"I only wish they'd made the offer to me," said Dick with a sigh.

"An' so they do make the offer, lad. They've gin me leave to choose
the two men I'm to take with me, and I've corned straight to ask
_you_. Ay or no, for we must up an' away by break o' day to-morrow."

Mrs. Varley started. "So soon?" she said, with a look of anxiety.

"Ay; the Pawnees are at the Yellow Creek jist at this time, but I've
heerd they're 'bout to break up camp an' away west; so we'll need to
use haste."

"May I go, mother?" asked Dick, with a look of anxiety.

There was evidently a conflict in the widow's breast, but it quickly
ceased.

"Yes, my boy," she said in her own low, quiet voice; "and God go with
ye. I knew the time must come soon, an' I thank him that your first
visit to the Redskins will be on an errand o' peace. 'Blessed are the
peace-makers: for they shall be called the children of God.'"

Dick grasped his mother's hand and pressed it to his cheek in silence.
At the same moment Crusoe, seeing that the deeper feelings of his
master were touched, and deeming it his duty to sympathize, rose up
and thrust his nose against him.

"Ah, pup," cried the young man hastily, "you must go too.--Of course
Crusoe goes, Joe Blunt?"