tly their skill, and partly the superb
constitution that years of work on a New England farm had given to
the young man. His mother believed that he had been spared for her
sake. Heber Smith himself always said it was his mother's care that
saved his life, while Juan never had the least doubt that the young
soldier had been protected solely by a marvellous "anting-anting"
which he himself had slipped unsuspected into the American soldier's
blouse that day, before he had left him. As soon as she knew that her
son would live, Mrs. Smith started for Washington, carrying with her
papers which made it possible for her to be allowed to plead her case
there as she had pleaded it in Manila. A pardon was sent back, as fast
as wire and steamer and wire again could convey it. Heber Smith wears
the uniform of a second lieutenant, now, won for bravery in action
since he went back into the service; and every one who knew her in
the Philippines, cherishes the memory of Mrs. Hannah Smith; Nurse.

THE FIFTEENTH WIFE

Mateo, my Filipino servant, was helping me sort over specimens one day
under the thatched roof of a shed which I had hired to use for such
work while I was on the island of Culion, when I was startled to see
him suddenly drop the bird skin he had been working on, and fall upon
his knees, bending his body forward, his face turned toward the road,
until his forehead touched the floor.

At first I thought he must be having some new kind of a fit, peculiar
to the Philippine Islands, until I happened to glance up the road
toward the town, from which my house was a little distance removed,
and saw coming toward us a most remarkable procession.

Four native soldiers walked in front, two carrying long spears, and
two carrying antiquated seven-foot muskets, relics of a former era in
fire arms. After the soldiers came four Visayan slaves, bearing on
their shoulders a sort of platform covered with rugs and cushions,
on which a woman reclined. On one side of the litter walked another
slave, holding a huge umbrella so as to keep the sun's rays off the
woman's face. Two more soldiers walked behind.

Mateo might have been a statue, or a dead man, for all the attention
he paid to my questions until after the procession had passed the
house. Then, resuming a perpendicular position once more, he said,
"That was the Sultana Ahmeya, the Sultana."

Then he went on to explain that there were thirteen other sultanas, of
assorted