with
a smile, as he kissed his niece.

"Oh, Colonel ----, this is my dear Uncle Clarence--Mr. Clarence
Rockharrt, I mean," said Corona, in a rapture of confusion.

"How do you do, sir? I am very glad to see you. Really going over the
plains with this train?" inquired the colonel, as the two gentlemen
shook hands.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE NEW COMERS.

"Yes, colonel," briskly replied Clarence, "I am really going out to the
frontier! I have not enlisted in the army, nor have I received any
appointment as post trader or Indian agent from the government, nor
missionary or schoolmaster from any Christian association. But, all the
same, I am en route for the wilderness on my own responsibility, by my
own conveyance, at my own expense, and with this outgoing trail--if
there be no objection," added Clarence, with a sudden obscure doubt
arising in his mind that there might exist some military regulation
against the attachment of any outsider to the trail of army wagons going
over the plains from fort to fort.

"'Objections!' What objections could there possibly be, my dear sir? I
fancy there could be nothing worse than a warm welcome for you," replied
the colonel.

At that moment Captain Neville, who had put his wife in their carryall,
came up to see what had delayed his guest.

"My dear Mrs. Rothsay, we are ready to start," he said. Then seeing Mr.
Clarence, whom he had met in Washington and liked very much, he seized
his hand and exclaimed:

"Why, Rockharrt, my dear fellow! You here! This is a surprise, indeed! I
am very glad to see you! How are you? When did you arrive?" and he shook
the hand of the new comer as if he would have shaken it off.

"I am very well, thank you, captain, and have just landed from the boat.
I hope you and your wife are quite well."

"Robust, sir! Robust! So glad to see you! But so sorry you did not
arrive a few days sooner, so that we might have seen more of you. You
have come, I suppose, all this distance to bid a last, supplementary
farewell to your dear favorite niece?"

"I have come to go with her to the frontier, if I may have the privilege
of traveling with your trail of wagons."

"Why, assuredly. We are always glad of good company on the way,"
heartily responded the captain.

"Oh, beg pardon, and thank you very much; but I did not intend to 'beat'
my way. Look there!" exclaimed Clarence, with a brighter smile, as he
pointed to the commodious carriage, drawn by a pair of f