Do not worry, Mary.

Friend Burns is well acquainted with all that western country, and he tells me there is scarcely a week that parties of soldiers, or friendly Indians, do not pass along the trail, and that by waiting at Hawkins's place for a few days John will be sure to find some one with whom he may companion on the long journey westward.

He would himself have accompanied him, but must first bear a message to friends at Vincennes.

It is now some weeks since Roger Matherson died, and we shall prove unworthy of our trust if we delay longer in sending for his daughter." Though my mother was a western woman, patient and long habituated to sacrifice and peril, still her eyes, fixed upon my face, were filled with tears, and the color had deserted her cheeks.
"I know not why it should be so, David," she urged softly; "but in my heart I greatly fear this trip for John.

Yet you have ever found me ready to yield wherever it seemed best, and I doubt not you are right in your decision." At any other time I should have gone to her with words of comfort and good cheer; but now my ambition was so aroused by this impending adventure as to permit me to think of nothing else.
"Is it so very far, father, to where I must go ?" I questioned, eagerly.
"Where is this Fort Dearborn, and how am I to journey in reaching there?
'T is no garrison of which I have ever heard." "Bring me the map your mother made of this country, and the regions to the westward," he said.