The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1897-06-02
An Army Wife'S Sister.
BY owENDoLES ovERroS.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVOV
Army wives generally have unmar-
ried sisters. These sisters always
come ont to visit them, and the rest
goes by itself.
Mrs. Lorrilard had IN unmarried
sister. She was very attractive. She
was far more attractive that Mrs. Lor-
rilard ever could have been. The
girls name was Spencer-NIay Spen-
Ger. She was Is years old, if you
took her word for it; and she was
blonde and pink and white and plump.
She came from some place in Ohio, and
she visited the Lorrilards at Stanton
which is in New Mexico, 100 miles
from the railroad, across Dead Mans
valley there is always Dead Mans
valley and some steep hills and lava
bed a mile wide. If you have never
seen lava bed, you cannot appreciate
that. You might try to imagine the
ocean lashed into fury bya simeon,
then fancy its great waves and billows
and swells changed suddenly to dark
gray-brown stone at the height of the
storm, and You may form a vague idea
of what the lava bed between Fort
Stanton aud the railroad is like.
1t frightened Miss Spencer badly.
The ambulance went slipping and slid
ing and coasting and humping and
bounding over the one passable part,
in way that only an ambulance con
Quoted by driver who has spent his
life on Arizona and New Mexico
roads could possibly stand. 1t put all
the laws of centripetal force and equi-
librium at naught. 1t and the four
mules we're laws unto themselves.
| Miss Spencer was not accustomed to
that sort of thing. She stood it rs
long as she could, and then she told
Major Roche-in whose charge she
was traveling-that she meant to get
out and walk. She had bothered the
major good deal already, and he was
getting tired, so he did not say any
thing, but simply told the driver to
"slow up" and let Miss Spencer get
ont by herself.
She fell behind after moment, and
the ambulance went relentlessly on,
creaking, tapping its canvas, clanking
its chains, its brake screeching shrilly.
And as it disappeared, sometimes lost
to sight in great hollow, sometimes
toiling up smooth face of lava, Miss
Spencer felt herself abandoned, indeed.
in New Mexico desert, under that
terrible midsummer sun. The heat
was fiery, scorching, parching. The
sky was like hot blueglass. She won
dered why, when the lava was hot
enough to burn her feet through the
soles of her shoes, it did not melt or
grow soft. She kept on walking be-
cause she was afraid to stop. Twice
she slipped and fell and cut her hands.
Under the porous, piled-up rock, rab-
bits and owls and quail were hidden
there were snakes, too, and lizards.
At first she was frightened when they
scurried by her, but soon, with her
head ringing and her eyes dazed with
congested blood and her mouth open
and as dry as -four, she did not even
notice them.
She reached the end of the huge
rock river at last and found the ambu-
lance waiting. The driver was asleep,
and the major was drinking water He
offered her some, and when she had
drunk it she held out her broad little
foot.
my shoes are all cut to pieces, and
they were new and awfully heavy"
"You should have kept STILL" he
answered.
Now Miss Spencer wanted sympathy,
and when she didn't get it she took a
} dislike to the major; and because she
disliked him she eventually made him
sorry.
For the first fortnight of her visit
she was not pretty She was sun
burned from her passage of the lava
sea. Her face was red and swollen,
then blotchy and lastly peely. After
that she returned to the normal pink
and white. She was the only girl al
the post, and there was a bachelor, q
, brevet-bachelor, young contract sur.
geon, and Major Roche's son. The
bachelor officer was studious - the
kind that have much faith and think
that the great fathers in Washington
will reward lieutenants who pass high
: exams. and hava ideas on Indians. HI
had no time for young women. HI
paid his one call and retired. Tn,
brevet-bachelor is peculiar to the ser
vice. His wife is back East, visiting