all she
had seen? Cows, horses, pigs, and chickens, but most thrilling of all
was about the cross old sheep, which would not let her pass if she did
not carry a big stick in sight. Still, I should not have been so eager
to go, nor so gleeful on the way, had I known that the "good-bye" kiss
I gave my sister Frances at parting that day, would be the last kiss in
five long years.

Grandma was as happy as I. She could understand English better than she
could speak it, and in answering my questions, explained largely by
signs. "Courage," her gray poodle, left deep footprints in the dust,
as he trotted ahead over the well-known road, and I felt an increasing
affection for him upon learning that he, too, had crossed the plains in
an emigrant wagon and had reached the Fort at about the same time I had
reached the snow. He was so small that I imagined he must have been a
wee baby dog when he started, and that he was not yet half grown. My
surprise and admiration quickened beyond expression when grandma
assured me that he could do many tricks, understood French and German,
and was learning English.

Then she laughed, and explained that he was thus accomplished because
she and Christian Brunner, her husband, and Jacob, her brother-in-law,
had come from a place far away across lands and big waters where most
of the people spoke both French and German and that they had always
talked to Courage in one or the other of these languages.

As soon as we got into the house she opened the back door and called
"Jacob!" Then turning, she took a small cup of rennet clabber from the
shelf, poured a little cream over it, put a spoon in it, and set it on
the table before me. While I was eating, a pleasant elderly man came in
and by nods, motions, and words, partly English and partly something
else, convinced me that he liked little girls, and was glad to see me.
Then of a sudden, he clasped his hands about my waist and tossed me in
the air as father did before his hand was hurt, and when he wanted to
startle me, and then hear me laugh. This act, which brought back
loving memories, made Jacob seem nearer to me; nearer still when he
told me I must not call him anything but Jakie.

Everything about the house was as Georgia had described. Even the big
stick she had used to keep the old sheep from butting her over was
behind the door where she had left it.

When Christian Brunner got home from the Fort, grandma had supper
nearly ready, and he a