the second was more practical. I took up the
bundle of shawls, which had been such a
trouble to us when we changed cars, feeling
amply paid, in the wealth of help they now
gave to make others comfortable. One was
speedily folded into a mattress, and as the
chairs were stuffed haircloth, by thrusting my
hand under one, it readily slipped out from
the frame. It was speedily transferred to a
corner of the room, the shawl covered over it,
and the pale little woman laid away upon it
for the remaining night-time, while the big
baby, Ella, was spread in my lap, to be hushed
off to sleep by the scraps of baby lullabies
still lingering in my memory, as sung by you
when I was young. What a splendid great
child ! How did that mother live through so
long a ride and this child in her arms?
The room was long, fortunately. The male portion of the party soon settled off into one end of it, with chair-bottoms for pillows; and the women gradually spread themselves among the children, prophesying that they could not sleep, but yet yielding at last to "tired nature's sweet restorer;" and the children, too, did not, I presume, know the difference between
