"A new student, maybe," thought he, and, taking his foot out of the stirrup, waited to see. "Hollo, Windsor, hold on a minute!" shouted Dr. Gershom as they approached. "Here's a young gentleman asking for you." Karl bowed, and began hastily to review his half-forgotten army acquaintances; failing, however, to identify any of them with the young man now bowing to him, and taking a letter from his pocket-book. "Mr. Brown favored me with this letter of introduction to you, sir," said he, holding it out. Karl glanced hastily at the few lines, and remembered an allusion the chaplain had made to a particularly promising student of his, whom he thought of sending to travel a little in the West. So he frankly smiled, extended his hand, and said,-- "Ah, yes! I have heard Mr. Brown speak of you, Mr. Ginniss; and I am very happy to welcome you to our prairie life. I am just setting out for home; and, if you please, we will ride along directly." "Better come in, boys, and have a glass of bitters to keep the night-air off your stomachs. Got some of the real stuff right here in the office," said the old doctor; but, both young men declining the proffered hospitality, he withdrew, grumbling,-- "You never'll make it work, Windsor, I tell you now! Such a dog's life as a country doctor's isn't to be kept up without fuel." Karl laughed, and, turning to his new acquaintance, said,-- "So they told me in the army; but I got through without. I never tasted spirit but once, and then I didn't like it." "I never have at all," said Ginniss simply. "I gave my mother a promise, when I was twelve years old, that I never would; and I never have." Karl nodded. "That's right," said he; "and all the better for you to have had such a mother." "You'd say that, Mr. Windsor, if you knew what she'd done for me. There ain't many such mothers in any class," said the young man heartily. Karl looked at his new acquaintance with increasing favor, and found something very attractive in his open, manly face, and the honest smile with which he met his scrutiny. "I hope you'll stay with us some time, Mr. Ginniss," said he heartily. "Thank you; but, I believe, only for one day. The journey was my principal object in coming; and I must be at Antioch College again in a week, or ten days at the outside." "Tell me about the life there. I was at old Harvard, and never visited any other college," said Karl; and the young men found plenty of conversation, until, in the soft twilight, they came upon the pleasant slope and vine-clad buildings of Outpost. "Here is our house, or rather my cousin's house," said Karl. "You have heard Mr. Brown speak of Dora?" "Yes, before he went away," said Ginniss significantly. "But not since his return?" asked Karl eagerly. "Very seldom." "Hem! Seth, will you take our horses round? Jump off, and come in, sir. This is my sister Kitty, Mr. Ginniss. A scholar of Mr. Brown's, Kitty: I dare say you remember his speaking of him."