who's this? John Walters? So you're
a man, too! Mr. Dean, how are you? And Mrs. Dean! You don't grow any
older anyway, so I'll walk with you. Wait until I've pounded this old
chap a minute. Why didn't I write I was coming? Man, I didn't know it
myself. I'm under orders nowadays. To get here at all I had to steal
time. So you're graduated from a crutch to a cane? Good!"

Every one exclaimed at once, while Richard talked right on, until they
reached the riverside where the lunch was spread; and then the babble
was complete.

That night, as they all drove home in the moonlight, Richard tied his
horse to the rear of the Ballards' wagon and rode home seated on the
hay with the rest. He placed himself where Betty sat on his right, and
the two boys crowded as close to him as possible on his left. Little
Janey, cuddled at Betty's side, was soon fast asleep with her head in
her sister's lap, while Lucien Thurbyfil was well pleased to have
Martha in the corner to himself. Peter Junior sat near Betty and
listened with interest to his cousin, who entertained them all with
tales of the plains and the Indians, and the game that supplied them
with many a fine meal in camp.

"Say, did you ever see a real herd of wild buffalo just tearing over
the ground and kicking up a great dust and stampeding and everything?"
said Jamie.

"Oh, yes. And if you are out there all alone on your pony, you'd
better keep away from in front of them, too, or you'd be trampled to
death in a jiffy."

"What's stampeding?" said Bobby.

So Richard explained it, and much more that elicited long breaths of
interest. He told them of the miles and miles of land without a single
tree or hill, and only a sea of grass as far as the eye could reach,
as level as Lake Michigan, and far vaster. And how the great railway
was now approaching the desert, and how he had seen the bones of men
and cattle and horses bleaching white, lying beside their broken-down
wagons half buried in the drifting sand. He told them how the trail
that such people had made with so much difficulty stretched far, far
away into the desert along the very route, for the most part, that the
railroad was taking, and answered their questions so interestingly
that the boys were sorry when they reached home at last and they had
to bid good-night to Peter Junior's fascinating cousin, Richard.

CHAPTER XI

BETTY BALLARD'S AWAKENING

Mary and Bertrand always went early to church, for Bertran