now as I know what to do with. I have had to turn my own family out of
their quarters, what with the commissioners and the lot of folks that
has come in upon us."

"What are we to do, then? It is too late and stormy to go up to
Shanty-town to seek for lodgings."

"Well, sit you down and take your supper, and we will see what we can
do."

And she actually did contrive to find a little nook, in which we were
glad to take refuge from the multitudes around us.

A slight board partition separated us from the apartment occupied by
General Root, of New York, one of the commissioners of the treaty. The
steamer in which we came had brought the mail, at that day a rare
blessing to the distant settlements. The opening and reading of all the
dispatches, which the General received about bed-time, had, of course,
to be gone through with, before he could retire to rest. His eyes being
weak, his secretaries were employed to read the communications. He was a
little deaf withal, and through the slight division between the two
apartments the contents of the letters, and his comments upon them, were
unpleasantly audible, as he continually admonished his secretary to
raise his voice.

"What is that, Walter? Read that over again."

In vain we coughed and hemmed, and knocked over sundry pieces of
furniture. They were too deeply interested to hear aught that passed
around them, and if we had been politicians we should have had all the