Q: CHAPTER XIII.

FLAXEN'S GREAT NEED.

Flaxen wrote occasionally, during the next year, letters all too short and too far between for the lonely man toiling away on his brown farm. These letters were very much alike, telling mainly of how happy she was, and of what she was going to do by and by, on Christmas or Thanksgiving. Once she sent a photograph of herself and husband, and Anson, after studying it for a long time, took a pair of shears and cut the husband off, and threw him into the fire.

"That fellow gives me the ague," he muttered.

Bert did not write, and there was hardly a night that Ans lay down on his bed that he did not wonder where his chum was, especially as the winter came on unusually severe, reminding him of that first winter in the Territory. Day after day he spent alone in his house, going out only to feed the cattle or to get the mail. The sad wind was always in his ears. But with the passage of time the pain in his heart lost its intensity.

One day he got a letter from Flaxen that startled and puzzled him. It was like a cry for help, somehow.

"Dear old pap, I wish you was here," and then in another place came the piteous cry, "Oh, I wish I had some folks!"

All night long that cry rang in the man's head with a wailing, falling cadence like the note of a lost little prairie-chicken.

1. a woman
2. Yes
3. unknown
4. He cut it
5. shears
6. to get rid of the husband from the photo
7. no
8. he threw it into the fire
9. he worked on a farm
10. no
11. No
12. How happy she was and what she was going to do
13. no
14. no
15. Flaxen that startled and puzzled him. It was like a cry for help, somehow. "Dear old pap, I wish you was here," and then in another place came the piteous cry, "Oh, I wish I had some folks!"
16. no
17. at night when he lay down on his bed
18. yes
19. winter
20. no
21. to feed the cattle or to get the mail

Numbered questions:
1. Is Flaxen a man or woman?
2. Was she married?
3. What was her husband's name?
4. What did Anson do to the photo he received?
5. With what?
6. Why?
7. did he keep that portion of the photo?
8. how did he destroy it?
9. What was Anson's work?
10. did Anson have lots of friends?
11. Did the hurt Anson felt get worse?
12. What did Flaxen write about in her letters?
13. Were they long letters?
14. Did Anson feel he received them often enough?
15. What did Flaxen write that surprised Anson?
16. Did he get letters from Bert?
17. when did Anson think about him?
18. was there a particular season that made him think of Bert more?
19. which season?
20. was it a mild winter?
21. why did Anson go out during the day?

Q: Chapter XXIV.

"March--march--march! Making sounds as they tread, Ho-ho! how they step, Going down to the dead."

Coxe.

The time Maud consumed in her meditations over the box and its contents, had been employed by the captain in preparations for his enterprise. Joyce, young Blodget, Jamie and Mike, led by their commander in person, were to compose the whole force on the occasion; and every man had been busy in getting his arms, ammunition and provisions ready, for the last half-hour. When captain Willoughby, therefore, had taken leave of his family, he found the party in a condition to move.

The first great desideratum was to quit the Hut unseen. Joel and his followers were still at work, in distant fields; but they all carefully avoided that side of the Knoll which would have brought them within reach of the musket, and this left all behind the cliff unobserved, unless Indians were in the woods in that direction. As Mike had so recently passed in by that route, however, the probability was the whole party still remained in the neighbourhood of the mills, where all accounts agreed in saying they mainly kept. It was the intention of the captain, therefore, to sally by the rivulet and the rear of the house, and to gain the woods under cover of the bushes on the banks of the former, as had already been done by so many since the inroad.

The great difficulty was to quit the house, and reach the bed of the stream, unseen. This step, however, was a good deal facilitated by means of Joel's sally-port, the overseer having taken, himself, all the precautions against detection of which the case well admitted. Nevertheless, there was the distance between the palisades and the base of the rocks, some forty or fifty yards, which was entirely uncovered, and had to be passed under the notice of any wandering eyes that might happen to be turned in that quarter. After much reflection, the captain and serjeant came to the conclusion to adopt the following mode of proceeding.

1. Joel and his followers
2. in distant fields
3. no
4. the side of the Knoll
5. it would have brought them within reach of the musket
6. the woods
7. under cover of the bushes
8. Maud
9. Five
10. Joyce, young Blodget, Jamie, Mike and their commander
11. the last half-hour
12. arms, ammunition and provisions ready
13. captain Willoughby
14. yes
15. no
16. forty or fifty yards
17. the palisades and the base of the rocks
18. yes
19. two
20. the captain and serjeant

Numbered questions:
1. Who was still working?
2. Where at?
3. The entire area?
4. Where didn't they go?
5. Why?
6. Where did the lead want to get to?
7. In what way?
8. Who spent time thinking about what was in a package?
9. How many people were going on patrol?
10. And they were?
11. How long had they been preparing?
12. What were they getting prepared?
13. Who was leaving his relatives?
14. Was everyone ready to go then?
15. Was it easy to be sneaky?
16. What amount of space was open?
17. What was to either side of the space?
18. Did they decide to risk it?
19. How many people decided?
20. And they were?

Q: CHAPTER III.

"Nice customs curt'sy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the weak list of a country's fashion. We are the makers of manners; and the liberty that follows our places, stops the mouths of all fault-finders."--Henry V.

Notwithstanding her high resolution, habitual firmness, and a serenity of mind, that seemed to pervade the moral system of Isabella, like a deep, quiet current of enthusiasm, but which it were truer to assign to the high and fixed principles that guided all her actions, her heart beat tumultuously, and her native reserve, which almost amounted to shyness, troubled her sorely, as the hour arrived when she was first to behold the prince she had accepted for a husband. Castilian etiquette, no less than the magnitude of the political interests involved in the intended union, had drawn out the preliminary negotiations several days; the bridegroom being left, all that time, to curb his impatience to behold the princess, as best he might.

On the evening of the 15th of October, 1469, however, every obstacle being at length removed, Don Fernando threw himself into the saddle, and, accompanied by only four attendants, among whom was Andres de Cabrera, he quietly took his way, without any of the usual accompaniments of his high rank, toward the palace of John of Vivero, in the city of Valladolid. The Archbishop of Toledo was of the faction of the princess, and this prelate, a warlike and active partisan, was in readiness to receive the accepted suitor, and to conduct him to the presence of his mistress.

1. 15th of October
2. 1469
3. John of Vivero
4. Valladolid
5. no
6. four
7. Andres de Cabrera
8. yes
9. no
10. yes
11. Isabella
12. yes

Numbered questions:
1. When did Don leave?
2. In what year?
3. Who was he going see?
4. Where?
5. Did Don go alone?
6. How many people went with him?
7. Who was one of the people?
8. Did Don have a high ranking?
9. Did the people accompanying him have high ranking?
10. Did John live in a nice home?
11. Who had accepted a husband?
12. Was the man she accepted royalty?