the room. Then, but not till then, it fled, with its back, its tail,
its hair, its eyes--in short, its entire body--bristling in rampant
indignation. Having dislodged the enemy, Harry replaced the bed, threw
off his coat and waistcoat, untied his neckcloth, sat down on his chair
again, and fell into a reverie; from which, after half an hour, he
started, clasped his hands, stamped his foot, glared up at the ceiling,
slapped his thigh, and exclaimed, in the voice of a hen, "Yes, I'll do
it, or die!"

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

THE FIRST DAY AT HOME--A GALLOP IN THE PRAIRIE, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

Next morning, as the quartette were at breakfast, Mr Kennedy, senior,
took occasion to propound to his son the plans he had laid down for them
during the next week.

"In the first place, Charley, my boy," said he, as well as a large
mouthful of buffalo steak and potato would permit, "you must drive up to
the fort and report yourself. Harry and I will go with you; and after
we have paid our respects to old Grant (another cup of tea, Kate, my
darling)--you recollect _him_, Charley, don't you?"

"Yes, perfectly."

"Well, then, after we've been to see him, we'll drive down the river,
and call on our friends at the mill. Then we'll look in on the
Thomsons; and give a call, in passing, on old Neverin--he's always out,
so he'll be pleased to hear we were there, and it won't detain us.
Then--"

"But, dear father--excuse my interrupting you--Harry and I are very
anxious to spend our first day at home entirely with you and Kate.
Don't you think it would be more pleasant? and then, to-morrow--"

"Now, Charley, this is too bad of you," said Mr Kennedy, with a look of
affected indignation: "no sooner have you come back than you're at your
old tricks, opposing and thwarting your father's wishes."

"Indeed, I do not wish to do so, father," replied Charley, with a smile;
"but I thought that you would like my plan better yourself, and that it
would afford us an opportunity of having a good long, satisfactory talk
about all that concerns us, past, present, and future."

"What a daring mind you have, Charley," said Harry, "to speak of
cramming a _satisfactory_ talk of the past, the present, and the future
all into _one_ day!"

"Harry will take another cup of tea, Kate," said Charley, with an arch
smile, as he went on--

"Besides, father, Jacques tells me that he means to go off immediately,
to visit a number of his old voyageur fr