"'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 fine draught horses, that stood waiting for him, and to the covered wagon, drawn by a pair of stout mules, that was coming up behind. "Oh! Ah! Yes, I see! You are traveling with your retinue. But is not this a very sudden move on your part?" demanded the captain. "So sudden in its impulse that it might be mistaken for the flight of a criminal, had it not been so deliberate in its execution. The fact is, sir, I am very much attached to my widowed niece, and not being able to dissuade her from her purpose of going out into the Indian country, and being her natural protector and an unincumbered bachelor, I decided to follow her. And now I feel very happy to have overtaken her in the nick of time." "I see! I see!" said the captain with a laugh. While this talk was still going on, Corona turned to take a better look at the great, strong carriage in which her uncle had driven up from the steamboat landing. There, to her surprise and delight, she saw young Mark, from Rockhold, seated on the box. He was staring at her, trying to catch her eye, and when he did so he grinned and bobbed, and bobbed and grinned, half a dozen times, in as many half seconds. "Why, Mark! I am so surprised!" said Corona, as she went toward him. "I am so glad to see you!" "Yes'm. Thanky'm. So is I. Yes'm, an'dar's mammy an' daddy an' Sister Phebe 'hind dar in de wagon," jerking his head toward the rear.