cut,
and settled down to dine with him in contentment.

Then it happened that I was so weary from the day of excitement that I had
hardly finished my supper before I snuggled Baby Tillett closer in my arms,
as I felt him grow limp very suddenly, and with him I drifted off into a
nap. I was sitting in a corner seat, but I don't yet see how I slept as I
did and cuddled him too unless it was just the force of natural maternal
gravitation that held my arms firmly around him, but the first thing I knew
I opened my eyes on the whole hall full of people, who were wildly
applauding the governor as he stepped forward on the platform. Hurriedly
straightening my drooping head and looking guiltily around to see if I had
been caught napping, I discovered Matthew Berry at my side in a broad
chuckle, and I immediately suspected his stalwart right arm of being that
force of gravitation.

"He's dead to the world; let him lie across your knees and listen to the
governor's heroics of introduction to Baldwin," said Matthew as he settled
the limp baby across my lap with his bobbing head on my arm. And he
adjusted his own arm less conspicuously along the seat at my back.

"I was up at four," I whispered, as the applause died away and the governor
began to speak.

The Governor of the State of Harpeth is a good and substantial man, who was
himself born out on Paradise Ridge, and he had called in all of his people
from their fields to talk to them about a problem so serious that the
world of men, who had hitherto considered themselves as competent to guide
the great national ship of state through peaceful waters, had been impelled
to turn and call to council the men from the plows and reapers, to add
their wisdom in deciding the best methods of safeguarding the nation. His
speech was a thoughtful presentation of the different methods of
preparedness which the whole of America was weighing in the balance. He
explained the army policy, the Congressional policy, and then that of the
State guard, and he asked them to weigh the facts well so that if it should
come to the vote of the people of the nation, they would vote with
instructed wisdom.

There was a strained gravity on all the listening faces, and I could see
some of the women in the groups of farmer folk draw nearer against the
shoulders of the men, who all sat with their arms along the back of the
seats as Matthew sat beside me. Young Mrs. Buford held the precious, limp,
blue bundle m