"May I get you anything, a drink of water?" suggested Chester.
"No, no; it was nothing. Sit down again"—for Chester also had arisen—"and tell me some more about yourself. I am interested."
"Well, my life has been very uneventful, and yet in a way, I have lived. As a boy in Chicago, I suppose, my young days passed as others; but it was when I went out west and met the 'Mormons' that things happened to me."
"Yes, yes."
"I don't mean that I had any adventures or narrow escapes in a physical way. I lived in the mountains as a miner for a time, but there are no wild animals or Indians there now, so my adventures were those of the spirit, if I may use that expression,—and of the heart. Isn't that your daughter coming this way?"
Sure enough, Lucy had found them, and came up to them beaming. Chester failed to see in her any symptoms for the worse, as her father had indicated. In fact, there certainly was a spring to her step which he had not seen before.
"Well, I've found you at last, you run-away papa. Good morning," she nodded to Chester, who returned the greeting. "Don't you know, papa, you have kept me waiting for half an hour or more to finish our game."
"I'll go right now with you," said the father, rising.
"Well, I don't care so much now, whether it's finished or not. I believe someone else has it anyway."
"Oh, we'll go and finish the game," persisted Mr. Strong.