14000 MILES 



children, and we all sat there, until a cry came, "Some- 

 thing has happened down the road !" We all rushed to 

 the open door and word came back that a tree was struck 

 in a yard near the house where we made our first inquiry 

 for shelter, and a man at an open window was prostrated 

 and had not "come to." One of the children had run 

 away down the street and was brought back screaming 

 with fright, and asking if the thunder struck him ! The 

 shower was very severe, but passed over rapidly, and 

 when the golden sunset glow came on, we began to think 

 of making a supper from the crackers, nuts, raisins and 

 pineapple in our lunch box, thinking how much better 

 that was than standing in the "breadline" at San Fran- 

 cisco. But while we were still watching the sunset, we 

 were called to supper, and the lunch box was forgotten. 

 Our good lady finally told us she boarded the school mas- 

 ters for thirty-five years, and "took" people, but now she 

 was alone she did not like to take men, having been 

 frightened, and she always sends them to a man a little 

 way up the road, but does not tell them he is the "select- 

 man." When they ask there, they are offered the lock- 

 up. "If you had been two men I should have sent you 

 there !" We talked until nearly dark, before taking our 

 things upstairs. 



Breakfast was served in the morning, and our hostess 

 seemed ten years younger, declaring we had been no 

 trouble. When we gave her what we usually pay at a 

 small hotel, she accepted it reluctantly. We promised to 

 send her the report of our journey, and she asked if we 

 should come the same way next year. 



It was all right that we did not stay at the Farragut, 



285 



