"SAMUEL EXCELL".
For a moment this letter made Mose feel his father's loneliness, and had he not held in his hand two other and more important letters he would have replied with greater tenderness than ever before in his life.
"Well, Mose, set up," said Mrs. Reynolds; "letters'll keep."
He was distracted all through the meal in spite of the incessant questioning of his good friends. They were determined to uncover every act of his long years of wandering.
"Yes," he said, "I've been hungry and cold, but I always looked after my horse, and so, when I struck a cow country I could whirl in and earn some money. It don't take much to keep me when I'm on the trail."
"What's the good of seein' so much?" asked Mrs. Reynolds.
He smiled a slow, musing smile. "Oh, I don't know. The more you see the more you want to see. Just now I feel like taking a little rest."
Cora smiled at him. "I wish you would. You look like a starved cat—you ought'o let us feed you up for a while."
"Spoil me for the trail," he said, but his eyes conveyed a message of gratitude for her sympathy, and she flushed again.
After supper Mrs. Reynolds said: "Now if you want to read your letters by yourself, you can." She opened a door and he looked in.