"Robert!"
"Father, father!"
To which he responded with a glad "Hurrah! so there you are at last!" as he put spurs to his horse and came dashing up to the side of the wagon containing his wife and children.
There was a halt of several minutes while joyous greetings, and eager questions and answers were exchanged; then leaving Mr. Nash in charge of the slow-moving vehicles, Kenneth and Nellie rode on toward the town.
It was the afternoon of a perfect day in May. Their path led them, now through the depths of a forest where grew in abundance the sugar maple, black walnut, buckeye, hackberry, cherry and other trees which give evidence of a rich soil; now across a beautiful prairie covered with grass from four to five feet high, and spangled with loveliest wild flowers, which with the blossoms of the plum tree, mulberry, crab apple and red and black haw, fringing the outer edge of the prairies, filled the air with delicious perfume, and feasted the eye with beauty.
Nellie was in ecstasies. "It is a paradise, Dr. Clendenin! is it not?" she cried.
"An earthly one," he answered with his grave kindly smile. "May you find much happiness in it, little lady."
"And you too, doctor," she said gaily, turning her bright, winsome face to his. "I'm sure you ought."
"You think it a duty to be happy? and you are right."
"A duty? I never thought of it in that light," she said laughing lightly.