Page:Six months in Kansas.djvu/138

134 son lifted down from the wall, slices broiled quickly, laid upon a hot plate, and placed before my pale, tired-looking friend, before he is aware of it. The tender meat and tea refresh him. We part at the door, he to go to his home, I to busy myself with the unsightly surface of things, underneath which home has made a grave, from which there can be no resurrection!

Well, here is the expected General, safe and sound, from the enemy's camp, and from the presence of Gov. Shannon! looking, indeed, as though he might have ridden fifty miles in six hours, and passed the intervening time of his absence without rest or sleep. But he was successful in his mission, the Governor promises to be here to-morrow.

And now comes another sorrowful item of intelligence. You know I wrote you about the faithful guardsmen who watch our little town while we sleep. Yesterday, one of them who lives upon a claim about six miles distant, mounted his horse, wholly unarmed, and started towards his home, which he had not visited for several days. Out over the wide prairie he sped his way, to gladden the hearts