her and get away. We
are to camp to-night at the Sandstone Spring."

"A real camp?"

"A real camp. We could drive through, of course, but it would be
tiresome, and then I thought you'd enjoy the camp."

"Of course we shall. It's very thoughtful of you."

"Everything will be ready for us. I left Two Horns to look after it."

"Then it will be _right_," said Lawson, who was beaming with placid
joy. "Isn't it good to breathe this air again? It was stifling hot in
Alta City. I never knew it to be hotter in the month of June."

While they talked, Crane's Voice was collecting the trunks, and in a few
minutes, with Elsie by his side, Curtis drove his three-seated buckboard
out upon the floor of the valley, leaving the squalid town behind.
Lawson and Mrs. Parker occupied the middle seat, and Jennie and the tall
sculptor sat behind. They were all as merry as children. Elsie took off
her hat and faced the sun with joyous greeting.

"Isn't this glorious? I've dreamed of this every night for a month."

"That's one thing the Tetong has--good, fresh air, and plenty of it,"
said Lawson.

"A thin diet, sometimes," Curtis replied. He turned to Elsie. "Your
studio is all ready for you, and I have spoken to a number of the head
men about you. You'll not lack sitters. They are eager to be
immortalized at your convenience."

"You are most kind--I am going to work as never before."

"You mustn't work too hard. I have a plan for an outing. One of my
districts lies up in the head-waters of the Willow. I propose that we
all go camping up there for a couple of weeks."

"Do you hear that, Osborne?" she called, turning her head.

"I did not--what is it?"

Curtis repeated his suggestion, and Parker shouted with joy. "Just what
I want to do," he said.

Curtis went on: "We'll find the redman living there under much more
favorable conditions than down in the hot valley. We have a saw-mill up
in the pines, and the ladies can stay in the superintendent's house--"

"Oh no!" interrupted Elsie. "We must camp. Don't think of putting us
under a roof." A little later she said, in a low voice: "Father is in
Chicago, and expects to be out here later. I mean, he's coming to make a
tour of the State."

"How is his health?" Curtis asked, politely.

Her face clouded. "He's not at all well. He is older than he realizes. I
can see he is failing, and he ought not to go into this senatorial
fight." After a pause she said: "He was quite ill in March