weeks, be obliged to leave Louisville and go somewhere else. This,
to his wife, was by no means satisfactory. But she could do no less
than submit.

Thus separated, they lived for the next three months, Fletcher
visiting his wife and child once every two weeks, and spending
Sunday with them. During the time, he made good wages. But both
himself and wife were very unhappy. Earnestly did the latter plead
with her husband to be allowed to remove to Louisville. To this
however, he steadily objected. Daily he lived in the hope of
securing a clerkship in some store, and thus, being able to rise
above the low condition in which he was placed. The moment he
reached that consummation, so much desired, he would instantly
remove his family.

At length, it happened that Fletcher did not write once, instead of
several times, during one of the periods of two weeks that he was
regularly absent. The Sunday morning when he was expected home
arrived, but it did not bring, as usual, his anxiously looked-for
presence. His wife was almost beside herself with alarm. No letter
coming on Monday, she took her child and started for Louisville in
the first boat. She arrived at daylight, on Tuesday morning, in a
strange city, herself a total stranger to all therein, except her
husband, and perfectly ignorant as to where he was to be found. The
captain of the steamboat kindly attended her to a boarding-house,
and there she was left, without a single clue in her mind as to the
means of finding her husband. Inquiries were made of all in the
boarding-house, but no one had heard even the name of Joseph
Fletcher. As soon as she could make arrangements to get out, Mrs.
Fletcher visited all the dry-goods stores in the city, for in some