Elsie, with hands extended, seized upon them both with cordial intensity. A little flurry of hand-shakings followed, and at last Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Parker were introduced. He was a tall man with a bush of yellow beard, while she was dark and plain; but she had a pleasant smile, and her eyes were nice and quiet. "Do you know, I'm overjoyed to get back!" said Elsie to Curtis. "I don't know why I should be, but I've been eagerly looking for the Cleft Butte all day. Jerome will tell you that I expressed a sort of proprietorship in every prairie-dog." "We are very glad to have you here again," replied Curtis. "And now that you _are_ here, we must get your belongings together and get away. We are to camp to-night at the Sandstone Spring." "A real camp?" "A real camp. We could drive through, of course, but it would be tiresome, and then I thought you'd enjoy the camp." "Of course we shall. It's very thoughtful of you." "Everything will be ready for us. I left Two Horns to look after it." "Then it will be _right_," said Lawson, who was beaming with placid joy. "Isn't it good to breathe this air again? It was stifling hot in Alta City. I never knew it to be hotter in the month of June." While they talked, Crane's Voice was collecting the trunks, and in a few minutes, with Elsie by his side, Curtis drove his three-seated buckboard out upon the floor of the valley, leaving the squalid town behind. Lawson and Mrs. Parker occupied the middle seat, and Jennie and the tall sculptor sat behind. They were all as merry as children. Elsie took off her hat and faced the sun with joyous greeting. "Isn't this glorious? I've dreamed of this every night for a month." "That's one thing the Tetong has--good, fresh air, and plenty of it," said Lawson. "A thin diet, sometimes," Curtis replied. He turned to Elsie. "Your studio is all ready for you, and I have spoken to a number of the head men about you. You'll not lack sitters. They are eager to be immortalized at your convenience." "You are most kind--I am going to work as never before." "You mustn't work too hard. I have a plan for an outing. One of my districts lies up in the head-waters of the Willow. I propose that we all go camping up there for a couple of weeks." "Do you hear that, Osborne?" she called, turning her head. "I did not--what is it?" Curtis repeated his suggestion, and Parker shouted with joy. "Just what I want to do," he said. Curtis went on: "We'll find the redman living there under much more favorable conditions than down in the hot valley. We have a saw-mill up in the pines, and the ladies can stay in the superintendent's house--" "Oh no!" interrupted Elsie. "We must camp. Don't think of putting us under a roof." A little later she said, in a low voice: "Father is in Chicago, and expects to be out here later. I mean, he's coming to make a tour of the State." "How is his health?" Curtis asked, politely.