The house faced south; and eastward from its door, across the lawn and into the rustling wood, wound the faint wheel-track, leading back to civilization, ease, and safety:  but Dora, standing beneath the chestnut-tree, fixed her dreamy eyes upon the setting sun, and, half smiling at her own fancy, thought,—­

“I wonder if God doesn’t make the western sky so beautiful just to draw us toward it.  There is so much to do here, and so few to do it!”

A distant noise in the forest attracted her attention; and Argus, who had been dreaming at the feet of his mistress, started up with a short bark.

“Hush, Argus!  It’s the wagon; don’t you know?” explained Dora, as she hastened down the path, and, at the distance of a few hundred rods, caught sight of the black heads of Pope and Pagan, and, the next moment, of the wagon and its occupants.

These were Karl, Kitty, and Sunshine, the two last of whom had remained all the spring in Cincinnati, while Karl and Dora had vibrated between that city and Outpost; for Dora, while choosing to superintend the building of her house and opening of the farm operations in person, had not wished to expose her cousin or the delicate child to such discomforts as she cheerfully and even gayly bore for herself.

Kitty, moreover, had found the change from her native seclusion to a gay city very pleasant; and had made so many acquaintances in Cincinnati, that she declared it was a great deal worse than leaving home to abandon them all.

“Oho! here’s the general come to meet us!  Whoa, Pope! don’t you see your mistress?  Now, then!” shouted Karl; while Kitty cried,—­

“O Dora!  I’m so glad to see you alive!” And little Sunshine, jumping up and down in the front of the wagon, exclaimed,—­

“Dora’s come!  Dora’s come!  Karlo said we’d come to Dora by and by!”

“O you little darling! if Dora isn’t glad to see you again!  Kitty, how do you do?  I’m so glad to see you!”

She had jumped into the wagon as she spoke; and, after giving Kitty a hearty kiss and hug, she took Sunshine in her arms, and buried her face in the child’s sunny curls.

“Am I your own little girl, Dora? and do you love me same as you always did?” asked Sunshine anxiously.  “Kitty said you’d so much to think about now, that maybe you wouldn’t care for us.”

“Oh!  Kitty never meant that, dear,” said Dora quickly; and Kitty, with rather a forced laugh, added,—­

“Of course I didn’t.  It was only a joke, Molly.  You talked so much about Dora, I wanted to plague you a little.”

The child looked earnestly at her for a moment; and then, putting her arms about Dora’s neck, hid her face upon her bosom, murmuring,—­

“I’m glad I’ve got Dora again!”

“Well, now everybody else is attended to, hasn’t the general a word for his humble orderly?” asked Karl, turning to smile over his shoulder at the group behind.