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 Brackett," as all his friends called him, was a young civil engineer of more than usual ability.

He had already gained a larger stock of experience and seen more of his own country than most men of his age, which was about twenty-six.

From government work in the East and on the lower Mississippi he had gone to the Kansas Pacific Railway, been detailed to accompany an exploring party across the plains, and, after spending some time on the Pacific coast, had just returned to the Mississippi Valley--out of a job, to be sure, but with the certainty of obtaining one whenever he should want it.