ttle daughter, and tell me all about it," and the
loving woman stood up in the carriage and held forth her arms, to which
little Jessie was glad enough to be taken, and there she sobbed, and was
soothed and petted and kissed as she had not been since her mother died.

Ralph and the station-master brought to the carriage the wonderful
doll--at sight of whose toilet Mrs. Henry could not repress a
significant glance at her lady friend, and a suggestive exclamation of
"Horrors!"--and the heavy satchel. These were placed where Jessie could
see them and feel that they were safe, and then she was able to answer a
few questions and to look up trustfully into the gentle face that was
nestled every little while to hers, and to sip the cup of milk that
Ralph fetched from the hotel. She had certainly fallen into the hands of
persons who had very loving hearts.

"Poor little thing! What a shame to leave her all alone! How long has
her mother been dead, Ralph?" asked the other lady, rather indignantly.

"About two years, Mrs. Wayne. Father and his officers knew them very
well. Our troop was camped up there two whole summers near them,--last
summer and the one before,--but Farron took her to Denver to visit her
mother's people last April, and has just gone for her. Sergeant Wells
said he stopped at the ranch on the way down from Laramie, and Farron
told him, then, he couldn't live another month without his little girl,
and was going to Denver for her at once."

"I remember them well, now," said Mrs. Henry, "and we saw him sometimes
when our troop was at Laramie. What was the last news from your father,
Ralph, and when do you go?"

"No news since the letter that met me here. You know he has been
scouting ever since General Crook went on up to the Powder River
country. Our troop and the Grays are all that are left to guard that
whole neighborhood, and the Indians seem to know it. They are 'jumping'
from the reservation all the time."

"But the Fifth Cavalry are here now, and they will soon be up there to
help you, and put a stop to all that,--won't they?"

"I don't know. The Fifth say that they expect orders to go to the Black
Hills, so as to get between the reservations and Sitting Bull's people.
Only six troops--half the regiment--have come. Papa's letter said I was
to start for Laramie with them, but they have been kept waiting four
days already."

"They will start now, though," said the lady. "General Merritt has just
got b