On the morning of the second day Joshua Dickson, shortly after sunrise, was overlooking the horses being fed by his sons and servants, when a great noise was heard in the street, as of many waggons, and then there was a sharp knocking at the door of the inn. Joshua hastily left the stables and took his way to the great room of the hotel. He came face to face with Samuel Dickson, who had just been admitted by the sleepy innkeeper. "Hilloa!" cried Joshua, "Is that you, my brother?" "Who else do you suppose it is?" cried Samuel. "Well, but I did not expect you so early." "Well," said Samuel, drily, "I was afraid you might give me the slip, so I came early." "An excellent idea, brother," said Mrs. Dickson, who now entered. "And knowing how anxious my brother is to reach the promised land, I would not keep him waiting." "Quite right," coolly replied Joshua; "and now about this important business?" "Look out of window," drily answered Samuel. Joshua obeyed, and saw five heavily-laden waggons, drawn each by horses, with about twelve hired men. "Well," coolly observed Joshua, "what may be the meaning of all this?" "It means," answered the farmer, "that as you have found yourself such a fool, it becomes my duty, as your elder brother, to come and look after you. I have sold up everything, and invested part, as you see." "Oh, my brother!" cried Joshua, with tears in his eyes. "Am I not your only relative? Wherever you go, I shall go--only there will now be two fools, but I am the bigger of the two. I talk like a wise man and act like a foolish child." Uncle Samuel was adored by all the family, everyone was delighted, while Diana was radiant. "Oh, my good uncle," she said, warmly embracing him, "it is for me you do this." "Do you think," he whispered, "I ever meant to desert my niece?" Two hours later the double caravan started on its way. CHAPTER III. A QUEER CUSTOMER. It was the beginning of the month of October, and some sharp frosts had rid the land of mosquitoes and gnats, which during the hot season abound in myriads near watercourses and beneath the leafy arches of the virgin forest, being one of its worst scourges. A few minutes after the rising of the sun a traveller, mounted on a magnificent horse, wearing the costume of a prairie hunter, and whose general appearance indicated a white man, emerged at a walking pace from a high thicket, and entered upon a vast prairie, at that day almost unknown to the trappers themselves, those hardy explorers of the desert--and which was not far from the Rocky Mountains, in the centre of the Indian country, and nearly two thousand miles from any settlement. This traveller was Oliver. He had, we see, already travelled a long distance. Two months only had elapsed, during which, going always straight before him, he had traversed all the provinces of the young American republic, never stopping except to rest himself and horse; then he had passed the frontier and entered the desert.