as if to prove that women are idiots, there were women in Albany who refused to associate with their financial savior any more. They said she had left her sphere. But never mind. The world is moving, and women are moving with it."
The camp-fires had died to heaps of embers, the lights were out in the tents and wagons, and all except themselves were settled for the night.
"Don't say anything to anybody about my meeting with Sam, will you, Jean?"
"Not unless he annoys you again. Then I'll be ready to meet him with facts."
"He might put your life in jeopardy, my dear."
"Jeopardy nothin'!" cried Jean, adopting the slang of the road. "He's too big a coward to put his neck in danger. But just you wait! I'll live to see an end to one-sided laws and a one-sexed government. See if I don't! And the men will fight our battle for us, too, as soon as they are wise enough."
"If you don't come across a matrimonial fate that'll change your tune, my name isn't Sally O'Dowd," exclaimed her companion, as they drew near the camp.
"Your name isn't O'Dowd, but Danover," cried Jean. "You're safe in making such a prophecy on such a basis."
XIII
AN APPROACHING STORM
E came eighteen miles to-day," wrote Jean, under date of May 28, "and halted for the night opposite Grand Island, in the Platte River, where we find both wood and pasture. All day we floundered through the muddy roads, occasionally getting almost swamped in heavy and treacherous
