r
words of delight when they see the mountains," I explained to Mrs.
Morris. "My lectures at the Colorado Normal School do not begin till the
second week in July--so that I can be with you part of the time."

My decision gave the final touch to the children's happiness. They liked
their shaggy father--I don't know why, but they did--and during the days
of preparation their voices were filled with bird-like music. They were
palpitant with joy.

On the day appointed the Morris automobile called for us and took us to
the train, and when the children found that they were to travel in a
private pullman and that the stateroom was to be their own little house
they were transported with pride. Thereafter they knew nothing of heat
or dust or weariness. Their meals came regularly, and they went to bed
in their berths with warbles of satisfaction.

The plains of the second day's travel absorbed them. The prairie dogs,
the herds of cattle, the cactus blooms all came in for joyous
recognition. They had read about them: now here they were in actuality.
"Are those the mountains?" asked Mary Isabel as we came in sight of the
buttes of Eastern Wyoming. "No, only hills," I replied.

Then, at last, came the Big Horns deep blue and lined with snow. Mary
Isabel's eyes expanded with awe. "Oh, they are so much finer than I
expected them to be," she said, and from that moment, she gave them her
adoration. They were papa's mountains and hence not to be feared. "Are
we really going up there?" she asked. "Yes," I replied pointing out
Cloud Peak, "we shall go up almost directly toward that highest mountain
of all."

At a camp just above Big Horn City we spent a month of just the sort of
riding, trailing and camping which I was eager to have my children know,
and in a few days under my instruction, they both learned to sit a horse
in fearless confidence. Mary Isabel, who was eleven, accompanied me on a
ride to Cloud Peak Lake, a matter of twenty miles over a rough trail,
and came into camp almost unwearied. She was a chip of the old block in
this regard, and as I listened to her cheery voice and looked down into
her shining face I was a picture of shameless parental pride. For
several weeks I was able to remain with them and then at last set forth
for Colorado on my lecture tour.

Meanwhile, unsuspected by Americans, colossal armies were secretly
mobilizing in Europe, and on August first, whilst we were on our way
home, the sound of cannon p