imber land, in which oaks and hickories were mingled
with less valuable trees. Near by the cabin, and hugging closely up to
it, was a thrifty field of corn and other garden stuff, just beginning
to look promising of good things to come; and it was a refreshing
sight here in the wilderness, for all around was the virgin forest and
the unbroken prairie.

Younkins's wife, a pale, sallow, and anxious-looking woman, and
Younkins's baby boy, chubby and open-eyed, welcomed the strangers
without much show of feeling other than a natural curiosity. With
Western hospitality, the little cabin was found large enough to
receive all the party, and the floor was covered with blankets and
buffalo-skins when they lay down to sleep their first night near their
future home in the country of the Republican Fork. The boys were very
happy that their journey was at an end. They had listened with delight
while Younkins told stories of buffalo and antelope hunting, of Indian
"scares," and of the many queer adventures of settlers on this distant
frontier.

"What is there west of this?" asked Charlie, as the party were
dividing the floor and the shallow loft among themselves for the
night.

"Nothing but Indians and buffalo," said Younkins, sententiously.

"No settlers anywhere?" cried Sandy, eagerly.

"The next settlement west of here, if you can call it a settlement, is
Fort Kearney, on the other side of the Platte. From here to there,
there isn't so much as a hunter's camp, so far as I know." This was
Younkins's last word, as he tumbled, half dressed, into his bunk in
one corner of the cabin. Sandy hugged his brother Charlie before he
dropped off to sleep, and whispered in his ear, "We're on the frontier
at last! It's just splendid!"

Next day, leaving their cattle and wagon at the Younkins homestead,
the party, piloted by their good-natured future neighbor, forded the
Fork and went over into the Promised Land. The river was rather high
as yet; for the snow, melting in the far-off Rocky Mountains as the
summer advanced, had swollen all the tributaries of the Republican
Fork, and the effects of the rise were to be seen far down on the Kaw.
The newcomers were initiated into the fashion of the country by
Younkins, who directed each one to take off all clothes but his shirt
and hat. Then their garments were rolled up in bundles, each man and
boy taking his own on his head, and wading deliberately into the
water, the sedate Younkins being th