t, her conveyance
suggested such an institution on wheels, for well-strung clotheslines
were taut against its sides, and from these fluttered freshly washed
garments and scraps of cloth.

Aunt Sally saw Jessica's eyes, fasten upon these articles and explained:

"Met a little water comin' along and used it. Never know where you'll
be when you need water next--in Californy. How's all?"

"Well, thank you. I'm so glad you've come."

"That's a word to cure deafness. Here."

The woman pulled a gigantic cookie from her apron pocket and held it
toward the girl, who had now come alongside. The cake was in the shape
of a doll, with flaring skirt, and was promptly nibbled.

"Well, I declare! Eat your playmates, do you?"

"Yes, indeed, when you make them!"

"Who's that loping along behind?"

"Ephraim, of course. Oh! yes. A Mr. Hale, from New York."

"What's he at here?"

"Just staying. Lost his way and making a visit."

"H-m-m! Don't look wholesome. Needs picra."

"I doubt it. He has a great row of bottles in his room and takes
medicine every time he eats, or doesn't. That is, since he's been at
Sobrante, which isn't long."

When the wagon had halted on the road before them Ephraim had turned to
his companion, with a whimsical smile, suggested:

"Better ride along as if we was glad to see her. It's like a dose of
that bitter stuff she makes everybody take, whether or no--get it over
with. And she isn't so bad as--H-m-m."

Mr. Hale was not sorry to do this, for his curiosity was roused. The
wagon box was long and narrow, and contained as many articles as would
have sufficed a family "crossing the plains" in the olden times. A
kerosene cooking stove, a cat in a parrot cage, a hencoop, with mother
and brood inside it, a trunk, a blanket and pillow, a pail for watering
the animals, and a box of tin dishes. The cover, like a small "prairie
schooner," was patriotic in extreme, shining with the national colors,
newly applied by Aunt Sally herself, and with no stingy hand. The
arrangement was also her own, and as she considered, an improvement
upon the flag; for she made the whole top a field of stars, and the
sides of the stripes.

"Instead of a little weeny corner full of stars, that you can count on
your fingers, I've made a skyful right overhead. I always thought if
I'd had the designin' of Old Glory, I'd have made it regular, like
a patchwork quilt--and nobody ever pieces a 'block' that way. Things
must compare e