The dance stopped early, as the next day was Christmas, and they were sure to be roused betimes; and, besides, there was to be a grand ball for all the gentry round about on Christmas night.
When George went up to his room he was very well inclined for bed from his day's travel and his evening's amusement, and Billy was snoozing comfortably before the fire, with Rattler asleep within reach. Before George slept, however, he wrote two letters—one to his mother and another to Lord Fairfax. Mount Vernon and its gayety, and the new faces he had met, had not put out of his mind the two persons so loved and admired by him. But as soon as his letters were written he tumbled into bed, and was asleep in less time than it takes to tell it.
[to be continued.]
[CROSSING THE XUACAXÉLLA.]
BY CAPTAIN CHARLES A. CURTIS, U. S. A.
V.
The boy sergeants wandered about the town, made some purchases, and found great amusement in watching a bevy of Mojave Indian girls ornament their arms, necks, and faces with colored chalks in various fanciful designs, display themselves briefly to their admiring friends, and then plunge into and swim about a lagoon that backed up to the town from the river. Emerging with no trace left of their recent adornment, they would proceed to renew it in a different design, and take another swim.
"Quite like watering-place belles with extensive wardrobes," remarked Frank.