"Oh, dear, no! We came here while I was very little, but of late I
have been away at school."

"Some seminary, eh?"

At this she laughed aloud. "Hardly that, either. I've been at the
Mission. Father Barnum has been teaching me for five years. I came
up-river a day ahead of you."

She asked no questions of him in return, for she had already learned
all there was to know the day before from a grizzled corporal in
whom was the hunger to talk. She had learned of a family of Burrells
whose name was known throughout the South, and that Meade Burrell
came from the Frankfort branch, the branch that had raised the
soldiers. His father had fought with Lee, and an uncle was now in
the service at Washington. On the mother's side the strain was
equally militant, but the Meades had sought the sea. The old soldier
had told her much more, of which she understood little; told her of
the young man's sister, who had come all the way from Kentucky to
see her brother off when he sailed from San Francisco; told her of
the Lieutenant's many friends in Washington, and of his family name
and honor. Meade Burrell was undoubtedly a fine young fellow in his
corporal's eyes, and destined to reach great heights, as the other
Burrells had before him. The old soldier, furthermore, had looked at
her keenly and added that the Burrells were known as "divils among
the weemen."

Resting thus on the steps of Old Man Gale's store, the two talked on
till they were disturbed by the sound of shrill voices approaching,
at which the man looked up. Coming down the trail from the town was