she might do some day, so that kings would send _her_ a Gold Cross of
Remembrance, and men would say with uncovered heads, as the old Major
had done, "If America ever writes a woman's name in her temple of fame,
that one should be the name of Lloyd Sherman--_The Little Colonel_!"

* * * * *

[Illustration: "THE TWO WERE WANDERING ALONG BESIDE THE WATER
TOGETHER"]

When the time came for the Shermans to move on, the Major was their
travelling companion. But at Zug, several weeks later, it was necessary
for him to stop and send for his niece to accompany him to a hospital at
Zürich. He had been caught in a sudden storm on the mountainside and
struck by a limb of a falling tree. If Hero had not led a party of
rescuers to him from the hotel he would have died before morning, but
they were in time to save him.

Several lonely days followed for the Little Colonel. Either her father
or mother was constantly with the Major, sometimes both.

It greatly worried the old man that he should be the cause of
disarranging their plans and delaying their journey. He urged them to
go on and leave him, but they would not consent. Sometimes the Little
Colonel slipped into the room with a bunch of Alpine roses or a cluster
of edelweiss that she had bought from some peasant. Sometimes she sat
beside him for a few minutes, but most of her time was spent with Hero,
wandering up and down beside the lake, feeding the swans or watching the
little steamboats come and go.