six months afterwards that Betty became of age and was entitled
to go home and claim her own. She and Tom went first to a small village
in Kent, where dwelt an old lady who for some time past had had her
heart full to the very brim with gratitude because of a long-lost
prodigal son having been brought back to her--saved by the blood of the
Lamb. When at last she set her longing eyes on Tom, and heard his
well-remembered voice say, "Mother!" the full heart overflowed and
rushed down the wrinkled cheeks in floods of inexpressible joy. And the
floods were increased, and the joy intensified, when she turned at last
to gaze on a little modest, tearful, sympathetic flower, whom Tom
introduced to her as the Rose of Oregon!

Thereafter Tom and the Rose paid a visit to London City and called upon
Truefoot, Tickle, and Badger.

Truefoot was the only partner in the office at the time, but he ably
represented the firm, for he tickled them with information and badgered
them with questions to such an extent that they left the place of
business in a state of mental confusion, but on the whole, very well
satisfied.

The result of all these things was that Tom Brixton settled down near
the village where his mother dwelt, and Fred Westly, after staying long
enough among the Sawback Mountains to dig out of them a sufficiency,
returned home and bought a small farm beside his old chum.

And did Tom forget his old friends in Oregon? No! He became noted for
the length and strength of his correspondence. He wrote to Flinders
begging him to come home and help him with his property, and Flinders
accepted. He wrote to Mahoghany Drake and sent him a splendid rifle,
besides good advice and many other things, at different times, too
numerous to mention. He wrote to little Tolly Trevor endeavouring to
persuade him to come to England and be "made a man of", but Tolly
politely declined, preferring to follow the fortunes of Mahoghany and be
made a man of in the backwoods sense of the expression, in company with
his fast friend the Leaping Buck. Tolly sent his special love to the
Rose of Oregon, and said that she would be glad to hear that the old
place in the Sawback range had become a little colony, and that a
missionary had settled in it, and Gashford had held by his promise to
her--not only giving up drink and gambling entirely, but had set up a
temperance coffee-house and a store, both of which were in the full
blast of prosperity.

T