The call came at last, in the spring of 1806. 'This time I wish you to accompany me on my trip to the West,' Aaron wrote her, 'and come alone for the present. Joseph and Gampy may follow later, if all goes as I expect. Prepare yourself to endure some hardships, and I want no mournful complaints about them. You will be surfeited with luxury in time.'

She joined Aaron in Philadelphia, having left the Waccamaw with a heart fast beating with hope. Perhaps she need never see it again. Somewhere in the West a new home must be waiting, prelude to the magnificent one she would eventually inhabit. This hope lightened her parting from the baby; he would be well tended by Eleanore; and 'It won't be for long, darling,' she assured the solemn child. 'Your papa shall bring you to me soon.'

Eleanore came into the room on this sentence and exclaimed: 'Nom de Dieu, Madame, what do you mean by that? You arc not going to drag lc petit across those horrible mountains! The savages will massacre him and me too. I do not go.'

'Oh, yes, you will, my good Eleanore,' said Theo, laughing. 'You would not let Gampy move one foot without you, I know. You don't realize what is waiting for us all out there: a golden future. Ah, I can't tell you, but you must trust me'. 'Pfoui!' snorted Eleanore rudely. 'There is no future out there, nozzing but log cabins and savages and wolves.'

Theo hugged her and laughed again. 'You will see.'

Aaron had warned her of hardships, and she was cheerfully prepared to accept them. But in his company the journey did not seem unduly rigorous. True, there were many days on horseback, and he traveled fast; still, at the end of them he always contrived to find remarkably comfortable lodgings at houses he had visited the year before. And at Pittsburgh a commodious flatboat awaited them. It was more like a floating ark than anything else, containing as it did four rooms, glass windows, and a fireplace.

When Theo expressed her surprise and delight, her father laughed. 'Wait until you see Blennerhassett's Island; that will really amaze you.'

While they floated down the Ohio, he told her something of the eccentric and wealthy Irishman who had built for himself a palace in the wilderness. Harman Blennerhassett and his wife were won over heart and soul to the cause, 'As indeed is the whole West,' added Aaron with satisfaction. General Wilkinson had promised to provide troops, General Andrew Jackson in Nashville was sympathetic, Jonathan Dayton and Daniel Clark were loyal supporters; and in New Orleans, gateway to Mexico, Aaron had piled triumph on triumph, winning over not only the French and Spanish elements, but the Catholic Church as well.