Raftmates | Page 8

a baby when you last saw her!"
exclaimed Mrs. Caspar; "and I'm sure I should never have recognized
you but for your voice. I don't know how you look even now, and I
sha'n't until you wash your face."
"What's the matter with my face? Is it dirty?" asked the young man.
For answer Mrs. Caspar led him in front of a mirror.
"Well, I should say it was dirty! In fact, dirty is no name at all for it!"
he laughed. "I believe I look about as bad as Binney Gibbs[1] did when
he covered himself with 'mud and glory' at the same time, or rather
when his mule did it for him."
"Who is Binney Gibbs?" asked both Mrs. Caspar and Elta.
"Binney? Why, he is a young fellow, about Winn's age, who went
across the plains with me a year ago. By-the-way, where is Winn? I
want to see the boy. And where is the Major?"
Then, as Mrs. Caspar explained the absence of her husband and son, all
her anxieties returned, so that before she finished her face again wore a
very sober and troubled expression.
"So that is the situation, is it?" remarked the new-comer, reflectively. "I
see that Winn is not behind his age in getting into scrapes. He reminds
me of another young fellow who went campmates with me on the
plains, Glen Matherson--no, Eddy. No; come to think of it, his name is
Elting. Well, any way, he had just such a habit of getting into all sorts
of messes; but he always came out of each one bright and smiling, right
side up with care, and ready for the next."

"He had names enough, whoever he was," said Elta, a little coldly; for
it seemed to her that this flippant young uncle was rather inclined to
disparage her own dear brother. "Yes, he certainly had names to spare;
but if he was half as well able to take care of himself as our Winn is, no
one ever had an excuse for worrying about him."
"No, indeed!" broke in the young man, eagerly; "but I tell you he was--
Why, you just ought to have seen him when--"
"Here comes father!" cried Elta, joyfully, running to throw open the
door as she spoke.

[1] See Campmates, by the same Author.
CHAPTER IV.
BILLY BRACKETT STARTS DOWN THE RIVER.
It needed but a glance at Major Caspar's face, as, dripping and weary,
he entered the house, to show that his search for the raft had been
fruitless. His wife's mother-instinct translated his expression at once,
and the quick tears started to her eyes as she exclaimed,
"My boy! What has happened to him?"
"Nothing serious, you may rest assured, my dear," replied the Major. "I
have not seen him; but I have heard of the raft, and there is no question
as to its safety. We reached the mouth of the creek without discovering
a trace of it. Then we went down the river as far as the Elbow, where
we waited in the slack-water to hail up-bound steamboats. The first had
seen nothing of the raft; but the second, one of the 'Diamond Jo' boats,
reported that they had seen such a raft--one with three shanties on it--at
daybreak, in the 'Slant Crossing,' ten miles below. If I could have got a
down-river boat I should have boarded her and gone in pursuit, sending
the men back to tell you what I had done. As we were unable to hail the
only one that passed, I gave it up and came back to report progress."

"Oh, I am so glad you did!" cried Mrs. Caspar.
"So am I," said the young stranger, speaking for the first time since the
Major's entrance. The latter had glanced curiously at him once or twice
while talking to his wife, but without a gleam of recognition. Now, as
he looked inquiringly at him again, Mrs. Caspar exclaimed:
"Why, John, don't you know him? It's William--my own brother
William, just come from California."
"So it is," replied the Major, giving the young man a hearty
hand-shake--"so it is, William Brackett himself. But, my dear fellow, I
must confess I was so far from recognizing you that I thought your
name was--"
"'Mud' I reckon," interrupted the other, laughing; "and so it will be
before long, if I don't get a chance to clean up. But, Major, by the time
both of us are wrung out and dried, and sister has looked up some
dinner, I'll be ready to unfold a plan that will make things look as bright
for you and Winn and the rest of us as the sun that's breaking away the
clouds is going to make the sky directly."
Mrs. Caspar's brother William, "Billy