"You will like this strange uncle--you ?" "He is a wonderful man, Marie; he's been everywhere, seen everything, and done everything out there.

He's fought duels, been captured by Indians and tied to a stake to be tortured.

He's been leader of a Vigilance Committee, and they say that he has often shot and killed men himself.

I'm afraid he's been rather wicked, you know.

He's lived alone in the woods like a hermit without seeing a soul, and then, again, he's been a chief among the Indians, with Heaven knows how many Indian wives! They called him 'The Pale-faced Thunderbolt,' my dear, and 'The Young Man who Swallows the Lightning,' or something like that." "And what can he want here ?" asked Marie.
"To see us, my dear," said Kitty loftily; "and then, too, he has to settle something about HIS share of the property; for you know grandpa left a share of it to him.