Then that girl further on, in fluffs of white lace and muslin, white shoes, white gloves, and her dainty head crowned with "an acre" of Leghorn, and "a half bushel" of roses. No, neither would Cherry look like her. And now the boy's fancy brought the little country maiden, in her country garb--even her Sunday best--and set her down beside these two. A plain white gown, with no setting off but the simple ruffles which Cherry had embroidered, and the exquisite laundry work which she had also done herself. Black shoes, which were made for walking ("but either one of those white ones could hold 'em both," thought Magnus, in his hot fancy). Then a broad straw hat, round which Violet's deft fingers had twined a dark green riband; while the hands, which were small, indeed, and comely, but unwhitened with either idleness or lemon, wore only a pair of spotless Lisle thread gloves. Magnus looked at the pink, the white, the tan kids all about him, and drew a deep breath. "But she _shall_ sit there!" he said, with one of his fierce mental bursts. "She shall sit there, and look just so. No, not just so, for, if they try their prettiest, they can never any of them look like her." VII IN FOR IT With this hand work, and with the other pray, And God will bless them both from day to day. --_Old Vierlander Motto._ Some little time after the foregoing events, the following letter was sent from the West Point Post Office: "CAMP HARD, June --, 18--. "MY DEAR FOLKS AT HOME: "Well, I am in for it. Uncle Sam has me, body and soul. At least the body is self-evident, and as I don't get time to say my soul's my own, I suppose he claims that, too,--Mr. Wayne to the contrary. Bought and paid for and sworn in; and earmarks enough for a drove of pigs. Do you want to know what I look like, you girls? Just at present I am a compound of grey and green in about equal mixture. No, I guess the green has it. Hair cut short, army shoes, and a brand new prison dress which might fit anybody else as well as it does me, and better. I get up by a gun, and go to bed by a drum, and have a bugle to tell me when to go to sleep, and as we are young and tender in the ways of the world, at every meal the first captain informs us when to stop eating. (He's nothing special to look at, Cherry. Don't open your eyes too wide. But he's such an old spoon that he's always in a hurry to get out and walk with some girl or other)." "We study straight lines in the morning, and play leap-frog in the afternoon; and have girls come and make fun of us while we're at it. Yesterday they enjoyed it more than was good for themselves, and one of the officers ordered them off."