For several miles they travelled along its summit, then, descending abruptly into a pass, struck the stage-road for Fredericksburgh and dismounted to water the horses. As Jack was assisting Elsie to alight, her watch slipped from her belt and fell to the ground. In stooping to pick it up, he was struck with its unique workmanship. "May I examine it?" he asked. "I never saw one like it."
"Certainly," she answered, handing it to him. "It belonged to a Spanish woman who died at our house. I nursed her and just before her death she gave me this, saying it was all she had; and this," opening the back of the watch, "is a miniature of her only child. She called him Hernando."
"My God!" exclaimed Jack, greatly agitated. "Tell me all she said."
"She left a package of letters for her boy should his whereabouts ever be discovered, and I have kept them securely locked. Mother said it was useless to try to find him."
Jack's eyes were blurred with tears as he looked at the picture; the same wonderfully
