California, where he was to meet his cousin. All this wi

glanced at Clarence's sunburnt hands. Pres

ppose you a

Clarence s

t w

returned hesitatingly, thinking of the cle

ed the toilet service of the Silsbee party, he brought the boy into one of the wagons, where there was a washstand, a china basin, and a cake of scented soap.

your father's hou

t it was a lo

eeling of diffidence he would have shrunk from describing it in that way. He, however, said he thoug

n Brant, of Louisville, wasn't h

d Clarence

as if dismissing an abstruse problem

of the former always as "Mr. and Mrs. Peyton"-while the remainder of the party, a dozen men, were at a second camp fire, and evidently enjoying themselves in a picturesq

mporized high stool, happily diverted his atten

ing frankness, "they is chickens, and hamanaigs, and hot biks

lly conscious that she was holding her plated fork in her chubby fist by its middle, and, from his pr

us

erly beaming assurance to Susy and a half-reproachf

easy Clarence, as Susy now seemed inc

ns, it's only a spli

food, forgetting her own meal, and only stopping at times to lift back the forward straying curls on S

old as this, John," said Mr

ace. Clarence wondered who "she" was, and why two little tears dropped from Mrs. Peyton's lashes into Susy's milk, and whether Susy might not violently object to it. He

find us to-night," said Mrs. Peyton, with a long sigh and a regretful glance a

for company's sake; and," he added, in a lower and graver voice, "it's rather odd the search pa

It would be all very well if it was only this boy, who can take care of

that he was beginning to worship, after his boyish fashion, this sweet-faced, clean, a

," he said, with a cheerful nod towards Clarence. "And, again, they may

. When the meal was ended, and he was made happy by Mrs. Peyton's laughing acceptance of his offer to help her clear the table and wash the dishes, they all gathered comfortably in front of the tent before the large camp fire. At the

mentary pause, in her highest voice,

was not the ordinary faculty of speech, but a capacity to recit

ing down on Mrs. Peyton's lap, and contemplating her bare knees in the air. "It's 'bout a boy," she added confidentially to Mrs.

ands before his chin, as if wanting to be manacled in an attitude which he was miserably conscious was unlike anything he himself had ever felt or seen before; he described that father "faint in death below," and "the flag on high," with one single motion. Yet something that the verses had kindled in his active imagination, perhaps, rather than an illustration of the verses themselves, at times brightened his gray eyes, became tremulous in his youthful voice, and I fear occasionally incoherent on his lips.