Then her eyes turned slowly back,
and lingered with a strange and solemn joy upon the scene she had
just left; while from her full heart came one whispered word that
told the whole story of her emotion,--
"Home!"
For this was Outpost, Dora's inheritance from her friend and father,
Col. Blank; and she felt to-night, as she waited to welcome home the
family whose head she had become, that her duties and
responsibilities were indeed solemn and onerous. Not too much so,
however, for the courage and strength the young girl felt within her
soul,--the energy and will so long without an adequate field of
action.
"Plenty to do, and, thank God, plenty of health and strength to do
it. Experience will come of itself," thought Dora; and from her
throbbing heart went up a "song without words," of joy and praise
and high resolve.
It was June now; but the house at Outpost had only been ready for
occupancy a week or so. The family had left Massachusetts about the
first of October in the previous autumn, and had spent the winter in
Cincinnati; Dora having been reluctantly convinced of the folly of
proceeding to Iowa at that season. With the opening of spring,
however, she had made a journey thither, escorted by Charles
Windsor, and accompanied by Seth and Mehitable Ross,--a sturdy
New-England couple, who were very glad, in emigrating to the West,
to avail themselves of the offers made by Dora, who engaged the man
as principal workman upon the new farm, and his wife as assistant in
the labors of the house.
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