Page:The Prairie Flower; Or, Adventures In the Far West.djvu/19

 carry our project into immediate execution, before it should become trite; and besides, nothing before had seemed so fully to meet the views of both in every particular. Adventure was our delight in every shape we could find it; as several powerful admonitions and premonitory warnings from our tutors, for various little pecadilloes—such as tying a calf to the bell rope, playing the ghost to old women, upsetting beehives, and robbing hen roosts—might well attest. But there was, notwithstanding, a darwback, which made me hesitate when my friend interrupted me. He was of age, but I was not; and my father might not be willing to give his consent, without which I certainly would not venture. Another: I loved Lilian Huntly; and should I go and leave her, she might get married in my absence—a result which I felt was not to be endured.

While I sat, with my head upon my hand, buried in thought, rapidly running these things over in my mind, my compan ion stood watching me, as if to gather my decision from the expression of my countenance.

"Well, Frank," said' he, at length, "it seems you have become very studious all a once. How long is it going to take you to decide on accepting so glorious a proposition?"

"How long since the idea of it entered your head?" I inquired.

"Ten, fifteen, ay, (looking at his watch) twenty minutes. I was down for the pur pose of getting a hack, to take us over to the city, when the thought came across me like a flash of lightning, and I turned and (lurried back, to "

"See me before you altered your mind," interrupted I, completing his sentence.

"Confound you, Frank wait till I have done, I hurried back, I say, to let you ahare the bright prospect with me."

"Humph! prospect indeed!" said I, with a laugh, merely for the purpose of annoying him; for I saw, by his whole demeanoi, that he was decidedly in ear nest. "And a prospect it will ever remain, I am thinking, a long way ahead. You are joking, Charley, are you not?"

"No. by all the bright cupids of fairy

realms, I swear to you, Frank, my dear fellow, I never was so serious about any thing in my life, since the time when I played the ghostly tin-pan drummer to the edification of old Aunt Nabby."

"But allowing you are in earnest, you have overlooked two important points in asking me to accompany you."

"Ha! what are they?"

"My father, and Lilian."

"Tut, tut, tut, Frank don't be a fool!"

"That is exactly what I am trying to guard against, Charley. Shall I assist you a little?"

"Pshaw! stuff! nonsence! what have your father and my sister to do with it?"

"Why, the first might refuse his con sent to my going : and the last might con sent to have my place filled in my absence."

"Well," answered Charley, " as to your father, I will pledge you my word that he will give his consent; and for Lilian, that she will await your return, if it be six years hence."

"You will ?" cried I, jumping up so suddenly as to upset the table on to the toes of my companion; "you will pledge your word to this, Charley?"

"A plague on that table and your great haste!" muttered Huntly, hobbling about the room, and holding his bruised foot in his hand. " Yes, I will pledge you my honor to both, if you will say the word."

"Enough! here is my hand on it, " I cried.

Down went the bruised foot, and the next moment I felt the bones of my fingers crack under the powerful pressure of those of my enthusiastic friend.

"Now, Frank," he almost shouted, ca pering about the room for joy, "you are pledged beyond a back-out."

"On condition you make your pledge good."

"I will do it or die."

"Then enough is said."

"Hurrah, then, for a hack!" cried Charles Huntly, darting out of my room and down a flight of stairs, to the imminent danger of his neck : " Hurrah for a hack! and hoi for the Rocky Mountains, Oregon, and the far, Fa