foremost at my spinal column with a frequency and momentum that made me
believe, finally, she did it on purpose. Three miles out from St. Cloud
we found the road completely blocked up with artillery wagons, and saw
large masses of troops moving through the fields on either side. It
still rained incessantly, and the forlornness of the situation was no
wise relieved by the distant booming of guns, and the sucking sound of
the wheels in the mud.

"Oh, my!" sail a thin, squeaky voice on the back seat. "I believe they
are coming this way. Do let us get out, SARAH. I would rather die on the
road than be murdered in such a sepulchre as this."

She referred to a battalion of the Landwehr that had just denied into
the road, not a hundred yards in front of us.

"Stop your sniffling back there!" peevishly exclaimed "OLD CONNECTICUT."
"It would serve you right if they bayonetted you;" and she added
emphasis to her expostulation by planting her chignon between my
shoulder-blades with terrific force.

I felt at once that either my back or my gallantry would have to give
way; so I took a bond of fate, and sacrificed the latter on the spot.

"That'll do--that'll do," I remonstrated. "No more of that; if you want
to knock the brains out of that haystack on the back of your head, why,
knock away; but spare my bones, if you please."

I looked around, and she looked around with such suddenness as to bring
her nose in contact with the brim of my hat, and force the tears from
her eyes. She started to her feet, and I verily believe would not have