white hat was no laughing matter, and
they wilted down before it.

LXIII.

AMONG THE CADETS.

Dear sisters:--The train started, and there I sat in my glory till we
got to Annapolis, just the sleepiest town, crowded full of the oldest
houses and the slowest people that I ever saw in my born days. Some
colored persons were dawdling around the depot, and a few lazy white
folks passing down the street, stopped to look at us as we got out of
the cars. Especially my white hat and double-breasted jacket seemed to
take them.

Once I heard something that sounded like the beginning of a cheer, but
the voices were so lazy that they couldn't carry it out, so it muttered
itself to death, and that was the end of it.

Twenty of the Japanees were with me when I alighted from the car and
spread my white parasol, which hovered like a dove over us, for I made
it flutter beautifully as we passed along.

The cabinet people followed after, and just as we were forming to go
down street, like a military training, my white hat and feather leading
them on, a gentleman came up to us and began to shake hands all round.
He was a tall, genteel sort of a person, with light hair and a beard
soft and silky as corn tassels; but all under his eyes, blue powder
marks were scattered, as if he'd spent half his life firing off Fourth
of July powder salutes, and had burst up on some of them.

While I was wondering who it could be, Mr. Robeson, who has some
dealings with navy yards and shipping, come up to where I stood, and
says he:

"Miss Frost, allow me to present Commodore Worden, the gentleman who
distinguished himself on the first Monitor."

Sisters, that minute the powder marks on Worden's handsome face were
glorified in my eyes. I reached out my hands. I pressed his, my beaming
eyes covered him with particular admiration. Feeling as if I were the
colonel of that company, I longed to lift my white hat and give him a
military salute. What I did say was significant.

"Worden," says I, "when certain events come about--I say nothing, but
this hat and jacket are typical of what I mean--when these great and
luminous events fill the hemisphere your glorious bravery on that iron
flat-boat shall have its full record. I will myself send your picture to
the great Grand Duke of all the Russias, and if there is a higher notch
in the public shipping than you have, I know nothing of the friend whose
colors I wear if anybody stands before you. I h