to it, as he was now able to stump around a
little, and he enjoyed chaffing McPhail, and so the wounded second
lieutenant of Devers's troop was shifted to the hospital tent put up
for his accommodation at the cantonment, and there Mira was made far
more comfortable than many an army wife had been, awaiting the day when
they could with safety be started on the road to Scott, now his proper
station.

"Langston's paying the Parson a mighty long visit," exclaimed Mr.
Sanders, unslinging his sabre and flopping down into the first
camp-chair on his way back from morning drill. "Mrs. Cranston, what do
you want to bet y'all go back to Scott inside of a week?"

"I like it very much better here, especially as our going to Scott would
mean 'y'all' were to be again in the field," was the laughing reply.

"Well, I like duty here better, but I do hanker for a waltz on that old
waxed floor. Think, we haven't had a dance since we came."

"The men had some good music the other evening; why didn't you suggest a
waltz on the prairie to Mrs. Davies?"

"Well, I did think of it. She looks bored to death. I saw her just now
as I came by. She was yawning in the shade of the tent fly while
Langston and the Parson were chatting inside." Why don't you and Miss
Loomis go over there and cheer her up sometimes? was the question he
checked just as it trembled on his lips. Some brief inspiration of
discretion warned him that that was ground too sacred for his blundering
intrusion. "She seems downright lonely," he concluded, somewhat lamely
and suggestively. "I don't think Mrs. Davies is cut out for this kind of
army life. Here comes Langston now." He needn't have made that
announcement. Mrs. Cranston was watching, waiting for him, and she
glanced quickly to see where Miss Loomis was. That young lady, however,
never looked up from the slate whereon Louis's hieroglyphics were in mad
arithmetical tangle, even when she heard Langston's courteous greeting
to the lady of the house and his inquiries for the captain, and heard
them without evidence of any emotion whatsoever.

"The captain is at the stables, Mr. Langston. We are so glad to see you.
I'll send him word in a moment. Do sit down and tell us all the news
from Braska," said Mrs. Cranston, hospitably.

"I will do all that most gladly, Mrs. Cranston, but the matter on which
I desire to see him at once is urgent, and perhaps Mr. Sanders will walk
over to the stables with me. Then, may I not call