my spinal column with a frequency and momentum that made me
believe, finally, she did it on purpose. Three miles out from St. Cloud
we found the road completely blocked up with artillery wagons, and saw
large masses of troops moving through the fields on either side. It
still rained incessantly, and the forlornness of the situation was no
wise relieved by the distant booming of guns, and the sucking sound of
the wheels in the mud.

"Oh, my!" sail a thin, squeaky voice on the back seat. "I believe they
are coming this way. Do let us get out, SARAH. I would rather die on the
road than be murdered in such a sepulchre as this."

She referred to a battalion of the Landwehr that had just denied into
the road, not a hundred yards in front of us.

"Stop your sniffling back there!" peevishly exclaimed "OLD CONNECTICUT."
"It would serve you right if they bayonetted you;" and she added
emphasis to her expostulation by planting her chignon between my
shoulder-blades with terrific force.

I felt at once that either my back or my gallantry would have to give
way; so I took a bond of fate, and sacrificed the latter on the spot.

"That'll do--that'll do," I remonstrated. "No more of that; if you want
to knock the brains out of that haystack on the back of your head, why,
knock away; but spare my bones, if you please."

I looked around, and she looked around with such suddenness as to bring
her nose in contact with the brim of my hat, and force the tears from
her eyes. She started to her feet, and I verily believe would not have
postponed hostilities a moment, had not the door of the _diligence_ just
then been opened, and a Prussian officer demanded to see our papers. I
paraded the "documents," and he said they were "good;" but he also said
that we must make up our minds to halt here until the following morning,
as there was a movement of the troops, and no vehicles would be
permitted to pass this point.

_Gaudeamus!_ I could have sworn, but my wrath sailed away when I saw
what a volcano was working in the bosom of "OLD CONNECTICUT." She didn't
strike the officer, or utter a single complaint in his hearing, but sat
down as if she had been a spile driven through the top of the coach, and
let the vinegar run out of her eyes in pure impotency of speechless
rage.

"SARAH'S" companion on the back seat broke forth afresh, and again
wanted to know as to the probability of our being charged upon and put
to the sword. I couldn't hear "