Mr. Keith was standing in the doorway where the Indian had been a moment before. "Come and look at them, wife, and all of you," he said, "it's quite a show and there's not the least danger." Thus encouraged the children crowded to the door and window and found much amusement in watching the movements of the savages and Viny's efforts to win favor with them; efforts apparently well-directed, for the day was warm and they drank the cool water freshly drawn from the well in the yard, as if they found it very refreshing. The troop--some thirty or forty in number--did not tarry long; in less than an hour they had all remounted and gone on their way. "There! them savage wild Hinguns is all clear gone and hour scalps is safe for the present," remarked Viny, with a sigh of relief as the last one disappeared from view in a cloud of dust far down the street. She had run out to the corner of the house, dishtowel in hand, to watch their movements as far as she could see them. "Don't talk so; you'll frighten the children," said Mildred, reprovingly, speaking from the front door where she stood with the little ones grouped about her. "I don't take my horders from you," muttered the girl, stalking back to her kitchen. After an early tea the proposed family walk was taken. The lot--a little farther to the north than any which had been built upon as yet, on the high river bank and overlooking the ferry--was pronounced all that could be desired. It was on a corner, and on two sides afforded a fine view of the river, on the others of town and country. "When we have our house built," remarked Mr. Keith, "we'll be able to see the Kankakee Marsh from the second story windows." "Marsh?" repeated his wife in a tone of alarm, "how far off is it?" "We're about two miles from this end; it is two hundred miles long, you remember, extending far over into Illinois. But why that sigh?" "Ague!" "Well, don't let us cross the bridge before we come to it. This is a beautiful spot. I think we can, in a few years, make it superior in point of beauty to any we have ever lived in." "I think so too, if we can keep these fine old oaks." There were several of them; grand old trees that had stood the storms of centuries, perhaps. "We will; we'll manage our building in a way not to interfere with them." At that Mildred's face brightened as it had not since her first sight of the yellow house. She had been very homesick for the dear old home in Lansdale, though not a word of it had she breathed even into her mother's sympathetic ear. "How soon can the house be done?" she asked. "Better inquire first how soon it will be begun," laughed her father. "If we get into it by next spring we may consider ourselves fortunate." "Oh dear!" sighed the children with one accord. "The time will slip around before you know it, dears," remarked their aunt cheerily.