ork than to the main stream. So he said to his
father, when the Ohio man had passed on: "If they settle on Solomon's
Fork, won't they be neighbors of ours, daddy?"

Mr. Bryant took out a little map of the Territory that he had in his
knapsack, and, after some study, made up his mind that the newcomers
would not be "neighbors enough to hurt," if they came no nearer the
Republican than Solomon's Fork. About thirty-five miles west and south
of Fort Riley, which is at the junction of the Smoky Hill and the
Republican, Solomon's Fork branches off to the northwest. Settlers
anywhere along that line would not be nearer the other fork than
eighteen or twenty miles at the nearest. Charlie and Sandy agreed with
Oscar that it was quite as near as desirable neighbors should be. The
lads were already learning something of the spirit of the West. They
had heard of the man who had moved westward when another settler drove
his stakes twenty miles from his claim, because the country was
"gettin' too crowded."

That day, passing through the ragged log village of Tecumseh, they got
their first letters from home. When they left Illinois, they had not
known just where they would strike, in the Territory, but they had
resolved that they would not go further west than Tecumseh; and here
they were, with their eyes still fixed toward the west. No matter;
just now, news from home was to be devoured before anybody could talk
of the possible Kansas home that yet loomed before them in the dim
distance. How good it was to learn all about the dear ones left at
home; to find that Bose was keeping guard around the house as if he
knew that he was the protector of the two mothers left to themselves
in one home; to hear that the brindle calf had grown very large, and
that a circus was coming to town the very next day after the letter
was written!

"That circus has come and gone without our seeing it," said Sandy,
solemnly.

"Sandy is as good as a circus, any day," said his uncle, fondly. "The
greatest show in the country would have been willing to hire you for
a sight, fixed out as you were last night, after we had that upset in
the creek." The boys agreed that it was lucky for all hands that the
only looking-glass in camp was the little bit of one hidden away in
Uncle Charlie's shaving-case.

The next day, to their great discomfiture, they blundered upon a
county election. Trudging into Libertyville, one of the new mushroom
towns springing up alon