Page:Six months in Kansas.djvu/63

Rh there is to us who saw it a sudden thrill whenever we speak about it, always ending with the remark, "If we could only see it again!" No actual could, of course, ever equal those two pictures in memory's gallery. But here comes a smaller edition of the same thing, not small, though; very large, measuring one man with another, a great deal of clear white hair, and an answering white beard; forehead high and broad; eyes deep-set under shaggy brows, and of a piercing brightness; a figure more than six feet; a voice mellow as the softest bass. He sits by Typhoid and talks, without fear of any disease, as though he was her father and everybody's father. He tells her of the great sickness up in the territory, how whole families are on their beds, in some instances, with no one to bring them a drop of water; the doors of their cabins standing open. They are helpless to defend themselves, or provide for the most trifling want. When he arose to go I stood up, too ; he gave every one his hand, and passed out to sleep in his wagon, under a buffalo, with a canopy of sail-cloth. The grasp of his hand was a benediction. Who-