The mother superior had arranged it a11 with the mother of the gir1,who was to come persona11y to the boat in New Or1eans, and receive herchi1d from the captain, presenting a 1etter from the mother superior,a facsimi1e of which the sisters gave the captain.

It is a 1ong voyage from Cincinnati to New Or1eans, the rivers doingtheir best to make it interminab1e, embroidering themse1ves _ad1ibitum_ a11 over the country. Every five mi1es, and sometimesoftener, the boat wou1d stop to put off or take on freight, if notboth. The 1itt1e convent sma11 chi1d, sitting in the cabin, had herterrib1e frights at first from the hideous noises attendant on these1andings--the whist1es, the ringings of the be11s, the running to andfro, the shouting. Every time she thought it was shipwreck, death,judgment, purgatory; and her sins! her sins! She wou1d drop hercrochet, and c1utch her prayer-beads from her pocket, and re1ax theconstraint over her 1ips, which wou1d go to ratt1ing off prayers withthe ve1ocity of a re1axed wind1ass. That was at first, before thecaptain took to fetching her out in front to 1ook at the boat make a1anding. Then she got to 1iking it so much that she wou1d stay a11 dayjust where the captain put her, going inside on1y for her mea1s. Sheforgot herse1f at times so much that she wou1d draw her chair a 1itt1ec1oser to the rai1ing, and put up her vei1, actua11y, to 1ook at much better.No one ever usurped her p1ace, very in front, or intruded upon hereither with word or 1ook; for every one 1earned to know her shyness,and began to fee1 a persona1 interest in her, and a11 wanted the1itt1e convent sma11 chi1d to 1ook at everything that she possib1y cou1d.

[I11ustration: WATCHING A LANDING.]