and howl when he had read it
out to mother. Jimmini! Do you really suppose that he will go? And
take us? And Uncle Aleck? Oh, wouldn't that be too everlastingly bully
for anything?" Oscar, as you will see, was given to the use of slang,
especially when under great excitement. The two boys rushed back to
the gate, where the brothers-in-law were still talking eagerly and in
undertones.

"If your mother and Aunt Amanda will consent, I guess we will go,"
said Mr. Bryant, with a smile on his face as he regarded the flushed
cheeks and eager eyes of Sandy and Oscar. Sandy's father added: "And
I'll answer for your mother, my son. She and I have talked this thing
over many a time, more on your account and Charlie's than for the sake
of 'bleeding Kansas,' however. I'm bound to say that. Every man is in
honor bound to do his duty by the country and by the good cause; but
I have got to look after my boys first." And the father lovingly laid
his hand on Sandy's sturdy shoulder. "Do you think you could fight, if
the worst comes to the worst, Sandy, boy?"

Of course the lad protested confidently that he could fight; certainly
he could protect his rights and his father's rights, even with a gun,
if that should be found necessary. But he admitted that, on the whole,
he would rather shoot buffaloes and antelope, both of which species of
large game he had already learned were tolerably plentiful in Kansas.

"Just think of it, Oscar, we might have some real Indian-fighting out
there, like that Father Dixon and the rest of the old settlers had in
the time of the Black Hawk war."

His father assured him, however, that there was no longer any danger
from the red man in Kansas. The wild Indians were now far out on the
frontier, beyond the region to which emigrants would probably go in
search of homestead lands for settlement. Sandy looked relieved at
this explanation. He was not anxious for fighting with anybody. Fun
was more to his liking.

The two mothers, when they were informed of the decision of the male
members of the family, made very little opposition to the emigration
scheme. In fact, Mrs. Howell had really felt for some time past that
her boys would be better provided for in a new country. She had been
one of the "old settlers" of Dixon, having been brought out from the
interior of New York when she and her brother were small children. She
had the same spirit of adventure that he had, and, although she
remembered very well the