lcome to their ears as the flag to their
eyes.

At one of these wrecked villages the entire little hamlet of people
stood on our decks. Only four, they said, were left at home, and these
were sick. They had selected their lawyer to speak their thanks. No
words will ever do justice to the volume of native eloquence which
seemed to roll unbidden from his lips. He finished with these sentences:

"At noon on that day we were in the blackness of despair--the whole
village in the power of the demon of waters--hemmed in by sleet and ice,
without fire enough to cook its little food. When the bell struck nine
that night, there were seventy-five families on their knees before their
blazing grates, thanking God for fire and light, and praying blessings
on the phantom ship with the unknown device that had come as silently as
the snow, they knew not whence, and gone, they knew not whither."

When we finished the voyage of relief, we had covered the Ohio River
from Cincinnati to Cairo and back twice, and the Mississippi from St.
Louis to New Orleans, and return--four months on the rivers--traveled
over eight thousand miles, distributed in relief of money and estimated
material, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars--gathered as we
used it.

We left at one point on the Ohio River a well-lettered cross-board,
"Little Six Red Cross Landing"--probably there to this day. The story of
The Little Six might be given in their own little letter:

WATERFORD, PA., _March_ 24, 1884.

DEAR MISS BARTON:

We read your nice letter in the Dispatch and we would like very much to
see that house called "The Little Six," and we little six are so glad
that we helped six other little children, and we thank you for going to
so much trouble in putting our money just where we would have put it
ourselves. Some time again when you want money to help you in your good
work call on "The Little Six."

JOE FARRAR, twelve years old.
FLORENCE HOWE, eleven years old.
MARY BARTON, eleven years old.
REED WHITE, eleven years old.
BERTIE AINSWORTH, ten years old.
LOYD BARTON, seven years old.

These children had given a public entertainment for the benefit of the
flood sufferers. They themselves suggested it, planned and carried it
out, and raised fifty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, which they
sent to the editor of the Eric Dispatch, asking him to send it "where it
would do the most good." The Dispatch forwarded it to the president of
the Re