XIII

NEARING HOME

AT THE WELL IN THE DESERT,
October 21.

DEAR FRIEND,--

We shall reach Green River City to-night. We will rest the teams one
day, then start home. It will take us two days from Green River to
reach home, so this is the last letter on the road. When we made camp
here last night we saw some one coming on horseback along the canyon
rim on the opposite side. The form seemed familiar and the horse
looked like one I had seen, but I dared not believe my eyes. Clyde,
who was helping to draw water from the eighty-foot well without a
pulley, thought I was bereft as I ran from the camp toward the
advancing rider. But although I thought what I saw must be a mirage,
still I knew Mrs. Louderer on Bismarck.

Out of breath from my run, I grasped her fat ankle and panted till I
could speak.

"Haf they run you out of camp, you iss so bad?" she asked me by way of
greeting. Then, more kindly, "Your boy iss all right, the mutter also.
I am come, though, to find you. It iss time you are home with the
_kinder_. Haf you any goose-grease left?"

I had, all she had given me.

At camp, joy knew no bounds. Never was one more welcome than our
beloved neighbor. Her astonishment knew no bounds either, when her big
blue eyes rested upon Mrs. O'Shaughnessy's "twins."

"Frau O'Shaughnessy," she said severely, "what have you here? You iss
robbed an orphan asylum. How haf you come by these?"

Mrs. O'Shaughnessy is so full of life and good spirits and so
delighted to talk about her "childher" that she gave a very animated
recital of how she became a happy mother. In turn Mrs. Louderer told
how she grew more and more alarmed by our long absence, but decided
not to alarm the neighbors, so she had "made a search party out of
mineself," and had fared forth to learn our fate.

We had a merry supper; even Haynes became cheerful, and there was no
lagging next morning when we started for home. When people go on elk
hunts they are very likely to return in tatters, so I am going to
leave it to your imagination to picture our appearance when we drove
up to the rear of the hotel about sundown. Our friend Mrs. Hutton came
running to meet us. I was ashamed to go into her house, but she leaned
up against the house and laughed until tears came. "_What_ chased
you?" she gasped. "You must have been run through some of those barbed
wire things that they are putting up to sto